Many customers have noticed that on August 18th Facebook transitioned all review functionality on business pages to recommendations. We have seen Facebook A/B testing the recommendations features since January of this year and now they have it fully deployed.
The recommendations features allow a patient/customer to choose from “recommend” or “not recommend” and then they can provide additional open text comments. The reviews functionality used to allow for the selection of stars ranging from 1 star to 5 stars plus open text comments.
Recommendations also allow for the addition of photos and categories. Reviews did not allow either of those items. Photos and categories make the recommendation feel more rich and complete.
Marketers that have built great practice Facebook pages can take advantage of the fact that recommendations now show up in the feed. Content from reviews was never available in the feed.
The direct response and linking available via this model are powerful. If a potential patient asks Facebook friends for a suggestion of a doctor, their friends can now respond in the feed with a recommendation that directly links to the practice’s Facebook page.
Facebook is investing and innovating to make their platform more relevant in the local search and recommendation space. At SocialClimb we feel this is great as it brings more content and options to patients as they seek to find the best providers and care.
Medical practices using SocialClimb still have all the functionality we have always deliver via reviews. “Recommended” is treated as a 5-star review and “not recommended” is counted as a 1-star review.
We have some exciting enhancements planned to enable recommendations to be used in great new ways. Stay tuned to learn about them as they roll out in the coming months.
