Facebook Reviews Are Now Being Picked Up by Google Places

info-puzzlesThis past week I saw something really wild and wanted to share it with you. I saw that in a Google Places site reviews had been picked up from Facebook of all places. Wow that is big news!

We are going to put the pieces of this puzzle together for you and need your help to do it!

Now, what I am not sure of is if you create a FBML page and add your website reviews there will the reviews be picked up or is Google only picking up reviews from people using the Facebook Business Page reviews app. If I had to guess I would say from the application.

As I do additional testing this week on how reviews from Facebook are picked up; meaning if I can ascertain whether you can simply add your own website reviews or if other Facebook users have to review you while they are logged in to their own accounts, I will make sure to let you know at Facebook. In the mean time, this is exactly what we are going to do to test and I sure would appreciate it if you can help us out on this one.

  1. I am going to create a tab in one of my Facebook Business Page accounts and load a sampling of my website reviews to the new FBML page I will create. I will even try to have the reviews coded using Google’s hReview tags. You can visit my page here. While you are there make sure to like this business page that I am testing on as I will only send out a note of success or failure through Facebook to fans. This is not my main Facebook page but one I have created to make sure I hold onto my business name.
  2. I am going to turn on the application for Facebook reviews in my main Facebook Business page account and solicit reviews from clients on that page. If you are not already a fan, make sure to like this page as I will also only be sending out the results to fans of this page. You need only fan one page to get the actual results.

So check out the two pages, look in the left nav bar for the reviews link, like the page, and if you want leave a friendly review. Then when I can see what is going on I will send the results out via Facebook to all of our fans at both pages.

Thanks for your help in advance, this could be a great mini whitepaper!

Facebook Lessons Learned

My understanding of what people want from a Facebook Business Page is changing over time as we get feedback and interaction from colleagues, fans, and clients. Here are a few things that I have learned and am still doing testing on our own Business Page.

  • People are thirsty to connect with a person. Too much selling information or focus on your own services is a real no-no.
  • People want to have personal tidbits about you. Although you do not want nor have to reveal a lot of personal information about yourself on a Facebook Business Page. People do want to know who they talk to on the phone. They love to see photos to “know” who you are.
  • Fans and visitors love humor. A funny video, joke, quote, or funny photo can really elicit a positive response.
  • Asking questions and taking polls can engage visitors and clients.
  • Commenting back on a thread on your Business wall is a must. Make sure that fans and visitors see that you are interacting with what they write.

For us, we are testing and having fun with a new concept of engagement using our spokesdog. It is not hard nor time consuming to put a little bit of “personal” juice behind your Facebook posts. Remember people who are visiting you are used to the personal interaction from their own personal page on Facebook, your Business Page needs to reflect and feed this need to get the best response from your visitors.

Facebook Business Page Confusion Explained

There has been much confusion on moving your business to a Facebook Business Page from clients when they already have been using a Facebook Personal Profile for their business. Let me explain what I consider at this time to be our best practice recommendation for business owners who have had their business tied to their personal Facebook Profile or who have actually set up a Personal Profile for their business.

1. If you have done this (note in the first paragraph), we recommend that you keep your personal profile and then while logged into your personal profile go to this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and create a Business Page for your business. You will then access this new page by logging onto your personal Facebook account, click the account link at the top right, and then in the drop down select manage pages.

2. We then recommend that you announce to all colleagues and business associates that are friends in your personal profile over a two week period, that you are locking down your personal profile and encourage them to “like” your new business page.

3. At the end of the two week period, change your privacy settings in your personal profile to Friends only and then delete from your friend list anyone who you do not want to see personal photos, photos of your own personal friends, and your kids.

4. When you get a friend request sent to your personal profile, click the face of the person requesting to friend you and write them a note stating that you do not connect on your personal page but can fully interact with them and with you on your Facebook Business Page.

If you have created a Personal Profile for your Business you will still want to create a Business Page treed off of your Business’ Personal Profile. Work hard to move your friends to the new page as you will have many more features for interacting with them on a Business Page.

Facebook Business Pages Demystified for Business Owners

I have just published earlier this week my most recent white paper. This one is called Facebook Business Pages Demystified for Business Owners. You can download or read this white paper online from our website.

This interesting white paper will help you to get started reaching new business prospects on Facebook fast and understand why Facebook is the new place for businesses to be. With Facebook being more popular than Google.com and the place where 50% of registered users login every day, Facebook is the place to be for your business too.

Here are some fun facts from Facebook:

  1. Facebook has more than 500 million active users.
  2. 50% of the active users login once a day.
  3. The average user has 130 friends.
  4. People spend over 700 billion minutes a month on Facebook.
  5. The average user creates 90 pieces of content each month.
  6. More than one million websites have integrated with the Facebook Platform.
  7. Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated with Facebook.
  8. There are more than 150 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
  9. Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events.
  10. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.

That is 10 super reasons your business should be on Facebook. 

I have another white paper, a longer and more detailed one that spells out how to use Welcome pages and FBML which is Facebook’s simple code. You can download it, “Facebook Business Page How-To Guide”, now. To get the PDF you will need to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.