Facebook’s roll-out of Graph Search has made it easier for people to search for businesses their friends like and in turn get a quick overview of how satisfied that business’ customers are. For example, you might search “Dentists my friends like” and the results will list the Pages of dentists that your friends have liked as well as an average star rating each Page has been given.
As Facebook becomes more mobile friendly and increasingly centered on local businesses, your prospective patients are more likely to use Facebook to search for practices that their friends recommend. Here’s how to make sure this feature is activated on your Facebook Page and take advantage of free word-of-mouth advertising:
Check your Page connection to a physical location.
Each Facebook Business Page should connect to a physical address. Go to the admin panel of your Facebook Page and check to make sure your address is correct and is properly displayed on the map. When patients visit your practice, you want to make sure they can easily find your Facebook Page when attempting to check-in on their mobile device.
Search for duplicate Pages.
Your practice may have a duplicate Place Page in addition to your official Page. Place Pages are created any time someone checks in to a business and manually creates an incorrect listing (usually because they can’t find the “real” Page easily) or when Facebook imports third party map data. You will want to claim this listing and then merge it with your official Page.
Make sure someone has checked-in to your practice.
The recommendation box will automatically appear on your Facebook Business Page when your address has been added and at least one person has checked-in there. This tells Facebook that your Page is connected to a physical location. If your recommendation box isn’t showing up on your Page, simply double-check that your address information is correct and then check-in yourself by using a Facebook connected smartphone.
Drive recommendations to your Page.
Don’t let your recommendations box sit idle. Use office signage, verbal reminders, small printed cards or flyers to encourage patients to check-in and leave you a recommendation on Facebook. Never be afraid to ask for a review. Many people only think of reviewing a business when they are dissatisfied. Actively seeking out positive reviews can help build your Facebook reputation. Additionally, each Fan of your Page has an average of 300 friends…think about each of those friends seeing a positive recommendation of your practice in their Newsfeed the next time they log in to Facebook.
Feature exceptional reviews.
Copy and paste your favorite reviews into a Page post. When someone posts a recommendation, only those visiting your Page directly and the friends of the poster will ever see that review. Make sure that the fans of your Page also see that people are talking about you by re-posting the recommendation on your Page. This will give your fans an opportunity to see this review on their newsfeed.
Find out how Smile Savvy can help you manage your Facebook Page by visiting our website and checking out our social media packages!
