Social Media Reviews: Everything You Need to Know (Complete Guide)
Do you know that 90% of consumers read social media reviews before purchasing a product?
In 2022, social media is irreplaceable, and users are more empowered than ever. Almost every trending topic is discussed on social media today. Online reviews are no different than that.
So as brands, we should be more focused on social platforms and how it’s evolving to stay updated in the competition. Multiple review sites with millions of reviews provide valid data to evaluate the products and services.
Moreover, you can get insights into the company’s reputation and decide whether to buy from that brand. So the unlimited number of social networking sites rising, we can easily get authentic feedback about anything we want to buy.
However, some businesses are still skeptical about how social media reviews can improve brand reputation and boost sales. To know more, keep reading.
Ready?
What are social media reviews?
Before making a purchase decision, humans go through a lot of steps. From buying a cell phone to watching a series, most of us depend on our social networks, recommendations, and advice for making the right decision.
With the internet, the network gets way bigger, and we no longer are only connected with our peers. Moreover, a Google search tells us exactly what billions of opinions on a particular topic are. And these ratings and reviews have a solid impact on the potential consumers to outrank the competitors.
Social reviews can come in various forms; stars, ratings, testimonials, recommendations, custom reviews, and even photos, tags, texts, and blocks. Also, different social platforms have different evaluation patterns. For instance, based on the user’s response, Facebook and YouTube recommend the business to other potential consumers.
So social media reviews are product or service evaluations typically based on the user experience posted or shared on the social platforms.
These reviews are not directly posted on the brand website; however, with the help of the right tool, you can easily embed and showcase recommendations and ratings on your website.
Reasons why social media reviews are important?
According to Google,
- Facebook has 2.93 billion active users worldwide
- YouTube has 2.6 billion
- Twitter has 217 million
So with these numbers, it is evident that social media has become too big to ignore. Being active on social platforms gives you a big exposure to get the advantage of bigger audiences.
Brands that display social media reviews on their websites can increase conversion rates by up to 270%.
Popular social sites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yelp, Booking.com, and Airbnb get plenty of user reviews daily. And consumers postmortem these social reviews without thinking even once and, based on that, jump to a decision.
Let’s look at how online reviews can help increase your user engagement and promote the business.
People trust social media reviews
As brands, it’s our continuous effort to get liked and trusted by the customers because your users are looking for authenticity. They are doing business with a person, not a company. And social media is the safest place for your consumers to know about you.
That is one of the most important reasons people trust social media reviews. For example, brands get so many comments on Facebook, and they don’t even know them personally. However, these people are trusted because anyone can see the account and decide whether it’s a genuine ID or not!
Online reviews help evaluate products
Remember the time you wanted to buy a coffeemaker? What helped you make a buying decision? Plenty of user-generated reviews from real-life experiences.
It doesn’t take much to see the social reviews’ worth. While online shopping there’s no chance to try the product before buying. Moreover, you can’t even see and touch the product except by reading user reviews.
That is when you need to read reviews. It helps to decide about the quality of the product and a real sense of what to expect from this product.
Reviews help you make a decision
Do you know eight out of ten millennials never make any purchase decision without reading social media reviews.
Well, this is just about the most active millennials on social platforms. However, different generations of social media users are not far behind. Approximately 77% of people check social reviews prior to shopping.
Today businesses without social proof, reviews, and ratings are quite doubtful. It clearly doesn’t stand where your competitors are gaining customer trust and thriving towards their goals.
Social media reviews boost SEO
We all know how the search engine works. While your customers leave social media reviews, they unknowingly use a lot of potential keywords. And these keywords help others to find the business and rank higher in search results.
For instance, a famous Chinese restaurant with hundreds of reviews increases the chances of being on top of the search bar. As a result, anyone looking for a restaurant would want to go to that particular Chinese food shop.
Negative reviews are impactful
The best way to deal with negative reviews is don’t ignore them. When you get bad reviews, that is not the end of the world, most brands have gone through this, and the impact of negative reviews can be quite useful. Moreover, a business with only five-star reviews seems a bit doubtful.
But how do they turn the table? Well, respond to each of them, take immediate action, resolve the issue, and let your users know their voice matters the most! And when brands do that, consumers feel appreciated and build a relationship.
Grow your brand presence online
Do you know about 90% of startups fail? Whether you run SME or a giant venture, you need to focus on your brand authority on social platforms. Billions of websites compete to stay in the competition, and it’s getting difficult for your brand to reach out to your potential customers.
When brands adapt different social media marketing strategies, your social media reviews could help you build a brand reputation. Your social followers can see the difference between you and your contemporaries.
How to find social media reviews sites
We already know about plenty of review sites. According to statistics, 73% of users only pay attention to reviews written in the last month, and 50% of them only read reviews posted in the last two weeks.
So your business needs real-time updated social media reviews. So if you’re running a website, it’s important that you check all reviews manually and display the most recent ones. Imagine keeping track of Google, Facebook, Yelp, Airbnb, Booking.com, and all other social review platforms to check your latest reviews.
Is that even practically possible? Well, we suggest you get WP Social Ninja, your all-in-one social review solution. That will not only embed reviews from 10+ social sites but also update them in real-time. Moreover, you can also turn off the auto-syncing and do it even manually!
How to ask for social media reviews
Once you set up top-notch social handles, the next step is you need social reviews and ratings. However, you can’t force your customers and send reviews request whenever they walk into your site. There’s other smart ways to get reviews.
You can send review requests via email. So it’s easy for them to reach out to you, and they can post a review just by clicking on the send a button.
Next, you can add CTA and link to the social sites. So your customers can just click on the link and directly visit the website to leave feedback.
Lastly, brands can add a notification popup. Embedding popups to your website can encourage your customers to share their experiences and give ratings based on their experiences.
Social media reviews: A case study
Social media reviews can totally make or break your brand. The way you interact with your customers says a lot about your brand. It improves your reputation and builds a bond between you and your customer.
If you have a social media presence, it allows you to respond immediately to any customer queries. Big labels have separate social handles, and they offer a comfortable platform for the users to reach out to them.
One of the leading streaming services, Spotify, has some excellent social media reviews examples. This company has top-notch customer care. Along with its main social handle, Spotify has a particular Twitter account to update about its current status.
With these accounts, followers are asking for assistance and giving reviews for overall improvements.
Last words
No matter how good the product is, your potential customers are researching whether to go with you or not. It might scare you to see how many people are talking about you online.
However, not everything they read is shared by you. Some are word of mouth marketing by your existing consumers. And the best part is that business with reviews and recommendations instantly creates trust and authenticity.
Moreover, users’ positive reviews of the products and services have an impact on the new customers. They can easily get convinced that it’s a genuine business with real reviews. So clearly a business without reviews and testimonials doesn’t even stand out and is a big no for the customers.
However, to exhibit social media reviews, your business needs social media handles. Unless you run legit social channels, customers can’t keep faith in you and will more likely move to one of your competitors with better social authority.
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