Facebook has grown way beyond a platform where people upload cat videos, announce the arrival of new babies and like their friends’ vacation photos. It is a powerful bridge between businesses and consumers, exerting its influence in every stage of the modern consumer’s path to making a purchase decision. With highly personalizes services like home care, it is even more impactful.
Google and Facebook rank first and second for online reviews, respectively. Consumer reviews are migrating to these two most popular websites, making it nearly impossible for consumers to do any research about a brand before immediately running into reviews. Sites that focus primarily on reviews (like Yelp and TripAdvisor) are seeing even less growth than Facebook and Google.
Most people today have a personal Facebook account, and it only makes sense to allow users to leave their review of a business on the same platform. While Google is the clear leader in terms of reviews, Facebook gets 19 percent of all reviews and they are generally more positive than those left on Google.
It is, therefore, important that every agency have a Facebook Business Page separate from the owner’s Facebook Profile. The difference between Profiles and Pages, as Facebook defines them, are that Personal Profiles are for non-commercial use and represent individual people. Pages are designed specifically for businesses. This can be confusing because they look very similar
While Pages look similar to Personal Profiles, they offer unique tools for businesses or brands. Pages are managed by real people who, themselves, have Personal Profiles. The Pages they manage are different from their Profiles. An individual may manage several different pages but may only have one Personal Profile. When someone “likes” a Page, he or she sees updates in the News Feed of that Page regularly. Reviews on Facebook are different, of course, than likes. And, they are not automatic. You must turn on the ability to receive reviews to allow people to review your agency. The ability to turn reviews on or off is not possible on Google or Yelp or many other review sites. Not knowing if you are being reviewed can be dangerous if you are not monitoring.
To keep this letter shorter, I refer you to an excellent description of the process of setting up a Facebook Business Page published by ReviewTrackers. Also, according to Facebook, only official representatives can create a Page for an organization or business. If you need any help, you can contact us.
The next letter you get from me will discuss the use of Facebook to ethically “spy” on your competitors and use that information to strategically benefit. All’s fair…