Back in the pre-Internet days, if someone wanted to learn more about the quality of a product or service before purchase, they would have to do a whole lot of asking around. Nowadays, in 2024, social media reviews influences the buyer's decisions more than ever.
Hundreds of dedicated and integrated review platforms with millions of user reviews invite us to closely inspect the product/service and even the company’s reputation. With the rise of social media platforms, there is no need to walk around knocking on neighbors' doors to ask for customer feedback.
So let’s find out why there is all this fuss about social media reviews.
- What Are Social Media Reviews?
- 6 Reasons Why Social Media Reviews Are Important.
- How to Find Your Business’s Social Media Reviews?
- Top Social Media Review Sites You Should Know.
- How to Ask for Social Media Reviews?
- How to Tackle Negative Reviews?
- How to Use Social Media Reviews to Your Advantage?
From shiny stars illustrating the scoring system, thumbs up or frowny faces, to detailed pictures of the purchase, we can gather enough information to rest assured of our decision.
What Are Social Media Reviews?
Social media reviews are evaluations of products/services based on customer experience shared on social media platforms.
A social media review can take the form of a star classification rating scale, cumulative thumbs up or down, descriptive blocks of text or even tags, photos, and recommendations.
Platforms like Facebook and YouTube ditched the 5-star ratings in favor of Yes/No options. Depending on the customer’s response to this, the platform can recommend the business to other potential customers or not.
However, social media reviews can also take the atypical form of brand mentions.
This can happen when social media users share their opinion about a product/service/brand they have come in contact with, without posting their experience on the company’s social media page.
This form of feedback is vital for the brand to be aware of.
Therefore, we need to talk about the importance of online reviews in 2024.
6 Reasons Why Social Media Reviews Are Important
With the average user spending roughly 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media every day, and 66% of them visiting a local business page at least once a week, we can easily see how having a great reputation management system, backed up by clean social media reviews is crucial.
1. Reviews create social proof
This means people will show a higher chance of copying the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior. We can almost say that if the reviews are great, more people will want to find reasons to be satisfied with the product/service.
Borrowing third-party influence to sway potential customers is considered social proof.
Social proof can be used as social media posts, landing page displays, or success stories in case studies.
2. Reviews Boost SEO
When customers leave reviews, they implicitly use keywords that help other customers find your business more easily online. These mentions help your site organically rank higher on search engines and create authority.
3. Social media reviews are the best user-generated content
Using happy customers’ reviews in your company’s digital marketing strategy is golden.
Social media engagement can be influenced directly by the online recommendations that the brand receives.
4. Reviews and local searches go hand-in-hand
Because local search is a big part of the search intent, companies should be vigilant about Google’s My Business reviews feature. Especially for companies that rely on their physical location and whose target audience would more probably search for their business listing on Google Maps.
5. Feedback acts as a brand's mirror
Sometimes digital transformation comes from the outside-in. Customer reviews on social media can highlight unknown shortages. They allow a company to find its weaknesses and work on them.
6. Establishing trust
Addressing customer issues head-on and replying to customers on different social media channels is an excellent way to prove that there are real people behind your online presence. With impeccable customer service come happy clients who will refer your company to other future clients.
How to Find your Business’s Social Media Reviews?
The classic way to find your business’s social media reviews is to search for them on every platform manually.
According to Statuslabs 73% of consumers report that they only pay attention to reviews written in the last month.
This indicates that people want to be sure that the reviews are accurate and up to date.
Business owners should regularly check for reviews and mentions across their social media profiles.
Imagine checking Facebook, Google My Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Booking, Play Store, App Store every few days just to see if you have new, unreplied reviews.
Sounds like a migraine, doesn’t it?
No worries, there is an over-the-counter solution to this.
With BrandMentions you get to have all your reviews in the same room. You can see them together or analyze them separately to better understand your customer’s needs and brand’s reputation.
BrandMentions not only monitors your reviews and mentions but also tracks them down and brings them to your front porch.
The real-time alerts feature is perfectly designed for you to be instantly notified by email every time a mention or a new review is posted about your company.
You can even customize your alert, so you'll get a notification only when specific conditions are met (negative mentions, increased spike in reviews, etc.)
Top Social Media Review Sites You Should Know
It does not matter if your business sells dog blankets or offers real estate services; there are a few elementary review sites you should keep an eye on.
Google My Business - if you have not set up your GMB account, you are late to the party.
68% of online user experiences begin on a search engine.
This means your Google My Business profile can be the first thing your clients see when searching for offers in your niche. So suit up!
Tripadvisor - Any business in the hospitality, travel, or entertainment niche needs to be on Tripadvisor.
Tripadvisor is the largest and one of the most trusted travel guidance platforms.
With more than 1 billion reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million businesses, we can see how this app is important to take into consideration.
Yelp - amongst the first review platforms that focused on the service market, Yelp remains relevant in 2024.
Yelp endorses businesses to create strong connections with their potential customers.
Booking - The online travel agency uses reviews as a marketing tool.
On Booking, any former guest can express their appreciation or dissatisfaction by writing a text and even adding a couple of photos from the location.
Potential clients can use the stars rating system to filter out properties with a negative social score. After that, it is up to the property listing management to keep tabs on their guest’s opinions and recommendations.
Facebook - the social networking app recently replaced Facebook reviews with an upgraded version called Facebook recommendations.
Just like YouTube, Facebook ditched the star rating system with the Yes/No option.
Facebook asks customers if they would recommend the business page to someone they know, and after it gives the Yes/No option, a text box opens, inviting the user to write down and share their experience.
App Store/Play Store - both digital distribution platforms use ratings and reviews for a better customer experience.
The platforms offer the user the option to read reviews, compare customer ratings, and see screenshots of any mobile app available on the digital marketplace.
With BrandMentions you can now track the reviews you get in TripAdvisor, Booking, Yelp, Google My Business, Play Store, App Store, and Facebook.
How to Ask for Social Media Reviews
After closing a transaction or offering a service, you can kindly ask your customers for feedback. Having a review page or feedback template link always comes in handy to quickly share with your client.
A recent study showed that 67% would consider leaving a review for a positive experience, while 40% would consider leaving a review for a negative experience.
63% of online users have written a positive review, and 32% have shared a negative review.
This means that people feel generally comfortable sharing their experiences online and that the majority of them will most likely leave positive feedback.
How to Tackle Negative Reviews
The most precious piece of advice you can take when it comes to negative reviews is DON’T IGNORE THEM.
87% of online consumers read the reviews of online businesses.
Even if there are a few negative reviews, people can overlook them if they feel that the business cares about their customers’ feedback and addresses their complaints.
Own it and walk with it.
In today’s cancel culture, it is crucial for business owners to be up-to-date with any mention that revolves around their brand.
Tackling negative reviews is like ripping off a band-aid. Quickly, efficiently but strategically.
For a healthy, clean online reputation, here are some tips in dealing with online negative reviews:
- Talk to the customer in a one-on-one conversation and try to solve their problem ASAP.
- Respond to negative feedback without taking it personally. Thoughtful and honest conversations go a long way.
- Be the one who reaches out to the customer and takes the conversation on to a private space. Keeping the conversation public can engage your audience to escalate the issue and actually make it worse than it really is.
- Make sure the issue is genuinely solved and kindly ask the sharing customer to remove their negative review.
- If needed, you can compensate the unhappy customer. The goal is to show them you care more about solving their problem than making the transaction for your company.
- Ask for more reviews! A simple and effective media strategy is to encourage your customers to leave reviews. A clear call to action should do the trick. This way, positive reviews can act as a buffer zone for the negative ones.
- Don’t forget to reply to each customer review. A strong social media management plan should always keep an eye on daily feedback activity.
89% of consumers are 'highly' or 'fairly' likely to use a business that responds to all of its online reviews.
So, it’s fair to say that a brand monitoring platform is a justified investment in any company’s marketing strategy for the year 2024.
How to Use Social Media Reviews to Your Advantage
Customer reviews are one of the most powerful sales tools.
Not only can you engage with your audience organically, but you can also find out so much about your audience’s needs and preferences.
Customer feedback constitutes the opportunity to start a conversation with your clients.
It also allows you to create original social proof that you can share on your social media channels and let others know what other clients already experienced after interacting with your brand.
You can take reviews one by one and create powerful visuals around them.
By promoting your brand on different reviews sites, you can benefit from a more diverse client database that can share their experience with the rest of the world.
Some brands take promoting their reviews to the next level by adding certificate stickers of their performance achievements.
Conclusions
Negative or positive online feedback can make or break a brand’s online reputation.
There are quite a few review sites and social media platforms that support customer feedback.
Every business with a social media or web presence should have a solid online review management strategy.
90% of users report skipping over paid results in favor of organic results. Users want real, raw content, generated by humans. The pay-per-click strategy does not favor that. People trust other people’s opinions. Social media users tend to equate other customers’ reviews with a friend recommendation.
Furthermore, any social media marketer who wants to use social proof in their marketing strategy has to have a close tie to the customer relationship department.
If you want to know what to market, you need first to understand what your clients want from you.
This is why social listening is so important in finding social media reviews.
