It's no surprise that nearly everyone is on Facebook today. As Q4 2023, the social media platform had more than three billion monthly active users.

This is incredibly important for your business because most of your customers (new and current) are on Facebook, and you must have a great social media presence to connect with them.

But, you need more than just effective content in your social posts to make an impact on your customers; you also need many positive reviews and, more importantly, you need to manage them effectively. 

Why Does Your Business Need Facebook Reviews? 

If you didn't know already, 97 percent of Internet users look at online reviews of businesses before making any purchase decision. 

Most of your customers will look for your business on Google and read reviews from your local listing. 

However, it turns out that more people use Facebook than Google to get their reviews.  

Take a look at these statistics: 

• Seventy-four percent of people use Facebook Pages to learn about a business
• Consumers trust Facebook reviews more than Google reviews and say that Facebook is one of their most trusted websites for reviews
• Eighty percent of consumers are more likely to trust a local business with positive Facebook reviews

How Do You Effectively Manage Facebook Reviews? 

Okay, so how do you actually manage those Facebook reviews? Here are five steps:

1. Start asking for Facebook reviews. 

I get it; you might be worried about bothering your customers by asking them to leave you a review. 

But, if you don't ask for reviews, you may be missing out on plenty of positive feedback to help influence other potential customers. In fact, nearly 70 percent of people have left a positive review of a business when asked. 

If you haven't started already, be sure to ask your customers both online and in-person to leave you a review on Facebook!

2. Pay close attention to what your customers are saying. 

The second (and probably the most important) step to managing your Facebook reviews applies to everything else with your business's Facebook Page: look at what your customers are saying about you. 

If you know what your customers are saying about your social posts, your promotions or your business in general, you'll be able to share more relevant content and make changes to your business which can lead to more positive Facebook reviews and a higher star rating. 

3. Acknowledge that you may receive negative reviews. 

So, you received a negative review or comment on Facebook.

I understand that's scary; your Facebook reviews can be easily seen by anyone. 

But, don't worry so much about receiving one or two negative reviews. Unhappy customers leave negative reviews for a number of reasons, but ultimately we all make mistakes and most of your customers will be understanding. 

Getting a negative review is a perfect opportunity to recognize where your company went wrong and make the changes needed to ensure it won't happen again.

4. Respond to all customer reviews quickly.

How many times have you sent a time-sensitive email, or even a text message to somebody and you didn't hear back for hours or days? Annoying, right? 

Your customers are no different; if they reach out to you, they want to hear from you soon. Fifty-two percent of customers who leave negative reviews expect to hear back the company within seven days.

But, regardless of whether you receive a positive or negative review, you still don't want to be the company that puts off responding to customer reviews on Facebook.

Here are three reasons why:

• If the review is negative, your customer will feel like you don't care about their concerns
• If your customer has a question (whether their review is positive or negative), they'll think you're ignoring their problem
• If the review is positive, you'll miss out on building that relationship and making additional sales by not responding

Most importantly, 30 percent of customers place emphasis on businesses responding to customers. If you don't respond to your customers, you'll risk scaring away new customers who are researching your business and seeing those reviews with no responses. 

5. Make your responses personal.

It's okay to automate some areas of your business, but your review responses should always be personal. 

Imagine going on Facebook and writing a detailed, positive review of a business, just to receive an automated response that only says "thanks."

Not only does this come across as disingenuous, but it ruins the opportunity to create that personal connection with your customer which ultimately will make them more willing to purchase from you again. 

When you respond to your customers, make sure to address them by name, specifically address the praise or criticism you received and ask them if there's anything more that you can do for them. 

Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to effectively manage your Facebook reviews! 

If you'd like to learn more about Facebook marketing or reputation management, check out these resources:

• How Reviews Can Affect Your Local Business
• Here Are 2 Reasons Why Customers Trust Online Reviews
• Do I Have to Reply to Every Negative Review?