With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is by far the world’s largest social network. To put that in perspective, Instagram (also owned by Facebook), has just 700 million monthly active users. What started as Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room diversion, is now part of our daily routine. According to research, we access Facebook 8x per day on average for a total of 35 minutes . But it’s not just consumers liking, sharing, and commenting. More than 60 million brands have Facebook Pages and 39% of users like or follow those Pages in order to receive special offers. Which probably makes you wonder if you should buy Facebook reviews for your business page or not?
If everyone is using Facebook on a daily basis, why do so many businesses still suffer from so little engagement. For frustrated marketers and business owners, it seems like buying Facebook reviews is a no-brainer. Ratings and visibility all go up—it’s a win-win. Well, not exactly. Throughout this article, you’ll learn why you don’t want to buy facebook reviews, how it can kill your business, and a simple formula for getting more authentic Facebook reviews.
Why You Shouldn’t Buy Facebook Reviews
When you buy a Facebook review, it’s not real no matter how badly you want it to be. Since it was left by someone who’s never visited your business, it’s essentially worthless to your customers. It won’t show them what it’s really like to purchase your product or service. It could also include misleading information leading to authentically unhappy customers. Even though you might have more Facebook reviews on your page, in the long run, it’s going to be a very bad business decision.
Most of the time, fake Facebook reviews are very easy to spot. They are overly glowing and complimentary. Having fake reviews, especially once people find out, is going to be very bad for your brand. It means that customers can’t trust you or your business. Reputation and word of mouth is everything for local business owners. Is it really worth sacrificing for a few five-star reviews? Even if customers never find out you used fake reviews, there’s a good chance that Facebook will.
Cracking Down on Fake Facebook Reviews
Fake reviews have plagued social networks for more than a decade. Yelp, Amazon, and Facebook are just a few of the tech companies forced into the spotlight by fake reviews. And just like you, they’re doing everything possible in order to protect the integrity of their business. Nobody wants to be known as a website that tolerates spam. They want users to be able to trust the reviews that are there. Otherwise, businesses and their customers will leave in droves. Recently, TripAdvisor has taken an aggressive stance on fraudulent reviews and the companies who sell them.
A recent article in The Guardian details a landmark fraud ruling out of Italy. A man was sentenced to prison for nine months for selling fake reviews to hospitality businesses in Italy. Although this was the first time someone has faced jail time for selling fake reviews, it won’t be the last. The ruling opens the door for other social networks to take action against anyone abusing the trust of their online community.
Facebook isn’t just cracking down on fake news. Countless users have been placed in “Facebook jail” as a result of misusing the platform. Some pages have even been banned entirely for violating the terms and conditions of the social network. Imagine the impact of having your business’s Facebook Page completely wiped from history. The good news is that authenticity is actually better for your business and it’s easier than you think to get Facebook reviews.
Real Facebook Reviews Are Better
As you can easily see, buying Facebook reviews for your Facebook Business Page, or for any business use, is a bad idea, as it can be very detrimental to your business.
Getting real Facebook reviews from actual customers is going to be so much better for your company in the long run for a range of reasons. When you have real reviews, they are going to be just as easy to spot as fake reviews. They are going to provide your potential customers and clients with a real look at what it is like to work with your business or product. It will allow them to make a smarter and more informed decision overall on whether they want to work with you.
Additionally, you will find that getting real reviews is easier than you might have thought. As long as you have a good quality product or service available, and you are doing your best to ensure that you take good care of your customers, the reviews are going to come. Most of the reviews are going to be positive, but you will have some negative reviews in there too. As long as the reviews are real and you respond to them, even the negative ones should be kept. It provides an added level of authenticity to your business.
How to Get More Facebook Reviews
If you’re wondering how to get more reviews, it’s actually easier than you think. First, you are going to need to enable reviews on your business’s Facebook page. To do this:
- Click Settings at the top of your Page
- Click Edit Page in the left column
- Scroll down and click Add a Tab
- Click Add Tab next to Reviews
In order to start getting more Facebook reviews, you will want to ask your customers to leave reviews. Most of the time, when a customer is happy with a product, they forget about leaving a review unless you remind them. By asking the customers to leave a short and honest review, it will help you get more reviews for your site.
Having a simple system to collect customer feedback will lead to more quality reviews. If you’re serious about improving your online reputation through reviews, check out Podium. In less than 30 seconds, your customers can leave a review on Facebook, Google, or even niche review sites. For less than the price of fake reviews, you can start collecting real customer feedback.
