Facebook Recommendations Update - What You Need To Know

Facebook Recommendations? Yes, that’s a brand new update Facebook recently released for Business Pages.

Previously known as Facebook Reviews, the goal of this new update with redesigned pages is to encourage more users to interact with local businesses.

Alex Himel, Facebook’s VP of Local mentioned over 1.6 billion people around the world are connected to at least one small business on Facebook. Since August 2018, Facebook has made various changes to Facebook Business Pages to encourage more people to connect with Local businesses.

One of these updates was making the review section easier and more engaging, hence the name change too.

In the official update, Facebook stated the following;

“People use Recommendations to ask their communities where to go, where to eat, or where to stop. We’re making those Recommendations more prominent on Pages.”

Reviews and recommendations are very important for small Local businesses, they are the key to growth and increase in reputation. After all, 1 in 3 Facebook users utilise the platform for reviews and recommendations.

To help you get the most out of Facebook Recommendations and how it will affect your Facebook presence, we’ve covered everything below you need to know.

Facebook Recommendations – What You Need To Know

The recent feature is already live. Businesses now have the chance to see the redesigned reviews section on their Facebook Page. Any previous reviews are now displayed in the Facebook Recommendations section. Don’t worry, you’ve not lost your existing reviews!

Facebook Recommendations Is A Great Feature, Here’s Why…

The changes of the reviews system to Facebook Recommendations is a great move for the platform. There are now more options available for your customers to share their opinions about the business. Here are some of the major reasons why this new update is great!

#1 Ability to post photos

With the new Facebook Recommendations update, users are now able to share photos in the recommendation. This is a great move, especially for those Local businesses that craft hand-made items. This is perfect for those who love to their new customised personal product, birthday/wedding cakes etc.

This feature was not enabled in the previous review section.

#2 Feature Tags

Another fantastic feature of the Facebook Recommendations update is the ability to tag the best features provided by your business. These tags are already pre-generated and work similar to hashtags. You just need to select the ones you would like to highlight as the best features provided.

#3 Increased Reach

Just like before, when users publicly recommend the business to their friends or in a Facebook Group, it will appear for all to see. The new update to Facebook Recommendations not only works like before, but there is now an increase in reach. The Recommendations are discoverable throughout Facebook. They appear when people search for or talk about your business and sometimes even locations. The new update allows Facebook to show these Recommendations to the closest friends first, increasing social proof and building more trust.

Facebook Recommendations Rating Score Revealed

Facebook’s official help center outlines how Facebook Page scores are calculated. According to the platform, a Page’s rating is based on multiple sources. These include Reviews and Facebook Recommendations that people share regularly about the business Pages on Facebook.

Ready To Active Facebook Recommendations?

Great – it’s very easy to do. In fact, if you’ve already activated the Reviews tab, you’re all good to go. Not a single change is required. If you haven’t, you’ll need to locate the Recommendations tab and enable this.

Visit your Facebook Page
Click on the Settings tab
Click on the “Tempaltes and tabs” section
Click “Add a Tab”
Find “Reviews” and then click on “Add Tab”

How To Recommend A Business On Facebook

Recommending a business on Facebook is easy, even more so after this recent update. The biggest change with the Facebook Recommendations update has been to remove the review scores. The main reason being for negative and fake reviews, and instead, increase more positive and insightful ways a business can improve.

Now, when you recommend a business, you’ll have two options. “Yes” or “No”. It’s very simple and easier for everyone.

To recommend a business, visit their Facebook Page and click on the Reviews/Recommendations tab.
Click “Yes” or “No” to recommend the Page.
Next, write your recommendation. If you’re on a mobile device, you’ll be able to upload a photo too.
Choose the appropriate tags you would like to highlight
Click “Post”

How To Report A Recommendation

If there has been a recommendation made that violates Facebook’s Community Standards, you’re able to report it for review. If the review does indeed violate the standards, it’ll be removed. To report a recommendation follow the below steps.