Facebook tests new rating system for business pages

Why customer reviews on social media are more important than ever

Today, almost everyone has a Facebook account. For companies, this means huge opportunities to connect with audiences, promote products and services, and gain reviews. Facebook’s review system has become a respected source for online reviews over the years. We’ve recently learned that Facebook may have a new rating system in the works that could change the way it calculates review scores. Here’s what we know.

When you search for a company on Facebook, you see a blue circle depicting the location’s review score overlapping the company’s profile image. While the 1-5 score has been the norm for reviews in the past, Facebook is working on a new scoring system for business pages, which would allow users to rate on a scale of 1-10.

In May 2018, Facebook began testing out the new scoring system and displayed this message in its notes:

“We’re testing a new score out of 10 to help people find great places more easily. The score is based on multiple ratings, reviews and recommendations people share about Pages on Facebook.”

If implemented, this new system would take into account reviews as well as recommendations. During the testing period, underneath the page’s score, it reads, “Based on the opinion of ___ people” and “Recommended by ___ people.” Facebook explains that the new scoring process weighs new recommendations more heavily, so companies always have the opportunity to improve their scores.

This new system could allow Facebook to discover more relevant companies for users and eliminate or decrease fake reviews by taking into account more than direct customer ratings. Moving away from solely user-sourced data could help end tampering on business profiles and improve relevance for consumers. This also means that reviews and recommendations on Facebook are more important than ever. Given this information, it seems having more positive recent reviews coming in regularly could help improve your company’s score on social media.

Axia Public Relations provides the industry’s best PR services. Not only can Axia manage your social media profiles and efficiently engage your target audiences, Axia also offers a review management platform to effectively and efficiently monitor, collect, and promote your online reviews. Learn more about how Axia improves online reviews today.

Beverly Driskill is a 2018 University of North Florida graduate who earned her Bachelor of Science in public relations.

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