Just what online marketers needed: even MORE locations for online reviews!
Yes, this means those responsible for monitoring online reviews as part of any online reputation management effort now have new reviews to, well, review:
Facebook launches starred reviews
Facebook is softly rolling out an extension of its current star rating system for Facebook Pages over the coming months. In order for this enhanced feature, which will prominently display an aggregate score near the top of business Pages, to work or be viewed, a Page must have a physical address location associated with it. Meaning, Pages without a physical address listed in their “About” sections will not display these aggregate scores.
In addition to star rating displays on business Pages, star ratings will also appear alongside business names when users perform a local business search on Facebook, such as “movie theaters nearby.”
For those unaware, Facebook’s rating system isn’t new, but it was previously limited to the mobile Facebook app and a separate tab on desktop Pages sites. This upcoming change will significantly raise the feature’s visibility as well as the number of Facebook user reviews.
For more info, please check the following links on Facebook’s Help Center:
- How do I review a business on Facebook?
- How do I allow or remove reviews on my Page?
- How do I add an address, location or map to my Page?
Better Business Bureau launches unfiltered online reviews
This next online review update is of high interest to me and I’d really like to see it receive a warm welcome: The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is in the process of implementing an unfiltered online review system on its platform.
Unlike crowdsourced online review sites like Yelp where reviews can be created (or faked) by PR agencies, competitors and individuals, the BBB online review capability ensure reviews are created by real people who have actually used a product or a service. Their position: fake reviews will **NOT** be tolerated. No one will be allowed to manipulate reviews to make businesses seem better or worse. (Ummm … isn’t this what Yelp should be doing?? Just saying …)
If this news doesn’t make your online review hearts burst into song, the BBB isn’t stopping there. The site is also **NOT** filtering any reviews, which I guess makes sense. If they are patrolling the online reviews being posted and preventing fake ones from happening, I suppose then there wouldn’t be a need, per se, for filtering reviews.
According to the BBB, they already have numerous business and consumer verification processes in place; therefore, adding online reviews to their verification systems is a no brainer. The folks at BBB insist that as part of the online review process, all reviewers must share their names and other details sufficient to verify that they are indeed customers of the businesses they are reviewing.
Here’s another interesting point: The identities of reviewers will not be shared with the public. They’ll be known to BBB but not the general public.
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The Facebook and BBB online reputation news items shared above
are at the heels of an online review scandal in the making …
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KlearGear Charges Customers For Posting Bad Reviews
Not sure you’ve heard about this one but the tale fits perfectly into our online reputation management news update: KlearGear recently got folks all up in arms when it was discovered, get this, that the company charged a customer $3,500 for posting mean comments on social media! Read about this juicy story here. The moral of this tale is brands can’t control the sentiment or comments made for the people, by the people. And punishing customers for leaving negative reviews? Wow. I just can’t see how this could ever be a positive business model. What do you think?
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