Comment: Facebook and Google business star ratings

Do you have a headache? No? Trust me, you will by the time you finish reading this article! Facebook has changed. Again. No, I’m not talking about yet another new timeline layout or some minor design or functionality changes.

I’m talking about Facebook’s recent changes to its review and rating system for public places, businesses, and organizations. You didn’t know that Facebook allowed users to rank places, companies, and services by awarding them between 1–5 stars and leaving a short review?

Don’t worry, you’re probably not the only one, because until very recently, this functionality was rather gimmicky and didn’t really seriously impact hotels or restaurants on Facebook. Hidden below the “Friends” and “Recent Posts by Others” boxes on the right side of your page’s timeline, the “Reviews” section didn’t really attract a lot of attention. Other than “like” a review or report it as spam or abusive, there wasn’t much you could do with Facebook reviews.

So what has changed? Well, Facebook just incorporated the star rating into your business page’s title, a move which poses several problems for hoteliers, regardless of how engaged their Facebook pages are.

Firstly, very few people know enough about Facebook’s rating and review system, so it’s likely that many will mistake Facebook’s star rating for the official star rating of a hotel or get confused by the stars below its Facebook page.

Secondly, it isn’t currently possible to respond to reviews left on Facebook pages, nor is there a reliable mechanism to report questionable reviews. Compared to Facebook’s star ratings, working with TripAdvisor is a walk in the park. I have tried to report spam posts and abusive comments in the review sections of various hotels in the last few weeks – without fail, they disappeared for a short while, only to pop up again a few days or weeks later.

Thirdly, Facebook’s power in the social networking space not only easily trumps TripAdvisor’s activities, but also generally puts the spotlight on “social” reviews and ratings. Did you know that travellers can leave reviews for your hotel or restaurant on Google and that the ratings are displayed whenever somebody searches for your business?

It gets trickier!

Can you feel the headache already? Wait! There’s more! The reason platforms like Facebook or Google integrate ratings and reviews into business pages isn’t just so users can look at a couple of stars, but because they want to add value for its users and help them discover new places. It goes without saying that both platforms want you to discover popular places rather than places nobody goes to or likes.

The logical consequence, in my opinion, is that, eventually, social reviews will start to influence your search ranking on websites like Facebook or Google. The more people that rate your place on Facebook and the better your ratings, the higher it will show in search results. Currently, you can influence Google search results through search engine optimization and marketing — in the future, this isn’t going to be so easy anymore.

Suddenly, TripAdvisor doesn’t sound so bad, does it? According to TripAdvisor, it has around 57 million emailable members worldwide. Facebook has over one billion users and Google records more than 500 million searches daily. I cannot be the only one who thinks that we will soon see a considerable power shift in the reviews game.

Whatever you do: Keep it social!

5 things to do

Use Facebook & Google star ratings properly

1. Start paying attention to the “Reviews” section on your Facebook page’s timeline and regularly report all spam posts and other questionable contributions. They’ll keep popping up again, so this needs to be done on an ongoing basis.

2. If you haven’t claimed your Google Local listings yet, do it today. It’s a lengthy process, but once done, you can respond to ratings and reviews people leave you on your Google Local listing.

3. Start integrating “social reviews and ratings” into your ongoing quality / business excellence tasks. Tomorrow’s net promoter scores will be heavily influenced by Facebook et. al.

4. Want to increase your social review scores? Get your Facebook, Google, and Foursquare pages more engaged. The more engagement, the higher your chances to attract positive reviews.

5. Listening has just become even more important: Monitor conversations and buzz about your hotel and outlets on an ongoing basis and ask travellers who sound like they had a positive experience to leave you reviews on Facebook or Google.