Facebook is known for testing out new features on a small subset of users before rolling them out to the general public. The world’s largest social network has been collecting our ratings of businesses and locations for some time now, via Nearby on mobile and desktop pages, among other methods. But yesterday morning Techcrunch received a “reliable tip” that Facebook is currently considering assigning new visibility to their five-star rating system by prominently placing it at the top of Pages’ timelines, directly below the company or place Page Name, and in News Feed previews.
This is what the new feature would look like:
Photo Credit: Techcrunch
A Facebook spokesperson reportedly informed TechCrunch:
We’re extending star ratings on Facebook from mobile to desktop – to make it easier for people to discover great businesses around them. This is beneficial for both businesses and consumers. Star ratings encourage more people to rate a business, making it eligible to appear in News Feed and help others discover a business they didn’t know about previously. For businesses themselves, this also leads to greater brand awareness.
Sure, it's entirely possible that this could be nothing more than a rumor. It's also possible that someone could just be messing with TechCrunch - after all, Beard Design admitted on their own Facebook Page that even they could not see the alleged stars. But if Facebook does go through with moving this feature from the testing phase to actual adoption, it could have a pretty significant impact on your Facebook marketing strategy.
The prominent display of users’ ratings - on a scale of one to five - could provide businesses another (more concrete?) vanity metric to strive for.
Companies have been striving to increase the quantity of their Facebook Page Likes since the advent of company pages. But as TechCrunch points out, the Like has become an increasingly ambiguous sentiment-deprived symbol. When users employ Likes to express a gamut of sentiments, (i.e., “sympathy, solidarity, endorsement, a sign of interest or even in some cases a feeling of dislike”) the number of Likes something has seems to be a reliable indication of how present it is in public consciousness, but not necessarily an accurate representation of how people feel about it overall. Clicking on a bar of stars is just as easy as clicking on a Like Button, but allowing users to rate a business on a scale of one to five provides a more substantial perspective on the degree of sentiment users hold for that business.
Furthermore, if the cumulative five-star ratings are conspicuously highlighted on Company Pages, they will be much more difficult for people to ignore. Essentially, this could be the answer to the Like conundrum, as it could prove to be an effective method for holding companies to a higher standard. With more emphasis being placed on customer satisfaction, businesses would be obliged to focus more effort and creativity on producing engaging interactive content and outstanding customer service. Lackluster performance in these crucial areas could lead to less than stellar scores on a brand’s Facebook Page… And who knows where else the stars could emerge? What if they were pulled into Instagram profiles? Or Like Boxes on websites? Or embedded posts? And what if these ratings further influence Graph Search and News Feed distribution?
As Facebook competes with the likes of Yelp, Foursquare, Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor, Angie's List, etc. for a position in the realm of local search, service recommendation and entertainment discovery platforms, businesses that do not take user generated reviews and ratings seriously will reap serious repercussions sooner or later. All things considered, I believe the key takeaway from this somewhat speculative TechCrunch tip is that, no matter what Facebook decides to do with the five-star rating system, the brands that choose to focus on the quality of their business and real-time audience engagement instead of the quantity of their Likes and followers will shine brighter and become astronomically more relevant to the socially-engaged, outspokenly opinionated consumers of our ever-connected-always-progressing social universe than the brands that refuse to evolve. The brands that provide value to their customers are the brands that will succeed.
Five Star Rating Photo Credit: Yuliana via photopin cc
Furthermore, if the cumulative five-star ratings are conspicuously highlighted on Company Pages, they will be much more difficult for people to ignore. Essentially, this could be the answer to the Like conundrum, as it could prove to be an effective method for holding companies to a higher standard. With more emphasis being placed on customer satisfaction, businesses would be obliged to focus more effort and creativity on producing engaging interactive content and outstanding customer service. Lackluster performance in these crucial areas could lead to less than stellar scores on a brand’s Facebook Page… And who knows where else the stars could emerge? What if they were pulled into Instagram profiles? Or Like Boxes on websites? Or embedded posts? And what if these ratings further influence Graph Search and News Feed distribution?
As Facebook competes with the likes of Yelp, Foursquare, Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor, Angie's List, etc. for a position in the realm of local search, service recommendation and entertainment discovery platforms, businesses that do not take user generated reviews and ratings seriously will reap serious repercussions sooner or later. All things considered, I believe the key takeaway from this somewhat speculative TechCrunch tip is that, no matter what Facebook decides to do with the five-star rating system, the brands that choose to focus on the quality of their business and real-time audience engagement instead of the quantity of their Likes and followers will shine brighter and become astronomically more relevant to the socially-engaged, outspokenly opinionated consumers of our ever-connected-always-progressing social universe than the brands that refuse to evolve. The brands that provide value to their customers are the brands that will succeed.
Five Star Rating Photo Credit: Yuliana via photopin cc
RSS Feed
