Facebook have been making a fair amount of changes as of late, some of which you can read about in this previous blog post, in response to scandals and outcry from its users. There’s one particular change you could have already noticed, or if you haven’t, try heading to the reviews section of your business page. See anything different? If you have had a recent review, you’ll see that the scoring system is no more. Whereas before users were able to rate your business from 1-5 stars, ratings have now been changed into recommendations.
This is what the reviews used to look like with a star rating displayed:

Now someone can leave a recommendation – they are asked a simple question “do you recommend this business”, to which they answer “yes” or “no”. If they want to recommend you, they can write a comment about their experience and it will be displayed like this:

However, if they do not want to recommend your business, they are still able to write about their experience and it will be displayed like this:

This new system is designed to make the process easier for the user. Rather than having multiple choices, between 1 and 5 stars, it’s a simple yes or no. What you have to remember as a business owner is that 88% of people trust an online recommendation as much as one from a friend – so they do make an impact and people take notice! You can if you wish, turn your reviews section off, but we advise our clients to keep it switched on. Consumers like transparency, and as long as you’re doing a great job and keep up the hard work, you won’t have anything to worry about! Yes, you may get some people who don’t recommend you which will be as disheartening as receiving 1 star, especially when you feel it is biased or unfounded, but you have to have faith that potential customers will read through all of the positive comments you receive too.
The great thing is that when someone recommends your business, everyone they are connected with can see it! If you’re a restaurant and a person has recommended you for your fantastic food, their friends, neighbours and members of their local community could see it and be prompted to come along too.
All of the scores you receive will go towards an overall total, which is out of 5.

Rolling out scoring users on trustworthiness
Did you know some members are now being scored on their trustworthiness? This is a system which Facebook have been developing over the past year in light of the huge amount of fake news being circulated on the platform.
Wondering how they come up with their score? Controversially, Facebook are currently keeping this under wraps, which has caused a fair amount of criticism. However, what they have confirmed is that the tool is not being used as a reputation rating. So if you’re worrying about the reputation of your business being affected by this new system – there’s nothing to worry about there and it won’t affect your total out of 5, as above. This system is designed to help fight against misinformation, but as long as everything you post on your business page is correct, you shouldn’t need to worry about this latest update.
If you have any questions or queries about the above or would perhaps like some Facebook training, please get in touch with our friendly team on 01566 232323.