Recently, Facebook announced that it would slowly be rolling out several updates and improvements to its business Pages’ features. It’s obvious that Facebook continues to optimize for mobile experience as many of these changes, including a rumored re-design for Facebook mobile completely, concentrate on ease of engagement while on your device.
You may have noticed some of these changes take place across your own business page already.
So what could these changes mean for your hotel or resort’s social media strategy?
Overall, and without knowing or seeing too much as of right now, we don’t anticipate any immediate earth-shattering changes. If Facebook wants to continue to help businesses be seen as authentic, continue to encourage brand affinity and brand interaction on a real level with their customers – we’re all for it. Really, these updates should come as no surprise to brands considering Facebook’s first big reveal earlier in the year, announcing their focus on person-to-person engagements on News Feed.
As with any digital trend, and despite the headlines lately, this is a Facebook feature on which you won’t want to find yourself left behind. With the platforms ability to algorithm-out “irrelevant” content, data, information – it’s important to do what you can to stay ahead.
Here’s what we know (so far) about some of these changes and updates and how they could benefit your Page:
Reviews will now be Recommendations
Like Reviews, Recommendations are submitted by guests and patrons – not by brand managers themselves.
- The “Review” tab of business Pages is completely being replaced by the “Recommendations” tab. Currently, the feature is still being rolled out globally to all users on the platform, and that is why some of you may appear to have “both” live on your page right now. In the next few months, the feature will be completely rolled out platform-wide.
- The designated Star Ratings you’re used to – those are also disappearing. In the process of being removed globally, soon you won’t see any stars associated with your recommendations on Facebook. Guests will only be able to “Not Recommend” or “Recommend”.
