How Facebook Recommendations Grow Your Business
In August 2018, Facebook revamped its review system for business pages. What are these changes? And how it will support businesses? We got this all covered, so, without any further ado, let’s dive into it.
According to Alex Himel, VP, Facebook, over 1.6 billion people worldwide are connected to a small business on Facebook. And early in August 2018, Facebook introduced a new change to the Facebook business page, and Facebook recommendations took center stage.
Facebook recommendations is an evolved version of the Facebook review system. In simple words, instead of reviews being posted on a scale of 1 to 5, users can simply choose whether or not to recommend the business.
What are Facebook recommendations?
Earlier, Facebook used to provide users to rate the business on a scale of 1 to 5 and provide their feedback. But with Facebook recommendations, the 5-star review system has transformed into binary options of “recommended” or “not recommended.”
One of the main reasons for this upgrade is to encourage a more detailed review of the business. Often people just used to drop the rating without providing any context. Users can also make their recommendations engaging by adding photos, tags, text, etc., and this will provide a brief about the business and its products. With the binary option, users with neutral opinions about your business have to take a side, and hence it helps you enhance your traffic and attract more customers.
You can even embed Facebook review on your website with the Facebook review widget, as it provides a broader opinion about your business to your potential customers and helps them to make a decision. With recommendations, the visitors will get to know about your brand compared to the traditional rating system.
Why did it happen?
The huge user base of Facebook attracts many brands and businesses to use the platform to promote their brand and gather a strong customer base. Due to this shift, many small or medium-scale businesses witnessed a steady decline in their organic reach.
This has forced many business owners to pay more to get more reach or use Facebook Ads, but unfortunately, many business owners cannot afford this opportunity. To level the grounds, Facebook brought in this great feature of Facebook recommendation.
The reviews and recommendations provide businesses useful traffic as it attracts more customers with spending huge costs.
This upgrade is like a godsend for many businesses as their business pages are getting a great boost and eventually increasing their brand awareness.
How is the Facebook recommendation score calculated?
If you think with the Facebook recommendation, all your past reviews and scores will go in vain, then the answer to that thought is “No”. According to Facebook help about the recommendation score, “The score is based on how many people recommend or don’t recommend your page on Facebook, as well as any past ratings and reviews it may have”
To keep it simple, with no more ratings, Facebook decides the score based on your past ratings and reviews and the number of customers who recommend or don’t recommend your business.
Benefits of Facebook recommendations
Facebook has always been a helping force for businesses and brands. It always supports businesses, brings a new feature to boost the businesses on the platform, and helps them attain more reach. It is impactful; hence marketers cannot afford to ignore it for their marketing strategy, and therefore, this social media giant always gets inclusion in the strategies. It takes care of its users and business pages and keeping that in mind, it introduced Facebook recommendations.
Here are reasons why this upgrade beneficial for your business:
Makes your page more Informative
Along with providing in-depth information about the business and product, the user will also have an option to add tags like “superb product”, “great experience”, “excellent service” etc. These tags make it easier for the audience to understand your business and help them in their buying decision. It also highlights the speciality or positive things about your business and your potential customer and makes up their mind.
Engaging and Interactive
Images, videos, and tags always engage the audiences and attract their attention. The Facebook recommendation provides the option to post pictures and videos, and your Facebook page will display all these contents. So make sure your Facebook image sizes are perfect. We already know how people highly depend on social media proofs and reviews for their buying decisions. Hence, this update helps your business as it provides social proof about your products and convinces your potential customers.
Enhances organic reach
Facebook is home to many online businesses and stores. Due to the support and constant help to boost the reach, many businesses use Facebook business page to capture more audience for their business. But, with such a huge user base and such competition on the platform, sometimes it becomes difficult to get organic reach.
Hence, the Facebook recommendation has emerged as a game-changer as recommendations are discoverable across Facebook. In simple words, if a user has asked for recommendations and someone in their social circle has recommended your business, then your recommendation score will be visible in their posts. It will enhance your reach and eventually helps you to generate sales.
Brand awareness
The main objective for brands and businesses to use social media platforms is to enhance their brand awareness. Facebook recommendation feature helps you to attain this feat as it provides a great organic reach. If a user has recommended your business, then someone from their social media circles searches for recommendations, then your posts will be visible to him, thus enhancing your brand awareness.
Brand reputation
Business often relies on a brand reputation for their survival. Reputation can either make a brand or break a brand. Hence, it is important to maintain a good brand reputation. In this world of the internet, every piece of information is available with just a click; therefore, any update about any business spreads like a forest fire. The Facebook recommendation now allows users to provide a detailed review about your business; hence people will now get to know strong and positive aspects of your business, and eventually, it will increase your brand’s reputation.
Summing it up
Facebook always provides great support to its user and makes their experience worthy. It regularly makes upgrades that provide great aid to both users and businesses. With the introduction of Facebook recommendations, Facebook has provided another medium for the business pages to gather more crowd and eventually increase their revenue.
