Did you know that Facebook has launched its own Professional Services platform, an online directory like Yelp that helps people look up and rate businesses and services in their local area?
However, unlike the anonymous reviews on Yelp, Facebook’s Professional Services aims to increase trust in businesses by showing people reviews from their friends. These reviews should then give people extra reassurance when searching for local businesses.
How does Professional Services work?
Professional Services works like any other search engine. People type keywords (words related to what they’re looking for like “café” or “plumber”) into the search box on Facebook and are shown results in their local area. There’s also an opportunity to look for results anywhere, not just locally, so if you sell products online, or are willing to travel to provide services to your customers, then this could be of benefit to you too.
People then have the option to look through the highest rated local business categories. There are over 80 categories for people to search through, including event planning, automotive, and spa, beauty & personal care.
The results show people your business details, including a short description, contact details and the all-important ratings.
So, for example, if someone is looking for an electrician in Manchester, the search results would show a list of local electricians. The results would be ranked with the highest rated business at the top, and include details to contact the business straight away.
While getting high ratings will hugely benefit your business, it’s important to remember that there are other factors that Facebook could take into consideration when working out where to rank you. Here are some tips on what you should include to help boost your Facebook ranking:
Remember to always take a well-rounded approach when it comes to your online reputation, as every additional positive thing you do online will help Facebook (and other sites such as Google) understand your value to its customers, and therefore rank you higher in the results.
Getting your business on Facebook Professional Services
First you’ll have to set up a Facebook page for your local business, which can be done in these simple steps:
Once you’ve set up your local business Facebook page, there are several things you can do to help ensure you appear in the search results. Try sharing regular updates (or posts) on your page to keep your existing Facebook fans interested. You can also encourage them to share feedback about your business: research shows that this feedback can have a very positive influence on business as 63% of customers are more likely to purchase from a site that features customer reviews. Respond to all of their reviews, positive or negative (you can find out more about how to manage reviews in this article) and offer useful answers to any questions they ask.
Talking to your ideal customers like this will increase your chance of being included in Facebook Professional Services when people search for businesses like yours, as Facebook will consider your page to be a great source of information with good customer service.
To read more about using Facebook effectively, read our dedicated guide.
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