Positive customer reviews build the credibility of your business. They can also influence current and prospective customers’ behavior. According to an April 2013 study by Dimensional Research, 90% of the participants who remembered seeing positive online reviews claimed that the reviews impacted their buying decisions.[i]
Once you have positive customer testimonial be sure to share it. A great place to start is on social media, which can prove to be an invaluable and cost-effective tool for businesses of all size.
Turn Your Best Reviews into Graphics
Sharing highlights from your best customer testimonials via a quote formatted into an image is a great way to add variety to a feed and a more powerful way to deliver information than a text-only post.
Costly programs like Photoshop and a degree in graphic design are not necessary to showcase your best reviews in graphics. Websites and apps like Canva make graphic design easy with images, filters, fonts and more.
Keep in mind, different social media platforms have different size requirements to prevent images from looking fuzzy or being cut off in feeds. Use a sizing guide to make sure your reviews appear to users as you intended.
Share your customer reviews as individual posts or as part of your header photo.
Record Short Videos of Customer Experiences
Today viral videos are easily shot on cell phones and directed by users of any experience levels. Add this to the fact that visual information is processed quicker than text and studies show video grabs attention for longer than text, there is no excuse not to incorporate video into your marketing plan. Sharing customer testimonials via video can also add a sense of authenticity that may be missing with a simple quote, especially on platforms that stress real-time content like Snapchat and Facebook Live.
Just remember to keep the video brief for easy adaptation across multiple platforms and for optimal impact.
Enable Customer Reviews on Your Facebook Page
In the Dimensional Research study, participants reported that the most common place to read positive customers reviews was Facebook.
Similar to Yelp and Google Business Listings, Facebook Pages (note: not profile pages) allow for customers to rate Businesses on a scale from 1 Star (Poor) to 5 Stars (Excellent). While commentary is not required to accompany the star rating, it is available. When searching on Facebook, the average star-rating appears as a numerical value and as a visual. Beside the average star-ratings is the total number of reviews given, in parenthesis.
Having a high rating may make the difference between a customer selecting the Facebook Page of your business and that of a competitor in search results.
Facebook Business offers these instructions[ii] for enabling Facebook Reviews on your Business Page.
Check out our other posts about Social Media.
Author Bio:
Anna D’Alessandro is a Colgate University alum based in the Greater New York City area. Seeing a need for more marketing professionals to offer social media, content creation, marketing, and public relations services within a small business budget, Anna founded Anna D’Alessandro Consulting in 2017.
[i] https://d16cvnquvjw7pr.cloudfront.net/resources/whitepapers/Zendesk_WP_Customer_Service_and_Business_Results.pdf
[ii] https://www.facebook.com/business/help/943402562439928
