Facebook is looking to engage it’s users in leaving more reviews for businesses and places by recently adding review requests into the news feed. I noticed the first one on October 1st, 2015 as they asked me to review Williams Arena where I attended a University of Minnesota basketball game way back in January of 2015.
The next one was much more timely requesting a review of a sushi restaurant in Chicago about 2 weeks after being tagged in a photo there (more on that later).
Facebook: Help The Community by Writing A Review
Facebook is asking you to make the world a better place by leaving your review. Not a bad call to action, others need your help! 🙂 What I also find interesting is that the review request for OYSY Sushi popped up, even though I wasn’t ever technically there. My cousin was in Chicago with my mom for the weekend (September 20th) and tagged me in their photos of their trip so I could see them. I’m not leaving a review for them since I have no idea first hand if it’s good or not.
The timing that I mentioned above on my visit to Williams Arena is a bit more interesting as it shows in launching this review request feature, Facebook is willing to go back to somewhere I checked-in over 8 months ago to get my review.
Facebook’s Review Growth
At GetFiveStars, our review data has shown an incredibly strong growth of reviews being left for businesses at Facebook. It’s not surprising at all with such a large user base on Facebook and the ease to leave a review.
A recent 6 month review of a client with well over 100 locations on our feedback platform showed that their Facebook reviews tripled in that time.
We see a strong review quantity and velocity at Facebook, but far less of a text base review left. The stars are where many people stop with a Facebook review. Will these review requests help strengthen the quality of reviews on Facebook? We’ll see.
Facebook has been making more than a few adjustments to their business pages recently with verification on Facebook, the Small Business Solutions Program and mobile updates to name a few.
Having recently stated that most of their 2.5 million advertisers are small businesses, updates and outreach events like Facebook Boost Your Business have gained steam. I attended the Boost event in Minneapolis this summer and they did a great job of disguising a sales event as an educational one. 🙂
What’s Next?
Facebook’s local and review game is stepping up. They have the audience, the data and the tools to make a significant impact and it will be interesting to see where things go from here.