Facebook Reviews: How to Get More and Manage Them

Facebook quietly became one of the most powerful review platforms in the world — and most businesses barely notice. Unlike Google or Yelp, where reviews reach strangers searching for your business, Facebook recommendations reach the reviewer's entire social network. When someone recommends your business on Facebook, their friends and family see it in their feed.

That social amplification makes Facebook reviews uniquely valuable. A single recommendation can influence dozens of people who already trust the person making it.

How Facebook Recommendations Work

In 2018, Facebook replaced its 1-5 star review system with a binary "Recommend / Don't Recommend" system. Here's how it works now:

• Users visit your Facebook business page and click "Recommend" or "Don't Recommend"
• They can add text, photos, and tags describing their experience
• The recommendation appears on your page and potentially in the recommender's feed
• Your page displays the percentage of people who recommend your business

The binary system has pros and cons. On the positive side, you won't get nuanced 2-star or 3-star reviews that drag down your average. On the negative side, even a slightly unhappy customer may click "Don't Recommend" instead of leaving a middling rating.

Why Facebook Reviews Matter for Your Business

Facebook has nearly 3 billion monthly active users. Even if you think of Facebook as "just social media," consider these facts:

• 2 in 3 Facebook users visit a local business page at least once a week
• Facebook recommendations carry built-in social proof — they come from real people with real profiles, photos, and mutual friends
• Facebook reviews show up in Google search results. When someone googles your business, your Facebook page and its review score often appear on the first page
• Facebook's local search features are increasingly competitive with Google's, especially for restaurants and services

Getting More Facebook Recommendations

Make It Easy to Find Your Review Page

Your Facebook page needs to have the "Recommendations" section enabled. Go to your page settings → Templates and Tabs → make sure Reviews/Recommendations is turned on.

Create a direct link to your review page. The URL format is: facebook.com/[yourpage]/reviews. Share this link in emails, texts, and follow-up communications.

Leverage Your Existing Social Audience

If you have followers on Facebook, you already have an audience of people who like your business. Post periodically asking for recommendations: "If you've had a great experience with us, we'd love to hear about it! You can recommend us right on our Facebook page."

Respond to Every Recommendation

When someone recommends your business, respond with a comment thanking them. This does two things: it shows appreciation, and it bumps the recommendation in the algorithm, giving it more visibility.

Share Positive Recommendations

When a customer writes a particularly great recommendation, share it as a post on your page (with their permission). This serves as social proof for your followers and subtly encourages others to leave their own recommendations.

Managing Negative Facebook Reviews

When someone clicks "Don't Recommend," respond the same way you would to any negative review — acknowledge, empathize, offer resolution. The same framework applies across all platforms.

One Facebook-specific consideration: because recommendations are tied to real social profiles, the reviewer's friends might see your response too. This means a thoughtful, professional response has even more reach than on other platforms.

Can You Remove Facebook Reviews?

You can report reviews that violate Facebook's community standards (hate speech, spam, harassment). Facebook will review the report and remove the recommendation if it violates their policies.

If you're getting overwhelmed by fake or spam reviews, you can temporarily turn off recommendations in your page settings. This is a nuclear option — it hides all recommendations, good and bad. Use it only as a last resort.

Facebook Reviews and Your Broader Strategy

Facebook shouldn't be your only review platform, but it should be part of your strategy. The ideal approach:

1. Google for search visibility — most important for discoverability
2. Facebook for social proof — leverages your existing social audience
3. Yelp for industry credibility — especially restaurants and services
4. Platform-specific sites for your industry (Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, BBB, etc.)

Managing reviews across all these platforms manually is time-consuming. Tools like Sentinel Audit aggregate reviews from Google, Yelp, Facebook, Trustpilot, and more into a single dashboard with AI-powered response drafting. Monitor everything in one place instead of checking five different apps.

Measuring Facebook Review Performance

Track these metrics on Facebook:

• Recommendation percentage — what percentage of reviewers recommend you?
• Total recommendations — is the count growing?
• Response rate — are you responding to every recommendation?
• Referral traffic — use Facebook Page Insights to see how many people visit your website from your Facebook page

Include your Facebook metrics alongside Google and Yelp in your overall reputation score to get the full picture of your online presence.