Did you wake up and see all your facebook business stars were gone?
No need to freak out, you're not alone! Facebook is always keeping us on our toes and this is just one of the changes they sprung up on us without much ado. The ratings you accrued are not gone, fret not. They're all still here, they just look different. Read on to see why this is, long-term, a good thing. But first let's travel a bit to the past...
Remember in 2016 when all of a sudden people were "looking for recommendations"?
These recommendations now count as facebook page ratings, automatically!
There was even a handy little extension you could add onto your post. It was so easy everyone started intuitively using it, almost without even having to think about it...
Well it turns out Facebook had something in mind when they began accruing all this data. It wasn't just to make it easier for you to get recommendations, be it for restaurants, hairdressers, or anything else. Now, nearly three years later, as of this month Facebook page ratings are being replaced by:
- Recommendations as before on the page (new thumb up or down instead of stars)
- Recommendations as described above (from personal accounts etc)
- Page shares
What does this mean for businesses?
When people recommend (or criticize) a business on their personal newsfeed, it is almost certain that this is an honest assessment. And now these very honest reviews are, among others, what business ratings on facebook are based on. In fact reviews now:
- Need a minimum of 25 characters!
- They can have a bunch of tags (so now businesses can know what they are known for and identify trends)!
- They can have media (photos) attached to them!
But, are all the stars really gone?
Facebook Reviews of Pizzeria Il Giardino Urbano in Basel
...And what is this little blue circle with a number on it? Good question! Instead of the same old stars we're used to seeing on every rating platform from yelp to foursquare, facebook page ratings are gone and have been replaced by “Recommended” or “Not Recommended”. That is:
- Old 1 and 2-star ratings are “Not Recommended”
- Old 3 star ratings will now show up as “Reviewed”
- Old 4 and 5-star ratings are “Recommended”
To read facebook's official guidelines, find them here. This all begs the question, what are they going to do with the other extension? The polls, the lists, etc? I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled and see what new surprises Facebook springs on us in the future.
