Facebook pages allow businesses, brands, organizations, and public figures to establish an online presence and connect with their target audience. Unlike personal Facebook profiles, pages are visible to everyone by default and can be followed by any Facebook user. This high visibility makes Facebook pages an essential tool for building an engaged community around a brand or cause.
One of the key features that personal Facebook profiles offer is the ability for friends to post reviews, comments, and reactions to shared content. This facilitates interactions and conversations among connections. However, Facebook pages have a different set of capabilities that are optimized for broadcasting information and enabling engagement with a broad audience.
So do Facebook pages have reviews? The short answer is no. Facebook pages do not have a review feature like the one available for personal profiles. However, there are other ways for followers to share feedback and impressions of a page that serve a similar function as reviews.
Why Don’t Facebook Pages Have a Review Feature?
Facebook pages are designed for outward-facing public communication rather than intimate conversations among friends. For this reason, pages lack certain social features that are core to personal profiles, such as posting on friends’ timelines, sending private messages, and leaving reviews.
The main actions that users can take on a Facebook page are:
- Following/unfollowing the page
- Liking/unliking individual posts
- Commenting on posts
- Sharing posts
- Checking into a location
- Indicating they were at an event
Notice that none of these options allow followers to leave a review of the overall page itself. followers can only interact with the content being shared by the page owner.
This limitation makes sense when you consider that the purpose of a Facebook page is brand awareness and engagement, not collecting personal reviews. Pages are public storefronts for broadcasting a message, while reviews imply a qualitative judgment of something. Facebook likely determined that open reviews on pages could lead to potential issues like damaging defamation or unwanted criticism that distracts from a page’s core messaging.
However, brands still benefit enormously from the interactive capabilities that Facebook does provide on pages. Being able to see detailed follower feedback on individual posts through reactions, comments, and shares provides valuable insight into what resonates with your target audience and what falls flat.
How Can You Collect Feedback on Your Facebook Page?
While Facebook pages may not have a built-in review option, page owners can still take steps to gather reviews and testimonials that provide social proof of their brand. Here are some methods to consider:
Run a Feedback Survey
One of the best ways to directly collect reviews from your Facebook followers is by running an occasional survey asking for feedback. You can share a post with a link to a survey created using a tool like SurveyMonkey or Typeform. To incentivize participation, you can offer a coupon, discount, or entry into a giveaway as a reward for filling out your survey. Make sure to follow Facebook’s promotions policy if providing any type of reward.
Enable Reviews on Your Facebook Events
If your page promotes real-world events, enable reviews on the Facebook events you create. Attendees can leave a star rating and feedback about an event they attended. Any reviews will be visible on the event page. This is an easy way to get feedback on specific events your brand hosts without having reviews on your actual Facebook page.
Ask for Reviews in Your Email Newsletters
Since you likely collect emails from fans who follow your page, tap this existing audience for reviews. Occasionally include a request in your email newsletter asking subscribers to leave a review of your page on a third-party site like Yelp. Make it low pressure and offer an incentive for going the extra mile to leave a review.
Run a Reviews Campaign on Google
If you have a Google Business Profile set up for your brand, encourage happy Facebook fans to leave reviews there as well. Share the link to your GBP prominently on your page and in your email newsletter. Legitimate Google reviews boost local search visibility.
Curate Positive Posts into Testimonials
Keep an eye out for positive comments from followers responding to your Facebook posts. When you see a detailed review, ask the follower if you can use their feedback as a testimonial on your website or in promotional materials. They’ll likely be honored to be featured.
Other Actions That Provide Feedback on Facebook Pages
In lieu of formal reviews, there are a number of visible signals that provide insight into how your audience feels about your Facebook page:
Page Followers/Fans
The number of followers your page has, as well as your follower growth rate, offers a straightforward indicator of popularity. Gaining new followers means your content is resonating. Losing followers may signal it’s time for a refresh.
Post Reach
You can view how many people each of your posts reached, which shows whether your follower base is actively engaging. If your reach declines, it may mean followers are losing interest.
Post Reactions
The number of reactions (Likes, Loves, etc.) on your posts helps gauge how much fans enjoy the content. More reactions generally mean higher quality posts that connect with your audience.
Post Comments
The number and sentiment of comments on each post provides a qualitative signal of how followers feel about your messaging and brand. Lots of positive comments demonstrate you’re hitting the mark.
Post Shares
When followers share your content with their own networks, it’s a strong endorsement. Viral posts with high shares mean you’ve created something highly engaging.
Checked-in/Were Here
If you have a brick-and-mortar location, check-ins and were here interactions on your posts indicate foot traffic and local awareness. More check-ins mean more customers frequent your establishment.
Link Clicks
You can view how many followers clicked on any links you share in posts. Higher click-through rates mean greater interest in your content.
How to Ask for Reviews on Your Facebook Page
While Facebook pages don’t have a built-in review functionality, you can still request and collect reviews by:
- Occasionally running feedback surveys and sharing the link on your page.
- Enabling reviews on any Facebook events you host.
- Adding a request for reviews in your email newsletter. Provide an incentive.
- Driving followers to leave reviews on third party sites like Google or Yelp.
- Curating positive comments into testimonials to showcase.
- Monitoring follower growth, post reach, reactions, comments, shares, and check-ins.
- Analyzing click-through rates on links.
All of these tactics allow you to gather reviews and feedback from fans in lieu of a formal review functionality on Facebook pages themselves. Get creative in how you leverage available options to understand your audience’s feelings toward your brand.
Examples of Reviews for Facebook Pages
While Facebook pages don’t have reviews, here are examples of the types of reviews you could collect through surveys or testimonials:
For a Restaurant Page
Rosa’s Italian Restaurant has fantastic food and an amazing ambience. The pasta is cooked perfectly and the service is top-notch. I’ve never had a bad meal here after going for many years. Highly recommend as a great local spot!
For a Retail Store Page
I love Field’s Leather Goods store! They have a great selection of quality leather bags and belts. The staff is so helpful and they do custom monogramming on many items. I always get compliments when I carry one of their bags.
For a Nonprofit Page
Sunny Days Animal Shelter works tirelessly to care for stray and abandoned pets in our community. They go above and beyond to ensure every animal gets adopted into a forever home. I adopted my cat Mittens from them last year and couldn’t be happier.
Pros of Having Reviews for Facebook Pages
Here are some potential benefits if Facebook pages could have reviews:
- Provides social proof and credibility for brands.
- Gives potential followers transparent opinions to evaluate.
- Enables deeper customer feedback beyond likes and comments.
- Lets page owners identify strengths and weaknesses.
- Gives page owners clear areas for improvement.
- Helps build trust by being transparent.
- Provides a channel for handling customer complaints.
Overall, the ability to read verified reviews from other consumers carries significant weight in decision making. Reviews can give brands an advantage in attracting new followers.
Cons of Having Reviews for Facebook Pages
However, there are also some potential downsides if Facebook pages had reviews:
- Pages may attract false/defamatory reviews from trolls.
- Forces page managers to constantly monitor for negative feedback.
- May significantly increase moderator workload.
- Negative feedback is visible to all visitors.
- May distract from core business messaging.
- Makes it risky for smaller brands just starting out.
- Not as useful for causes or public figures.
For certain organizations like nonprofits or politicians, open reviews from the general public may not provide useful feedback. There are also moderation challenges in keeping reviews fair and relevant.
Conclusion
Facebook offers pages as a customizable public presence that allows brands to engage audiences through updates, events, messaging, and more. However, pages purposefully lack certain social features like reviews in order to focus the experience on broadcasting content rather than collecting personal critiques.
There are pros and cons to having open reviews on Facebook pages. While Facebook has decided not to include a formal review functionality, page owners can still gather customer feedback through surveys, testimonials, and monitoring engagement analytics. Carefully collected reviews can provide social proof and opportunities for improvement without the risks of unmoderated public critiques.
When used strategically, the interactive tools Facebook does provide on pages facilitate plenty of observable signals into follower satisfaction. Savvy page owners will learn to leverage available options to understand user sentiment without an explicit review feature.