Chatmeter Updates to Facebook’s Algorithm Changes
On August 6th, Facebook announced a renovation of the overall design and user interaction on their Business Pages. Among the changes, came an update to the way Facebook collects user reviews, switching from star ratings to recommendations. As soon as we heard the news here at Chatmeter, our dedicated team of developers got straight to work making updates to our software that reflect the recent Facebook changes. Here’s everything you need to know about Chatmeter’s adaptation to Facebook’s new Business Pages.
Facebook Business Page Updates
The Facebook update consisted of six new changes to their business pages. The changes include replacing star ratings with recommendations, call to action buttons, increased story visibility, customized business information, as well as updates to events and jobs. You can learn more about all the changes here.
The shift from star reviews to recommendations meant we needed to make updates to our review management platform. Instead of a traditional review with a star rating, Facebook now asks a user whether they recommend a place or not. This shift from star ratings to a yes or no recommendation option is a major change in the way consumers rate businesses. After choosing whether to recommend a business or not, users are then prompted to leave a comment about their experience with the business.
Interestingly, businesses on Facebook still receive ratings out of 5. This score is a combination of previous review ratings and new recommendations/non-recommendations. Because businesses are still receiving ratings, regardless of the removal of stars, it’s more important than ever that businesses are monitoring their Facebook recommendations and responding to customer comments as quickly as possible.
Our Process
The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving, at Chatmeter we’re always prepared to change with the industry. If there’s a change that impacts the data we collect we have the experience to make quick and calculated updates to our software. Before we implemented updates to our reviews platform, we wanted to take a look at how the Facebook recommendations were affecting business page ratings and review quantity. We took a sample of 60 Facebook Business Pages that we were already tracking in our dashboard. The review quantity on these pages ranged from hundreds to just a few. We took a look at each business page and manually recorded their new Facebook “rating” along with how many reviews and recommendations it was based on.
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Facebook’s shift from star ratings to a yes or no recommendation option is a major change in the way consumers rate businesses. [/tweet_box]
Our Findings:
1. Recommendations led to an increase in review quantity.
On average, the surveyed locations had 39% more combined reviews/recommendations relative to just the review count by itself. It’s clear that the ease of recommending a business instead of rating a business has led to an increase in reviews.
2. We found little evidence that recommendations lead to a change in page ratings.
In our research, we found that the average rating across 60 locations at 4.186 changed to 4.167 with the addition of recommendations. This is less than a 1% change. 31 out of 60 locations resulted in no change and the majority of the 29 locations that did change only changed by 0.1. This is great news for businesses that are worried recommendations may affect their rating.
3. Not all recommendations are shown on the business page.
If a Facebook user asks for a recommendation from friends on their own timeline, that recommendation is then attributed towards the business’ rating. However, if the profile of the user making or requesting the recommendation is private. Due to recent updates to Facebook’s privacy policy, users will not be able to see a private recommendation on business pages. For example, a business page may report 75 reviews but only 68 are displayed. The other 7 are private recommendations made between friends and will be hidden from the public.
Chatmeter’s Adaptation to the Facebook Update
After our initial research, we can now announce the following changes rolling out in our dashboard:
1. Users can now see recommendations in the “Reviews Found” section of our dashboard, including the recommendation status (“recommends” or “doesn’t recommend”). This shift to a yes or no recommendation offers a different value to a business. Similar to a Net Promoter Score (NPS), this method of scoring gives brands a clear measure of how their business locations are performing through the eyes of the customer. In addition to seeing their recommendations, users can also view the comments left by Facebook users. This information is also available for export.
2. Users can respond to recommendations within the dashboard just like reviews.
3. Recommendation notifications can be added to email alerts.
4. Scores for recommendations have been applied to our LBV scoring system.
5. Recommendation count has been applied to the Store Comparison Report for location vs. competitors.
6. Positive vs. Negative recommendation count has been added in the Provider Summary on a separate line.
7. A filter for recommends or doesn’t recommend has been added to the Review dropdown list.
8. Matching the overall rating score to the one displayed on Facebook.
All of these changes help to ensure accuracy between the Chatmeter Platform and Facebook. Our brilliant product and development team is able to quickly adapt to industry changes, keeping our platform a trusted and reliable place for multi-location businesses to manage their brand’s reputation. We’re excited to see what recommendations are bringing in more customer reviews. Make sure your business is prepared for a rise in review velocity by taking advantage of our Workflow tool. The expansion of our Workflow tool will make it easier for brands to stay on top of the influx of Facebook recommendations and other important tasks.