Want to buy Facebook reviews? It’s illegal and your business can get fined and banned – so check out this guide on getting them for FREE instead.
If you’re trying to build a positive reputation from scratch or trying to bury negative reviews, you may want to buy Facebook reviews for your business’ page. Sure, it’s appealing: low-risk and high-reward, right?
Those risks may not be as low as you thought. In this guide, we’re talking all about buying Facebook reviews: how you can do it, why it might not be such a great idea, how you can get them for FREE, and how to handle or remove negative reviews from your business’ page.
Here’s a breakdown of it all so you know what to expect:
So, You Want to Buy Facebook Reviews
- Can you buy Facebook reviews or recommendations?
- Where to buy Facebook reviews or recommendations
- How buying Facebook reviews can cause more harm than good
- Can Facebook detect fake reviews?
- How to get FREE Facebook reviews or recommendations
Handling Negative Facebook Reviews
So, You Want to Buy Facebook Reviews
Thinking about buying Facebook reviews? We get it – you just want your business to shine online. And, this seems like a pretty easy way to make that happen, right?
Perhaps it’s not that simple. We’re going to tell you everything you need to know about that reputation you crave: where you can buy Facebook reviews (if you really, really want to), why you shouldn’t buy them, and how you can get them for free instead.
Can you buy Facebook reviews or recommendations?
Yes – but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. If you’re based in the U.S. or the UK, it’s illegal and you could face serious consequences like tens of thousands of dollars in fines from the U.S.’s Federal Trade Commission the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Facebook can also place your business’ page in something known as “Facebook Jail,” which deactivates certain features – as few or as many as they want. If you buy Facebook reviews, you risk being banned and losing your business’ page altogether.
Furthermore, when you buy Facebook reviews, you actually cheapen the experience customers have with your business. That’s because the reviews online do not actually reflect you, your employees or your products. They are made up and can give customers unrealistic expectations, which later turn into dissatisfied customers who – ironically – leave negative reviews.
Where to buy Facebook reviews or recommendations
There are many platforms out there for buying Facebook reviews like boostfollower.com and bestsocialplan.com. You may also be able to find freelancers on platforms like Upwork or Fiverr to buy reviews from. Easy-peasy, right?
Unfortunately, there is a catch. Most of those selling Facebook reviews are based in China or India, so the content is often delivered by a non-native speaker and doesn’t quite make sense. If you take a look at the boostfollower.com, just by reading headlines and other information on the website, the wording sounds off:
Here’s the problem: When you suddenly receive hundreds of positive recommendations containing unnatural-sounding language, it alerts Facebook and consumers that you’ve bought those reviews. That causes a loss of trust between your business and customers, which results in a loss of business.
How buying Facebook reviews can cause more harm than good
Have you ever thought about why more businesses don’t buy Facebook reviews? It’s because – more often than not – purchased reviews are harmful to business.
Here are four reasons buying Facebook reviews can cause more harm than good:
- If you buy Facebook reviews, your business could be banned. Facebook has been known to throw those who violate their community standards into something known as “Facebook Jail.” If you buy Facebook reviews and you’re caught, you could be stuck there indefinitely, which means your business would no longer be permitted to have a business page.
- Too many raving Facebook recommendations can hurt your business. While it seems backwards, it’s true. Too many overly-positive recommendations posted in the same timeframe, as they usually are when you buy Facebook reviews, seems suspicious to potential customers.
- Buying Facebook reviews can cause you to lose trust (and customers). If customers find out you’ve been buying Facebook reviews, you’ve lost their trust, and that’s no easy thing to win back.
- Why pay for something you can get for FREE? Facebook reviews are free to get, so why spend your hard-earned money on tactics that don’t work? Don’t buy Facebook reviews – put a strategy in place to help you get more for free.
Can Facebook detect fake reviews?
Facebook has just recently begun to crack down on fake reviews, most popularly by placing business pages into “Facebook Jail.” This is how Facebook punishes accounts that break its rules: they deactivate some or all features for these users, meaning you can either be blocked for a few hours, a few days, or for good because of fraudulent review activity.
Facebook has even been filing lawsuits against companies that buy or sell likes or followers. It’s only a matter of time before they begin doing the same regarding fake reviews.
How to get FREE Facebook reviews or recommendations
You can get real Facebook reviews at everyone’s favorite price if you have a strategy for asking in place.
Here are some of our top tips for getting FREE Facebook reviews or recommendations:
- Include a link to your “Reviews” or “Recommendations” page in your email signature. Be sure to add something like, “Recommend us on Facebook!” as a call-to-action, inviting customers to voice their thoughts.
- Have a framed sign in your physical business. Create a sign that says something similar to, “Like and Review Us on Facebook!” with your business’ handle by your register as a way of inviting customers to provide feedback.
- Respond to the reviews and recommendations you get. Review responses show customers you’re engaged and actually encourages more of them to leave reviews.
- Create Facebook posts asking for reviews every once in a while. Remember – incentivizing customers with free products or discount codes is considered buying them. Simply ask, and you may be surprised to see who shows up for your business!
- Send personalized emails asking for customer feedback. Nothing makes a customer feel more heard than when you ask one-on-one for their input.
Essentially, you need a game plan for getting more positive reviews and recommendations. You don’t need to resort to the illegal practice buying Facebook reviews if you have an effective strategy in place that gets you the very thing you crave for free.
It’s all well and good to hear that you need a strategy, but we think it’s even better to give you a step-by-step guide so you aren’t left scratching your head, wondering what that could be.
Here are five steps you can follow to effectively get more positive Facebook reviews for FREE:
1. Pre-screen your customers
Pre-screening is the process of asking for customer feedback before sending them online to provide a review. This is so important because you should only send your happiest customers to recommend you on Facebook. If a customer has negative feedback, that’s sent internally so you can use it to improve processes and policies.
2. Follow up with customers who don’t respond the first time
It’s common for business owners to feel like they’re being pushy by asking for a review more than once, but in reality, customers receive dozens of emails and text messages every day. It’s very likely they intended to leave a review and simply became distracted. You can double the number of Facebook reviews you get by simply sending a reminder to those who did not provide feedback initially.
3. Send review requests at least weekly
Send out those pre-screening emails at least once a week so your customers are asked when their experiences with your business is still fresh in their minds. Depending on how many orders you receive, you may want to consider sending these out daily.
4. Automate the process
If this is starting to sound like a lot of work, take a deep breath – all of these steps can be automated so you know Facebook review requests are going out regularly.
5. Sign up for our FREE trial
Our free trial provides a simple way for you to automate the review-asking process for you, and the review-giving process for your customers. You have the ability to easily upload customer information, customize emails, send follow-ups, and so much more.
Learn more about how the process works by watching this video:
Handling Negative Facebook Reviews
A bad overall rating could make you want to buy Facebook reviews to turn things around, but that’s not the most effective way to handle things. Let us teach you how to report reviews that violate the community guidelines and respond to negative Facebook reviews that make your business look like a customer service superstar.
How to report and remove Facebook reviews
As the owner of a Facebook business page, you can’t remove a review from it. However, you can report a review for removal if it violates one of Facebook’s Community Standards:
- It contains information that is not relevant to your business.
- It is an unfair review or recommendation that came from a competitor or former employee.
- It’s harassment.
- It’s spam.
- It contains any content related to violence, nudity, hate speech, drugs, self-injury or suicide
If you notice one that fits any of the above criteria, here’s how to remove Facebook reviews:
- Go to your business’ page.
- Select “Reviews” or “Recommendations” from the left-hand sidebar:
3. Locate the review you want to report.
4. Click on the exclamation point icon on the right side of the review:
5. Select the reason you want to report the review:
6. Click “Send.”
Facebook will check your report and remove the review on your behalf if they determine it violates their Community Standards.
How to respond to negative Facebook reviews
Perhaps a poor business decision or ineffective customer service representative got you a bit of bad publicity. Whatever the case, it’s time to learn how to effectively respond to negative Facebook reviews – and that begins by looking at them as opportunities rather than problems.
No one wants negative Facebook reviews, but they happen. They’re from real customers who feel unheard or dissatisfied, and while it might hurt, they’re giving you honest feedback you can use to improve your business.
Here’s how to respond to Facebook reviews from dissatisfied customers:
- Say thanks. Even though it might sting, your customer provided honest feedback that will help you improve your business if you let it.
- Sympathize. Apologize to your customer for the wait, the service – whatever it is that they were dissatisfied with. The majority of the time, an apology will make customers feel heard and diffuse the situation.
- Try to make it right. Is there something you can offer to repair the relationship? A discount, refund, or something else?
- Take it offline. The last thing you want is a commenting war between your business and a dissatisfied customer on Facebook. Tell them to privately message, call or email you to claim the offer you made, and provide them with the necessary information to do so.
There are over 2,000,000 new reviews posted every day on Facebook. Managing them is an overwhelming task with a lot of manual labor and time wasted. Our Facebook review tool is the solution to connect you with the most trusted and reliable reviewers in your field who will work on your behalf to manage the reviews that matter most.
Save time and money with our Facebook Review management software to help you get more reviews for your business. Our expert team will help you get them and grow your reach.
