In today’s day and age, no business can afford to ignore social media. After all, almost a third of the world’s population is using Facebook. Here’s what your small business needs to know about social media reviews.
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Benefits of social media reviews for businesses
While people might have been ignoring platforms like Facebook and Twitter ten years ago, they’ve just become too big for any business to ignore. More than 2 billion people now use Facebook. That’s a big audience for you to tap into.
Of course, platforms like Facebook also allow customers to leave reviews about your business. These social media reviews matter. These days, 92% of customers consult reviews before making a purchase decision. Having a strong reputation across review sites means that you have a strong advantage over your competitors.
You can’t ignore social media, and you can’t ignore online reviews. So let’s talk about how you can use social media reviews to start engaging with more customers and promoting your business.
We’ll talk about some steps you can take to start collecting and leveraging social media reviews. But first, let’s talk about the review sites that matter.
Review sites you should know
While you almost definitely knew that Facebook is the world’s biggest social network, you might not have known that it’s also the second-biggest review platform (behind Google). Customers look at your business profile to find out what kind of services you provide.
We’ll give some tips on how you can collect more Facebook reviews later in the article. But first, let’s talk about another review site you should focus on.
Yes, we know that Google+ isn’t a thing anymore. Google’s social platform shut down due to low engagement. Google still supports reviews on Google Maps, and these are highlighted whenever you search for a local business.
Plus, Google still has many of the offerings of Google Business Profile also allows businesses to make posts, just like Facebook and Twitter might. These posts are temporary and disappear within 7 days.
Best practices for social media reviews
Claim your listings across sites
The first step to better engagement with your customers is making sure that your business is easy to find. That means listing your business on relevant sites like Facebook and Google. When customers are able to find you on all of these sites, they’re more likely to engage with your business.
Respond to your reviews
Responding to reviews is a great way to start building personal connections with your customers. After all, when you engage with your customers like this, you show that you care sincerely about all of their interactions. Be sure that you’re regularly responding to all of your customer reviews, whether they’re positive or negative.
There’s another situation where responding to reviews can help your business, but we’ll get to that later in the article. But for now, let’s talk about one thing every business should be doing on Facebook.
Turn on your Facebook reviews
Once you have your business’s Facebook profile claimed, make sure that you have your Facebook reviews turned on. While Facebook gives businesses the option to turn off reviews completely, this will only end up hurting you more than helping you.
Turning on reviews will give your happy customers a platform to be heard. While you might end up getting a few negative reviews- as every business does- the best approach is to respond to these reviews and try to solve the customer’s problem.
Here’s how you can turn on your Facebook reviews.
- Login to your Facebook account and go to your business page.
- From your business page, click “Settings.”
- On the column on the left-hand side, click “Templates and Tabs.”
- Find the tab labeled “Reviews” and click the “Settings” button next to it.
- Switch the “Show Reviews” button to on, then click “Save.”
Display reviews on your website
You should start sharing customer reviews on your website for a couple of reasons. First of all, it displays social proof from your satisfied customers. It also helps your business look more approachable. Glowing reviews from your happy customers are a big step towards making your business seem more personable.
Facebook does give you the option to embed reviews, but it’s a time-consuming process. No business owner wants to go in and have to embed a new glowing review every time one of them is posted. That’s why we recommend a Facebook review widget that displays reviews automatically.
A service like Birdeye can help you with this. With Birdeye, you can display reviews from Facebook and 150 other review sites automatically. All you have to do is copy and paste a simple line of code.
How do you ask for social media reviews?
After you’ve claimed your profile and turned on your Facebook reviews, you can start asking your customers for more reviews. But don’t just start begging all the customers who walk into your store to leave a review for your business on Facebook. There’s a way you can do this that leads to the best results.
Here’s how you can start getting more social media reviews.
- Send review requests via text and email.
The best way to get new reviews is to make the process easy for the customer. That’s why we recommend sending review requests via text and email. That means that customers don’t have to spend time searching for your business online. They just need to click a button and leave a review.
- Link directly to relevant sites
If you want to start getting more reviews on sites like Google and Facebook, make sure that your review requests link directly to your profile on these sites. Again, making the process easy for the customer leads to the best results.
- Send review requests on the same day as the sale or customer interaction.
The review requests that perform the best are sent on the same day that the customer visited your business. That’s when the experience is most fresh in your customer’s mind and when they’re most comfortable leaving a review.
Social media review template
Remember, your customers don’t like reading long emails and texts any more than you do. Keep your review requests short, sweet, and to the point. Here’s a template you can use to start encouraging your customers to leave reviews on social media.
Hey there,
Thanks for visiting (Your Business Name). We hope you enjoyed your visit! Please leave your feedback by clicking on the link below.
(Link to your business’s Facebook profile)
What about negative reviews?
You might be worried that asking for reviews might lead to more negative reviews. The answer is that it probably will lead to at least a couple. Even the best businesses can’t make everyone happy.
Don’t worry too much about bad reviews. The research shows that customers trust businesses with few negative reviews more than those with none. Having a perfect 5.0-star rating causes some customers to be suspicious and wonder whether your reviews are legitimate.
Sharing customer reviews on social media
Customer reviews can be used as a valuable marketing tool. Any business can claim to be the best in the area. But a review helps to prove it. A glowing review shows customers how your business helps to solve the problems of your customers.
Social media can be a big part of this strategy. Share your 5-star reviews on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Make sure that your followers can see the opinions of your happy customers.
How Birdeye can help you collect and promote reviews
Don’t fall behind on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Software like Birdeye can help you automate some of these tasks. Here’s how.
Get new reviews
There’s no need to manually send review requests. Birdeye allows you to send review requests to your customers automatically on the same day as the sale. All it takes is a simple integration with your existing business system.
Automatically share customer reviews
Reviews work as social proof, which makes them great to share with your social media followers. Birdeye allows you to share reviews on sites like Facebook and Twitter automatically. When you get a glowing review, you can automatically share it with all of your followers.
Before you go, check out the ultimate guide to social media management.
Easily monitor reviews & respond to your customers
There’s no need to flip between multiple review sites. You can keep track of your social media reviews on the Birdeye dashboard. If you want to leave a response, just respond to the review on the dashboard and watch it appear on the site where the review was originally posted.
This blog post is part of our Social Media Management Guide
Originally published
