As companies seek to build a stronger online presence, local business owners have several tools at their disposal to grow their business’s visibility and boost local SEO. Facebook happens to be a powerful method to improve a business’s local footprint.
With almost 2.5 billion users on the platform, Facebook is one of the most useful networks for local businesses to grow their customer base and get their brand name out there. In fact, among active Facebook users in the US, 74% visit the site (or use the app) every day.
This presents a goldmine of opportunity for small and growing businesses, especially in the form of customer reviews on your business’s Facebook page.
Online reviews authenticate and provide more credibility to your business. Today’s consumers trust online reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations from friends or family members. By doing their research on other customers’ experiences with your business, prospective customers are more confident when deciding whether they want to purchase from your business.
Not only is Facebook the most popular social media platform today, but it can also influence our preferences.
How do reviews on Facebook impact consumer decision-making?
According to social media reviews statistics, Facebook influences more than half of buyers’ purchase decisions.
One of the best decisions you can make for your business’s online reputation management strategy is improving your overall ratings and by getting 5-star reviews on these platforms. If you haven’t already, a good place to get started is by generating a Facebook review link and inviting customers to write a review.
Read on to find out just how to do that (it’s easier than it sounds!).
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Steps to Create a Facebook Review Link
Unlike Google’s business listing and review platform, Google My Business (GMB), Facebook’s isn’t too straightforward where review links are concerned.
For example, most users will encounter an issue if they aren’t logged in and click on the review link. They will be directed to your Facebook Business Page, yes, but not the Reviews section. Instead, Facebook will ask them to log in first.
After doing so, one of two things may happen.
If users log in through the normal method, that is, by using the top-right login as pictured below in #1, this will redirect them to their Facebook feed where they can view status updates by friends and their connections. This will disconnect them from your page entirely, defeating the purpose of the link.
Using the “Log In” option at the bottom of the page, indicated by #2, will successfully redirect them to your page. But there’s a catch! It won’t take them to the reviews tab.
If you’re getting worried that this process sounds complicated on Facebook, don’t be! There are several third-party tools such as link generators you can find through a simple Google search that will help you create a direct review link.
Otherwise, you can learn how to build that link yourself. Knowing how to construct these links on your own can prove useful, especially if you decide to grow your business and expand into different brands/multiple groups of businesses in the long run.
Follow these three simple steps to build your own Facebook review link from your business page:
Step #1
Building a link is easy. All you have to do is put yourself in your customer’s shoes and follow their journey to your review page.
The first thing you want is for your customer to log in through the homepage. After all, without logging in, your customer won’t be able to submit any reviews for your Business page.
The URL for the login page is: https://www.facebook.com/login/
Step #2
Remember the challenge we discussed before, when your customer is redirected to their feed after logging in? To avoid that, Facebook has a neat little sequential system in place within their URLs.
You want Facebook to believe that after logging in, something else comes “next.” And what should that be? Redirecting to your page is the answer.
The URL we’re building to generate your direct link grows to include this: https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=
Step #3
You might be thinking, “Hey, that’s pretty straightforward. I’ll just add in my Facebook Reviews page URL at the end, and we’re good to go!”
And while your logic is perfect, Facebook won’t accept this.
So, for example, if we’re linking to the reviews page of the local plumbing business pictured before, it shouldn’t look like this: https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https://www.facebook.com/Overtime-Plumbing-109021667453537/reviews/
That, unfortunately, won’t work.
The special characters introduced after the “next” component in the URL must be in their corresponding HTML format. Doesn’t make sense? That’s alright.
They would have to look like this:
https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FOvertime-Plumbing-109021667453537%2Freviews%2F
Do you see a pattern here? The colon and forward slash (i.e., “special characters”) have corresponding codes that you would have to replace them with to make the link work.
There you go. That’s how you build your own Facebook Review links!
Resources To Get More Facebook Reviews
Now that you’ve generated your Facebook review link for your business account, how can you put it to good use?
As obvious as it sounds, the best thing you can do is ask your customers directly to write a Facebook review. There are several creative ways you can go about making this request.
Keep reading to find a strategy that works for you best to make the process easier.
Create a Review Request Email Campaign
Email marketing continues to be a successful tactic used by many businesses to maintain and boost customer relationships. One way you can leverage this form of communication with your customers is by following up on the sale of a product/service provided with post-sale emails.
Creating Facebook review email templates will be an effective way to generate more feedback on the platform. If you keep these templates handy, you can shoot out an email to the concerned customer at your earliest convenience.
Of course, depending on the kind of business you operate, the language and syntax of the review template may vary. However, it never hurts to keep one ready!
Promote the review link on social media
Keep the link handy because you never know when you may need it. For example, you may be conversing with a customer over text, Facebook Messenger or even on WhatsApp. Gauge their tone and level of enthusiasm throughout the conversation, and if you feel a positive vibe from their end, make sure to drop in that direct review link before you end your conversation.
Remember – business reviews don’t always have to be centered around your product or service itself. Sometimes, happy customers may want to give glowing feedback on the quality of your customer service!
Embed Facebook reviews widgets on your website
Showcasing positive reviews you’ve gained on Facebook through a widget on your website acts as social proof. Prospects and customers scanning your website will be tempted to read more. They may even redirect to Facebook to see if anyone within their mutual circles has reviewed/rated/used your products or services.
This will also make it easy for your website’s visitors to find your business on Facebook directly without searching for your business name.
Promote your business on Facebook
Likes, comments, and shares: make them your goal. The more visibility your business gains on Facebook, the more chances of attracting additional customers and down the line, growing your reviews.
Check out these additional resource articles to get started:
Turn on Facebook reviews by enabling them on your Facebook Business page
Ask your customers to check-in on Facebook through the Location option when they visit your business
Share Google reviews you’ve received to your Facebook audience
Conclusion
Growing your business’s online reputation is no easy feat, but with time, dedication, and the right strategies, you can build more credibility in your brand in your local market.
Signpost’s review management service can help you along this journey, easing your manual work by automating review management tasks and smoothly integrating this practice into your online business processes.
After all, when growing those reviews on any social platform, you can use expert help to achieve your goals faster and more sustainably.
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