No need to freak out—Facebook always keeps us on our toes, and this is just one of the changes they’ve rolled out without much fanfare.
The Facebook Page ratings you’ve collected aren’t gone—don’t worry. They’re all still here; they just look different. Keep reading to see why this is a good thing in the long run. But first, let’s take a little trip down memory lane….
Do you remember 2016, when people suddenly started "asking for recommendations"?
This handy little add-on, which you can include in your post, helps users get recommendations for places or services. It’s so simple that many people intuitively ask for recommendations.
Well, it turned out that Facebook had something else in mind when they implemented this change. It wasn’t just about making it easier for users to get recommendations for restaurants, hair salons, city trips, etc.
Starting this month, Facebook page ratings will also be based on these recommendations.
The answers to these recommendation questions are now automaticallyfactored into Facebook page ratings . Additionally, sharing a Facebook page can now be counted as a recommendation.
Of course, you can also leave a review right on the page—now using a thumbs-up 👍 or thumbs-down 👎 instead of five stars.
So there are three ways to rate a page:
- Rating on the Facebook page itself.
- Recommendations from friends.
- Sharing a Facebook Page.
Important: Ratings are only tracked if the privacy settings are set to “Public.”
What does all this mean for your company?
When people recommend (or criticize) a business on their personal news feed, it’s more likely to be an honest assessment. And now, these very honest reviews are what Facebook business reviews are primarily supposed to be based on.
Now the company ratings are one step closer to having to earn their place. The new ratings:
- Must be at least 25 characters long
- You can have a variety of tags (so companies can now know what they’re known for and identify trends)!
- You can add media (photos) to them!
But have all the star ratings really disappeared?
…And what is that little blue circle with a number on it? Good question! Instead of the old stars we’re used to seeing on every review platform—from Yelp to Foursquare—Facebook page ratings have disappeared and been replaced by “Recommended” or “Not Recommended.” That means:
- Old 1- and 2-star ratings are marked as “Not Recommended.”
- Old 3-star ratings are now displayed as “Reviewed.”
- Old 4- and 5-star ratings are “recommended.”
You can find Facebook’s official guidelines here.
All of this raises the question: What will they do with the other expansion? The polls, the lists, etc.? There’s only one thing to do: keep your eyes open and stay up to date :)
