Facebook is always changing, and its most recent evolution is in how people interact with the facebook pages of physical businesses near them. There are now “Facebook Recommendations”
For local businesses with physical locations, Facebook’s new Recommendations feature is a great new tool. You may have already noticed the “Recommendations” function in action!
What Changed?
Facebook has always had a ratings and a review function- you would look for the business you want to review and give your feedback on their page. Your friends would see this. That’s sure better than no way to allow your customers to vouch for you, but Facebook has found a way to improve on that.
Now when you start typing your favorite business’s name, Facebook Recommendations will use predictive text to offer you the opportunity to link to that business’s Page.
Also, “Recommend This Place” appears in right sidebars to users whose home location is within 12 miles of your business address. It displays the instructions “Help you friends discover great places to visit by recommending [the name of your page]” above an open text field. This allows them to write a short recommendation of your business.
After being submitted, the recommendation appears as a story on the author’s wall and in the news feeds of their friends. Others can click through to you, “like” or comment on it. The review also appears to their friends when they visit your Facebook Page in a sidebar called “Recommendations from Friends”.
Typically, the only free way to get news feed exposure to non-fans is when someone mentions your business or links to your Page in one of their updates, photo tags, or comments. Which is not very common. With Facebook Recommendations, you gain free, relevant news feed exposure generated through the feature.
2 in 3 Facebook users visit the page of a local business at least once a week
Easy Endorsements
People can indicate if they recommend your business by choosing “Yes” or “No”, and explain why with tags, text and photos. By selecting a tag, they help themes emerge in the feedback from Facebook Recommendations, making it easier for potential customers to see what your business is known for. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as their friends, and these are online reviews by their friends.
Recourse for Fraudulent Reviews
Authentic Recommendations are important to get and keep customers. Now there’s an easy way to report reviews that are fraudulent, spam or paid for. Keeping your reviews area helpful and trustworthy.
1 in 3 People on Facebook use the platform to look for Recommendations and reviews
Perfect Timing
You’ll reach people as they’re making decisions. Because your business will be shared with them directly when they need a recommendation. Reviews appear on your page and are discoverable across Facebook when people are searching for, or talking about your business.
How Can You Capitalize on Facebook Recommendations?
To make sure this works as intended, it’s important to make sure your Page is set up right. A business has to list a street address for this feature to work. Then you’ll take steps to display the Recommend This Place panel to the right people. Here are a few to-dos to optimize our experience.
- First, have an admin check that you have a physical address in the Basic Information tab of the Edit Page.
- Then, go to your Page’s publisher and click the lock icon to bring up the targeting parameters. Then set your country and city of business. Include nearby cities that are within roughly 12 miles of your main city, where you do business.
- It’s a good idea to write a simple, thankful call to action requesting users visit the “Recommend This Place” sidebar on your Page.
- Lastly, publish and respond to any comments or questions
- Repeat every few months
