As soon as you add in a valid address for your school’s Facebook page, the option for Reviews opens up. It can be great, but then again, it can be scary! So, what rights do you have as the administrator of your page? Perhaps some of these questions resonate with you.

Q: Can I delete a rating or review?

A: No, but you can report reviews that don’t follow Facebook’s guidelines. The review must be based on your specific product or service and be based on personal experience. Reviews that don’t follow these guidelines may be removed.

You can also remove your address from the about section of your Facebook page. That will remove all reviews from your school – both the great and the not-so-great.

Q: How do I report a review?

A: You must go to the review and click the arrow in the upper right-hand corner. You’ll only be able to report star ratings that include a written review.

First, you will be asked what you don’t like about this review. It either has nothing to do with your page or you think it shouldn’t be on Facebook.

Then you’ll continue answering prompts until you can submit the complaint to Facebook, block the person from your page, or just hide their posts going forward from your page.

Q: How important are reviews for my school?

A: Of course we all want our schools to be rated a 5 out of 5 stars! We want glowing words written about our teachers, our facilities, and every aspect of our district.

Social media does open you up a bit and that can scare schools, but it’s OK. Having a variety of ratings is normal.

If you have a rating of a 1 out of 5, often if it is accompanied by a written review. The grammar, word selection, and overall tone of the paragraph will speak for itself. People on Facebook were not born yesterday. They realize that some disgruntled student or parent can take to Facebook for a rant or two.

“This school is gross., The school is Biased and sexist… The policies of the school are a bunch of bulls***, and the school pours their funds into things they don’t need, and I am not the only one that thinks this way. Do not go to this school.”

How much weight would you put into this review if you were a parent? I hope not much!

Q: What can I do to help my rating?

A: If you are worried about a negative review, simply ask some of your core supporters of the district to help provide positive ratings. And don’t just give a number; you need to provide a sentence or two of why you gave the 5-star rating.

“The program, the teachers, and the choices of this school are one-of-a-kind and fantastic! So blessed to have such huge opportunities in a small area.”

Teachers can review the school too!

“The only place I have ever wanted to teach. Go Big Blue!!”

Celebrating your students

The bottom line is that social media is a great place to celebrate your amazing students and staff. Keep sharing those wonderful photos, videos, reminders and events! After more than 10,000 social media posts, we have found that 99.9% of the time the feedback is over-the-top positive.

Have you ever received a negative review? I’d love to hear about it. Do you have an outstanding positive review? I’m putting together another blog just to share great and poor examples (with no reference to what school they are from). E-mail those to me at andrea@socialschool4edu.com.