Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
in Google+ Local, Reviews
Facebook Reviews Should Be a Part of Every SMB Review Plan
If you had any doubts as to whether Facebook has a place in your review strategy, news this past week from Bill Bean that Facebook reviews were now showing in the Google “Reviews from Around the Web” should put them to rest.
I was curious how widespread this was and whether it was just a one off or if Google had started including links to Facebook reviews on a widespread basis. A number of folks noted to me that they had seen Facebook.com links on their reviews from around the web .
This search at Google (site:plus.google.com “verified local business” AND “facebook.com” AND “Reviews From Around the Web”) indicates that Google has indexed a large number of Facebook review pages and is including them on the business’ G+ Page for Local.
Facebook has snuck up on us in the local review space over the past 12 months to become a significant player. Facebook rolled out reviews across all of their business pages last November but earlier this year limited reviews to just pages that were for local businesses.
My research clearly indicates that Facebook has become a strong contender as a favorite amongst users as a place to leave local reviews.
In fact consumers expressed as much (or more) likelihood of using Facebook than Yelp for leaving reviews. And this was particularly true amongst women with almost 1/3 of them indicating that Facebook was their preferred review site.
Bing and Yahoo have left the review creation space, relying on Yelp for their reviews. With the decline of CitySearch, InsiderPages and other local sites as places to leave reviews, Facebook provides a refreshing and relatively easy to use alternative to Yelp and Google for your customers.
Your customers all have Facebook logins which makes it much easier than getting a G+ review and at this point there seem to be no filters to speak of, eliminating the frustration with Yelp.
In line with my sense that Facebook should be part and parcel of most SMB review plans, at GetFivesStars.com (where I am a principal) we not only added Facebook as a review site but we created a Facebook app that monitors Facebook reviews as well.
My research to date with GetFiveStars would indicate that offering several choices of review sites with Facebook being one of them, even to gmail users, increases the likelihood of them leaving a review (more on that later) at both Google and elsewhere. If you are doing review management and not including Facebook you should revisit your plan.
© Copyright 2024 - MIKE BLUMENTHAL, ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Comments
9 Comments
Hello, Mike. You made a good point about businesses that haven’t paid much attention and concern about Facebook reviews should start doing it. I just want to pay you attention that I started seeing G+ pages that caught Facebook pages almost a year ago. Moreover, I have seen Facebook pages with no reviews in Google local pages. at all. No reviews on the Facebook page but showing it on G+ page means Google is visualizing the Facebook page of the business itself.
I made a research after I saw your article and noticed a Google Plus listing showing Facebook page in it that actually does not mark any Facebook reviews in the “Reviews” section in Google My Business Dashboard, although it is actually showing in the “Reviews around the web”. In my opinion Google shows Facebook pages for businesses in Google plus pages when the Facebook page has high activity (shares, likes, active users, and reviews) i.e. when the Facebook pages belongs to and represents the business in question, thus it is credible enough. What do you think about that?
On those pages that show no reviews I think it more likely that they are brand pages that DID show reviews at one point but that Facebook then changed.
Great post, Mike! At Grade.us, we also see excellent customer-to-reviewer conversions on Facebook–owing a lot, I believe, to the ubiquity and persistence of Fb logins. An interesting question remains as to how influential Facebook reviews really are to prospective customers compared with G+ and Yelp reviews. When searching Google or browsing the Yelp app, we’re likely to encounter reviews at moments of high purchase intent. Though I suppose with Fb reviews now showing in “Reviews from Around the Web,” they’re making their way into that theater, too–at least peripherally.
Very useful article, I was looking at the getfivestars.com video, this is something I definitely could use. I see now how Facebook reviews have become so important for potential clients.
Thank You
Hey Mike. I had some issues with a competitor placing totally fake reviews on my FB page. FB does absolutely nothing about this so I wonder… Is there a second best for a home improvement tradesmen??? Besides the HATED Yelp. (Yes, I hate them too.)
I use Houzz but I have so many there already that they seemed to not have the same boost that they once did. So I stopped using them and am now pretty much pressing google reviews(which are much harder to get done!)
@Grant
Generally you can run but you can’t hide in the review world. So leaving a place because you don’t like their rules is not a very effective tactic. I would focus first on Google and get at least 5 there, then I would continue to work with Facebook and get more reviews there. It looks like Yellowpages is popular in your area. Reviews are a slow and steady race. If you get one review a month at Facebook, that competitor review will be in the rear view mirror.
PS It appears to me that your listing at Google is in violation of their guidelines and you risk suspension.
Hey I’m upgraded with yelp cause I seen videos of businesses closing down from the 1-2 stars that yelp was showing cause they filter 99% of my reviews all tbe good ones . So anyways I started paying the @$?!@$ at yelp and was told that a account t manager would call me and help me with my upgraded account . 3 months later I stopped paying them . Oh then I get the call from my new account manager . I told her that it was BS that only cause a reviewer is new that they should not fiter them off my page . And that I was not going to pay them to show customers or would be customers that my business is a shit hole in yelps eyes . And she told me that she was 100% with what my view was on it . And we spoke about the bad reviews that are on my 4 locations and I asked her . Why is it that I can have a bad review flagged for them to check it out and take it Down if they ” a person from yelp” could have a bad review checked out and removed . Right . But why couldn’t they do tbe same for the real and good 4-5 star reviews that got filtered to the not recommended page of yelp . And I was told that they had no way of checking them out and have them put on my upgraded page . Look we all know that yelp is a scam !!! I’m thinking now that my account is in yelps eyes that they may start leaving my good reviews up . So what do you think about this BS. ?? Oh and they act like the 500 mobile ads they show is a upgrade. !! Lmfao . Guys checkout http://www.ipromote.com you can geo and more target 67,000 mobile local ads for $200 a month !! I’m not promoting the site . I’m just making a point . Yelp give you nothing when you upgrade . And why would any business promote that they are a shitty business . Yelp wake the hell up !!! Ass wipes .. Somebody needs to make a site that take all the reviews from a yelp profile and show the real yelp rate . Like name it “www.yelps-real-business-rate.com “
Absolutely agree! The FB Reviews are becoming more and more visible and it’s only a matter of time before FB starts doing more in the local search space. 😀
Really great. Seriously Facebook reviews means a lot.
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