STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Bogus online reviews have become a plague to the reputation of many business owners. Relevant Public Relations has found that it’s commonplace for top-notch restaurateurs and other responsible entrepreneurs to face potential damage from online assaults penned by disgruntled former employees, mean-spirited individuals or unscrupulous competitors.

Even a good review may be harmful if created with ill intentions or without thought to a particular website’s online rating process.

Facebook, for example, allows online visitors to post a “star” rating that ranges from one to five. As a result, a four-star assessment may seem like a fair – and even highly rated – judgment by a customer. On the surface, four stars seems like a good review but, in fact, it could diminish a business’s overall rating of a five-star company on the website. The fewer the number of reviews, the greater the damage.

This is a concern for long-established enterprises, as well as small businesses just beginning to experience the power of reviews, good or bad.

If the number of reviews hasn’t yet blossomed, bogus four-star reviews mixed among a small handful of legitimate five-star accolades may make a business seem less desirable than a less-worthy competitor.

According to Facebook, “You can report reviews that don’t follow the Facebook Community Standards or focus on the product or service offered by the Page.”

Facebook says it will review your report and “may” remove reviews that don’t follow its guidelines.

There is a faster, and perhaps more effective solution to dealing with reviews, including those posted by people who have never done business with you: Don’t allow anyone to post reviews on your business page.

Before proceeding with this course of action, however, decide how important Facebook reviews are to your business. If you decide your enterprise is better off without the rating system, follow these steps to remove the Reviews button and section:

1) Click “About”

2) Scroll the “Page Info” items until you reach “Address”

3) Click “Edit” on the right side of the “Address” line

4) Under the map, uncheck the box that states “Show map, check-ins and star ratings on the Page”

5) Click “Save Changes”

The review process can be reinstated on your Facebook page at any time if you decide you want it back.

About Relevant Public Relations LLC

Relevant Public Relations LLC (Relevant PR), “Where Success is Written®,” is a New York City-based multimedia public relations and marketing company with local, national and global reach. The firm’s founder and president, Barton Horowitz, is a Small Business Administration (SBA) Champion of the Year Award winner and recipient of a 2013 Louis R. Miller Business Leadership Award, co-sponsored by the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce and the Staten Island Advance newspaper.

Economically headquartered in the New York City borough of Staten Island, Relevant Public Relations is “America’s Journalist-Empowered PR & Marketing firm®,” leading businesses, professional practices and organizations to greater heights by cost-effectively integrating all marketing and PR strategies into a single, efficiently run operation.

Relevant Public Relation’s custom-designed branding methods succeed because of an innovative recipe of press releases; traditional, digital and broadcast-news distribution; social-media management; website and blog content; e-mail marketing; commercial copywriting, and more.

Whether your enterprise requires a single press release, a multimedia campaign or the information for a company brochure or website professionally written, edited or updated, Relevant Public Relations is the right choice.

Relevant Public Relations is available online at www.RelevantPR.com, and may be reached at 718-682-1509 or via email: [email protected].