Facebook continues to be an effective social platform for small and local businesses to leverage. If you don’t have one already, you should set up a Facebook Business Page and amass a following on the popular social network.
No matter the industry you’re in, be it operating as an HVAC contractor or even a plumber, there are a lot of digital marketing opportunities you can tap into on Facebook, one of which includes receiving and displaying customer reviews.
Customers online seek to validate the quality of your service before engaging with you. A platform that receives 1.62 billion users daily should be considered for this purpose. Not to mention, most customers would prefer getting a recommendation or referral for a business from their friends or family before resorting to a Google search.
Wouldn’t you want to best position yourself for that opportunity?
You can, by asking for reviews from customers on Facebook. Here’s why you should get started.
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Benefits of Facebook Reviews For Business
Growing a large amount of Facebook reviews can benefit your business in a multitude of ways. Right after Google My Business, Facebook is considered the second most important review site out there. And for good reason!
Here’s what you stand to gain by getting more Facebook reviews:
1. Gain trust with customers, both old and new
Customers turn to social media as sources of information, and Facebook continues to be considered one of the most reliable platforms out there. Other customer testimonials act as a form of social proof for your customers to verify your business credibility.
Facebook, in essence, acts as a networking site that connects a customer’s circles composed of both friends and family. If a friend hires a local electrician, for example, and has a great experience which he appreciates through a review, all the individuals in his circles will see the review.
On top of that, many of these people may live or come from the same city – instantly opening up a new market of potential customers for that electrician and boosting his business visibility.
2. Build a positive online reputation
Facebook, among other social networks, fosters a greater sense of community because of the level of networks it establishes for your customer. In turn, this is an opportunity for you to build your business and reputation management efforts by interacting directly with these customers.
84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations received from friends. Now, imagine a platform that offers the benefits of both! It’s a goldmine of opportunity for you to boost your business image while simultaneously attracting new customers and keeping your loyal customers content.
3. Bad reviews aren’t all bad
All businesses consider the threat of a bad review. It’s a completely justified fear to have! A scathing review and rating can tank your business if not handled carefully. Giving your customers a platform to voice their dissatisfaction will undoubtedly carry the risk of that happening.
But consider this: isn’t a business with zero bad reviews even more suspicious? In your customer’s eyes, yes, it definitely is.
A bad review can drive conversions up by 85%. Customers suspect businesses that have an overwhelmingly large amount of star ratings and positive reviews to be using fake or paid means to boost their business.
After all, businesses are built by humans, and humans make mistakes. Customers would be more willing to see how you handled a bad review and resolved the issue. Here, you can use the opportunity to turn around a negative review by showcasing your rockstar customer service skills.
Enable Reviews on Your Facebook Business Page
Now that you’re aware of the perks of Facebook reviews, it’s time to seize your opportunity to get them!
All it takes is to follow these simple instructions to enable the Reviews tab on your Facebook Business Page:
1. Log into your business page through the main administrator account and navigate to the home page.
2. Click the “Settings” button at the top right-hand corner of your page.
3. Click on the “Edit Page” option on the left-hand side menu that appears.
4. Scroll down to the “Reviews” tab.
5. Activate reviews for your Facebook business page by changing the slider from ‘OFF’ to ‘ON’.
Congratulations! You’ve now enabled reviews for your Facebook Business Page.
Turn On Reviews On Your Facebook Page
You’ve enabled reviews for your Facebook Business Page. You can already hear that Facebook notification alert ringing in your head as the customer reviews come pouring in. But hold your horses!
There’s one more thing you have to do before your customers can access that feature on your Business Page. You have to make sure your customers can easily find that Review tab, and the best way to do this is by customizing your page and making that tab stand out.
It’s a simple process.
1. Like before, click “Settings”.
2. Click the “Edit Page” option.
3. Right after Templates, you’ll see a sub-section called “Tabs”. Turn the slider to ‘ON’ for the option to use default tabs.
Now, all you have to do is prioritize the tabs on your page. Depending on how many reviews you already have or your social media marketing strategy, you may want to push up the Reviews tab slightly to make it a focus area for your customers.
Just drag the tab to where you want it to be and confirm the new settings. It’s as easy as that!
Tips To Get More Facebook Reviews
Your Facebook Business Page is up and running. The Reviews tab is optimized on your page, and you’re open for business. But…what now?
Setting up your Facebook Business Page Reviews tab isn’t the end of it! In order to get the reviews, you have to put in a little more marketing effort. And there’s only one real way to go about it: request reviews by asking for them.
If this tip sounds rather obvious, it’s because it is! The only way you’ll get reviews is by asking happy customers to write them.
Of course, there are several different methods you can use to do this. Listed below are a variety of methods you could consider to ask your customers for Facebook reviews:
- Embed Facebook Reviews into your website and other relevant platforms: You can easily provide the options for your customers on different platforms to write a Facebook review, if they so desire. This is a great way to redirect site visitors or an audience you’ve gained elsewhere to Facebook.
- Send Facebook Review requests through a direct link: Remember that handy Review settings page you accessed earlier? If you haven’t noticed, there’s a unique Facebook review link generated that you can share with your customers. You can provide a direct CTA to your customers by sharing this link and making it super easy for them to follow through.
- Reach out to your loyal customers: If you have a circle of trusted and long-time customers that give you regular business, it won’t hurt to reach out to them and ask them to provide you with a Facebook review. You’d be surprised how willing your loyal customers would be to help your business out!
- Ask your customers to check-in on Facebook: Facebook has an built-in mechanism to send requests to their users, asking to review a place they’ve checked into. Combine the perks of having a Google Maps business listing with this platform by encouraging your customers to check-in. Facebook will do the rest!
- Automate the follow-up process: Following on from the previous tip, you can integrate both platforms. This can help to send out automatic requests for both Google reviews, and Facebook reviews the moment the system recognizes the payment is complete.
Conclusion
Whether you’re just getting started on Facebook or already have an established business page, the benefits of Facebook reviews are undeniable. Like Yelp and TripAdvisor, it’s an incredibly powerful review platform to venture into new markets, capture potential customers, and increase the word-of-mouth for your business.
With each review you gain on Facebook, you add another block in building a strong foundation for your social media presence. So, what are you waiting for?
Start converting those amazing customer experiences into Facebook reviews.
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