Facebook Reviews And Recommendations Explained

If you haven’t heard, there have been massive changes to Facebook’s review system. In short, the entire system was overhauled as the old reviews were retired in favor of a new system - recommendations.

Since recommendations are significantly different, it begs the question of how to leave a Facebook review.

As a business owner, you should become familiar with the ins and outs of this system, how it differs from other review platforms and how you can leverage it to grow your business. 

Here’s everything you need to know about recommendations and how to leave a Facebook review. 

How Are Recommendations Different From Reviews?

With the updated system, the star ratings are now a combination of customer recommendations and old reviews. The recommendation option is integrated with the reviews and all previous feedback will be listed in this section. 

Previously, users would leave a simple rating, but with the new system, they can choose to recommend or not recommend a business when they’re reviewing one. However, this isn’t limited to the opinions of the people who visited your page. 

For instance, it’s now possible for users to write a status in which they can use the  Ask for Recommendations  button to get suggestions from their friends for a particular area. If your business gets suggested, that recommendation will be visible on your page in the appropriate tab.

Here are the details of the differences between the two:

• Location:  reviews are on the left-hand side of the page, while recommendations are located on the upper-right side. 
• Reach:  The new system allows you to limit the reach, thus making it more personal, while reviews are still visible only to Facebook users.
• Format:  Recommendations only show comments while reviews show comments along with the star ratings.
• Specifics:  By nature, reviews are limited. However, the new system allows users to recommend specific business features by using an appropriate tag. They can also share a photo, which is a plus.
• Reactions:  With the introduced changes, only people within a user’s network can like and comment on a recommendation, whereas reviews are open for all users.

How is the new score calculated?

According to Facebook the rating of the page is calculated using multiple sources such as reviews and the recommendations people share about a business on the platform.

How To Leave a Facebook Review? 

With that said, it’s apparent that this is a game-changer for all kinds of businesses. The first step in receiving new reviews is to first explain to your customers what the new process looks like so they can easily navigate to your page and recommend your business.

The new process is significantly more polished. Your customers will start their feedback journey by opening a business page that they want to recommend. In the past, they would have to click on a  Write a review  option where they’d receive the prompt to leave a star rating. That’s all gone. Your customers are no longer leaving reviews, they are recommending your business.

There are just two options - yes or no which means this is a lot more simple than it used to be. 

Let’s get into the exact steps in how to leave a Facebook review:

1. Navigate to the reviews/recommendations section found on the left-hand part of the page

2. To the right of the menu, a box will pop up asking you if you’d like to recommend this business. Recommend the page by clicking yes, or if you want to leave a negative review, click no. 

3. Describe why you’re recommending a business. Provide clear information on what you liked or illustrate what could be improved if you clicked no. If you’re using mobile, you can also upload a photo

4. Choose tags provided on the bottom. For example, great service or children-friendly

5. Click post and your recommendation will appear on the page

So that’s how to leave a Facebook review using the new system. There is a bonus here as well - it’s possible to recommend a business by tagging its page in a comment when a friend asks for a recommendation. 

Benefits Of The New System

It would be an understatement to say the new system is anything short of powerful. What it does is provide customers and your audience with multiple new options that not only simplify but also improve the quality of feedback they share about a particular business.

Here are the biggest benefits:

Increased reach

The score your business page can amass will be visible across the entirety of this social media platform. More importantly, your score will be reflected in all places where customers make relevant purchasing decisions such as Maps.

The recommendations will be put to the forefront when people are searching for your business on Facebook. Additionally, the first recommendations that the platform shows will be the ones provided by close friends. This might turn out to be a turning point for influencing purchasing decisions because the seal of approval will come from people that your customers trust.

Posting Photos

What takes recommendations from simple reviews to something extraordinary is the introduction of photos and gifs. On mobile, the recommendation form automatically offers users an option to upload a photo from their phone that will get published along with the text. 

These visual posts will be visible in the recommendations of a business page just like any other customer review.

Tags

Think of the new tags as hashtags for your business. When leaving a recommendation, the customer can choose a corresponding tag that best describes their recommendation. 

What’s even better is that these tags are automatically generated by Facebook based on words used in previous reviews.

So for instance, if previous customers spent a lot of time talking about your polite staff, that tag will be automatically provided to a new user who is recommending your business. 

How To Get More Recommendations On Facebook?

Just as with any other review platform, you’ll have to take a proactive approach to get the most out of the new recommendations. This is especially important if you’re just starting as the first batch of reviews can help you boost the trust on this network and get the ball rolling, so to speak. 

Here are some techniques you should try to get new Facebook reviews:

• Create Facebook ads that invite users to leave recommendations
• Send a link of your reviews section in emails to your customers
• Add a  Review us on Facebook  button or add a Facebook reviews badge to your website
• If you have physical printed materials such as flyers or menus, print a QR code with the link to the reviews section

Grow Your Reputation

These new additions to Facebook are a welcome change. While some might complain about how things were better in the days of star ratings (just like they do whenever Facebook rolls out an update) the new features are helpful for users and businesses alike. 

We don’t need to tell you just how important online recommendations are in this day and age, especially on Facebook where a majority of users trust the content they see on the platform. This means that a big part of your online reputation hangs on the balance of your Facebook rating.

Hence, this social media platform has to be a key part of your online reputation strategy where you must ensure your business is the one getting recommended to users. Start by motivating your customers to leave their feedback on your page (feel free to explain how to leave a Facebook review) and you’re going to see your reputation grow quickly through the roof.

Other than that, continue responding to reviews as always and contact  Oamii  if you want to make the process quicker.

We’re currently developing a reputation management solution that simplifies reputation management. Call Oamii at  561-228-4111  or fill out our online contact form and leave your competition in the dust by becoming a first adopter of the next-level reputation management platform.