Social media marketing is a competitive landscape to break into, but it is also one of the most advantageous in digital marketing for local businesses.
Being active on social media platforms offers several benefits to small business owners who are willing to invest time and energy in online reputation management.
Of course, one of the most popular networks for businesses to leverage is Facebook.
With over 2.7 billion active users worldwide, Facebook offers a massive market of new customers for businesses to tap into. Creating a Facebook Business Page can help establish your business’s footing in this social network, making it easier for you to connect with your customers.
Customers are keen to know more about the businesses they engage with, and the Internet makes it much easier for them to do their research. Reviews are one such way for customers to validate the quality of your service and give personal recommendations to their circle of friends.
Whether it be on review platforms like Yelp or through Google business listings, reviews can take your brand image and business exposure online to the next level.
Facebook, however, remains one of the most highly integrative platforms by capitalizing on your links with existing customers to connect you to new ones. There are a lot of strategies and functionalities you can leverage to get more Facebook business reviews.
Keep reading to discover the benefits of why you should do this and how you can build your business’s credibility on Facebook.
Benefits of Facebook Reviews For Your Business
Increasing your reviews on your Facebook Business Page can greatly benefit your business. Coming second to Google My Business, Facebook is seen as one of the most popular review platforms that customers visit to learn more about your business.
And there has to be a good reason for this, right? Here are three important reasons why you should invest time in building your Facebook business reviews.
Reviews help establish a trustworthy relationship with all your customers. Customer testimonials are social proof for potential customers to verify the quality of your business and its services before engaging with you. Facebook reviews help connect your existing customer circles with those who are looking for your services. For example, if a loyal customer hired you, a local plumber, and posted a positive review with a 5-star rating, this would appear in their friends’ and family’s feeds. As a result, Facebook reviews can act as a referral and free word-of-mouth publicity.
Facebook builds your brand visibility and online reputation. Unlike other social networks, Facebook focuses more on the concept of shared communities and groups. The idea of “mutual friends” and shared circles helps businesses discover more customers through their existing contacts.
Facebook opens a direct line of communication with customers. They may directly send your Facebook Business Page a message or post on your Page’s timeline. Customers can engage with your business directly.
The occasional bad review can be beneficial. One of the best ways for businesses to shine is by demonstrating how they respond to negative publicity. A bad review may scare a business owner, but depending on how the situation is handled, things can turn around in your business’s favor. Providing a voice to your customers can help you identify areas of improvement for your business operations while also providing excellent service by listening to customer concerns and addressing them professionally. Effective management of a bad or negative review can help drive your lead conversions up by 85%.
5 Ways To Get More Facebook Business Reviews
Once you’ve set up your Facebook Business Page, it’s time to get those reviews flowing. But how?
There are plenty of ways you can ask your customers to write a review, but we’ve listed five effective strategies to get the ball rolling on your online reviews below:
Turn on Your Facebook Reviews Tab
Request Reviews from Your Loyal Customers
Create an Email Campaign to Request Reviews
Promote the 5-star Reviews You’ve Already Received
Automate and Streamline the Review process
1. Turn on Your Facebook Reviews Tab
This should be one of the first steps in establishing your business on Facebook, or even if you’ve already set up your Page and are wondering why no reviews are coming in.
The first thing you want to do is check on your Facebook Page Settings to see whether your reviews section is enabled. Customers may be unable to leave reviews for your business because you’re only not allowing them to yet.
2. Request Reviews from Your Loyal Customers
Local businesses usually have a handful of loyal customers that account for a significant portion of their business. Usually, these customers make repeat purchases or are frequent users of the services you offer.
These loyal followers are great to keep on your review request list, especially if they’ve already given you positive feedback offline and know your business and your team well.
Tapping into your network of established clientele is a good way to get those 5-star reviews up. Driving a stream of positive feedback first can help encourage other tentative customers and improve your review numbers.
Pro-tip: If you’re a local business, you may even have family and friends that have engaged with your business. Although you may feel awkward asking them for reviews, there’s nothing wrong with requesting help to support your business from people you know in your local community or circles. You’d be surprised just how many of them would be willing to go out of their way to help.
3. Create an Email Campaign to Request Reviews
Getting more reviews is all about finding new and innovative ways to ask your customers for them. Setting up a targeted email campaign to kindly ask customers to write a review is a great way to do this. Design your emails to have a clear CTA with a direct link to review your business.
You should also provide easy accessibility to your website and social media profiles if they wish to learn more.
Pro-tip: Design email campaigns that are segmented depending on the type of customer. For example: Campaigns targeted for new customers versus existing, long-term customers, and also based on the point of time in their customer journey (post-sale email follow-ups, after a customer service call, etc.).
4. Promote the 5-star Reviews You’ve Already Received
Suppose you have an established business profile on another review platform such as Google. In that case, you can easily share your favorite Google reviews on Facebook for social proof and to gain more traction.
You can even take your process a step further and embed the Facebook reviews you’ve received onto your website and other platforms. This is a great way to build confidence with your customers and invite more reviews.
5. Automate and Streamline the Review Process
If you’re a small and growing business, perhaps there are other aspects you need to focus on, like sales or customer service. Managing your reviews may not be your priority just yet. Nevertheless, it is an integral component of reputation management, the quality of which you should not sacrifice.
Consider automating the review process through review management services. These platforms help manage your online reviews after payment is complete, respond to negative reviews, and streamline the entire process, allowing you to save time and focus on other value-add activities within your business.
Integrating these reviews through an automation system with professional help and consultancy can help you accomplish your conversion goals.
In fact, Signpost’s review management service can do just that.
Start Getting More Facebook Reviews Today
Managing your reviews on Facebook may seem complicated. Still, you’d be surprised just how easily you can generate customer reviews when you establish a robust process and system based on reliable strategies.
Get more customers, and through them, generate the star ratings and excellent reviews your business deserves on Facebook!
Following these steps won’t guarantee an overnight transformation for your Facebook Page, but the time and steps you take to build your brand online will pay off over time.
So what are you waiting for? Start building your Facebook reviews today!