Today, a company’s reputation is largely shaped by social media in the form of user-generated content, such as online reviews. With its enormous reach surpassing 2 billion users, Facebook has become an essential digital marketing resource for businesses of all sizes. Unsurprisingly, ratings and reviews on the world’s favorite social network are among the most visible of all. As such, it’s imperative that you know what people are saying about your business on Facebook and take steps to respond to or remove negative reviews.
While only Facebook ultimately has the right to control what stays on the website, there are steps you can take to mitigate the damage caused by any negative reviews. Additionally, if any review breaks the rules laid out by the Facebook community standards, then you should be able to remove it entirely by taking the following steps:
- Click on the downward-pointing arrow to the top-right of the review
- Click ‘Report post’
- Explain why you are reporting the post
Facebook will manually assess the review before deciding whether to remove it. However, if they decide to keep it, you still have two other alternatives. Even if a review is clearly fake, for example, you should still respond to it and provide evidence to support your argument. Responding to reviews is usually the most effective way to mitigate any damage in the longer term since other potential and existing customers will appreciate that you took the time to respond.
As a last resort, you can also remove reviews from your Facebook page entirely, but this will remove any good ratings and reviews as well. To remove the reviews section of your page, follow these steps:
- Navigate to Settings -> Edit Page
- Scroll down to Reviews
- Click Settings
- Toggle the show reviews button to Off
- Click Save
Remember that Facebook will continue to store all reviews, even if they are hidden from your page. Your original rating, along with all your reviews, will reappear if ever you re-enable the above option.
Reputation Resolutions works extensively with social media platforms and search engines to remove Facebook reviews and mitigate damage caused by negative feedback.