I have found a number of recent articles that I think are worth your time reading.

5 Tips To Get More Online Customer Reviews by Andrew Shotland. Andrew offers some great advice on how to get customers to review your business.

Harnessing The Power Of Online Customer Reviews For Local Business Growth by Myles Anderson
“But when it comes to customers’ opinions and the public sharing of those opinions with a huge online audience, there is little businesses can do – except make damn sure their service is as good as it can be and to engage with their customers more than ever before.” “About 49% of local consumers are more likely to use a local business having read a positive online review.”

6 Steps to Building Buzz for your Small Business
“Take an hour or two and claim and optimize the pages that will be most important to your customers and then ask your customers to post reviews about their experience with your business. This can be done by adding links to these sites on your website and putting up signage in your business. Not every review will be stellar but that is ok – take the negative reviews as an opportunity to grow your customer service skills or enhance your product offering”

Nuking Local Competitors A Dirty, Rotten Trick byMiriam Ellis
Miriam talks about the new feature about stating a business is closed on Google. (Something to keep an eye on)

 

When I filled out my paperwork, one question was “how did you find us?” and one of the answers was “search engine” with a space to fill in the name of the search engine.  Now this question is totally ineffective. When I have asked folks how they found me online, they rarely can remember the terms they used, let along the search engine. LOL Do not get me wrong, I was excited to see they actually thought enough to ask it.

The other area where they really missed it was, in customer satisfaction survey or review. I found myself sitting in their lobby for some time, with nothing to do but watch cable.  Why not have a computer there and actively ask folks to sit down and review them online?! I had the time, was happy with the work and how they handled my car, setting up rental car, etc. I was a captive audience with nothing but some time on my hands.

When I got my keys back and thanked them for their work, the rep did not ask me if I was satisfied or not with their work, did not do any follow up survey with me, nothing. Again another missed opportunity.

Local customer reviews (especially for service type business) are key these days. Reviews at Google, Yelp, etc. will pay dividends for your business. Be proactive, ask folks to provide a review if they were satisfied, if not see how you can improve them. Ask them to put the review online, provide links to your Facebook, Yelp pages on your site or paperwork. You can’t make customers write reviews, but I have no problem encouraging or reminding them.

As a side note: I have never seen or looked for the company’s website, I have no idea what sort of reviews they have online, not even sure they are on Facebook. Did a write a review for them online? No, why? I just forgot about it.

So does business do anything to help encourage online reviews?

 

I have been following a number of them and thought I would share them with you. There are probably more out there, if so let me know.

TMP

Borrell Associates

CMLS Conference

MIMA Summit  You can also get a recap at Aaron Weiche’s site Five Technology

BIAKelsey DMS2010  -this is over and Twitter is having some trouble with older posts.

In general though, you can get a lot from following conferences on Twitter, when you can’t make it. Simply follow the appropriate hasttag and you are good to go.

 

Q. So Tim, lets start with the basics, what is YouGottaCall?

A. YouGottaCall.com is a free, web-based word-of-mouth referral service that benefits consumers, the local businesses they trust and the community. Our unique process has pending patent protection.

Q. When and why develop the site?

A. We incorporated in 2007 and launched in 2008.  I started YouGottaCall.com because I saw the potential for consumers and local, trusted businesses to use social media as a superior form of advertising. At the time other web sites were not addressing the $100B annual local advertising market with a social media solution that harnessed the powerful factor of consumers’ trusted, real-world relationships.

Q. So do you provide a similar service to Angie’s List?

A. We are aiming for the same goal – to connect consumers with trustworthy businesses. But our means of achieving this are as opposite as can be.  YouGottaCall.com is more similar to other word-of-mouth social networks like GigPark and LikeList. But we are unique in our voluntary intrinsic monetization and our cause affiliation.

Here’s how we stack up with Angie’s List -
Fees:
Angie’s  List collects fees from consumers. This is their primary revenue source.
YouGottaCall.com is free to join and free to use for consumers and businesses.

Trusted relationships:
Angie’s List features written testimonials about the businesses. But the testimonials are written by strangers.

The starting point for YouGottaCall is our members’ trusted relationships. Recommendations are filtered by the members’ social connections so they personally know the people recommending the business. Because we are integrated with Facebook our members can log-in using their Facebook ID. We plan to expand the integration with Facebook to achieve more referral and search utilization within Facebook.

Effectiveness:
Angie’ s List does not guarantee consumer satisfaction for the subscription fee. In our model consumers are not charged a fee. Our revenue comes from our business members who select the amount they want to pay. For businesses, this is performance based. They choose whether they want to pay for either ‘referrals’ or for ‘new sales’.

Cause related:
YouGottaCall.com enables members to select a not-for-profit organization their referrals will benefit. Eighty percent of all fees go to these charities.

Q.  You are currently only in Connecticut. Are there plans to expand to other market areas?

A. Connecticut is our first market and is where we are proving our concept. Our 200 “Trusted Service Providers” and 400 members are distributed across Connecticut. We plan to scale to other metro areas.

Q. Do business add themselves or do the consumers?

A. Consumers can add themselves and their trusted businesses. Also, business members can invite and connect with consumers who give them referrals (customers, neighbors, associates, etc.).  YouGottaCall.com business members also get a free, powerful, CRM tool box to manage communications with connected members, and stay in touch via promotions and email updates.

Q.  Can you provide an example listing?

A. Here is a popular business that provides home and office PC support. They epitomize ‘word-of-mouth’ with strong business networking and loyal customers. http://bit.ly/YGCWeCare We Care has leveraged their YouGottaCall membership by incorporating it into their social marketing mix.

Q. Looking over the site, I see that a business can claim a listing…

A. Yes – businesses can claim their listing or request that a listing be created. No charge.

Q.  Are your pages/listings, search engine friendly? Do they get indexed by Google, Yahoo, etc?

A. Confession: I initially requested that our developers not optimize our site for search. That’s when I was convinced the viral nature of our community would create overnight, meteoric growth. Now we are planning to optimize. One way will be by adding pages displaying results for commonly searched for terms (ex. ‘plumber’).

Q.  How are businesses added to network? Do you use a service such as Localeze to populate your database?

A. Each member or business owner can request to add a business listing. We add them and notify the owners of their new, free referral page. That is how we reached our 200 active “Trusted Service Provider” accounts. Our 4,000 business listings were acquired locally. As we expand into other markets we will initiate a relationship with a national service.

Q. What sort of traffic and interest are you getting?

A. Traffic is light with unique visitors in the hundreds each month. The metric we most closely watch is utilization – member referrals and invitations. As a social community, growth in utilization will drive traffic. The small size of our network presents a utilization challenge as networks become exponentially more effective as they grow numerically. (http://yougottacall.blogspot.com/2008/10/its-law.html)

Another challenge to building traffic is related to the frequency with which people share word-of-mouth referrals. The average member gives/gets 6.5 referrals annually. This low frequency creates an infrequent need for using the site, and consequently an unfamiliarity with it.

Contrast this with Facebook whose users go there several times per day, creating strong familiarity and increased utility. This is why we are exploring deeper integration with Facebook – to remain “front-of-mind”. Network size will grow toward a critical mass where we experience cross-pollination and self-perpetuating buzz.

Q. How do you feel a service like this would do in smaller towns or larger cities?

A. YouGottaCall’s model will do well in any area, large or small, that can support 2,000 users. This is our estimate for the number of members for achieving a sustainable buzz that leads to cross-pollination. Our strategy for approaching not-for-profits may be effective for uncovering veins of loyal and motivated members who want their valuable referrals to benefit their charity.

Q. Final question, and one I like to ask at all of my interviews, where do you see local search moving in the future?

A. Good search mimics natural behavior. And the ultimate natural behavior is ‘word-of-mouth’. Mobile-powered social technology will soon make search more seamless with the natural way we find information. This will rapidly obsolete traditional advertising as well as algorithmic search.

The Web revolution is based on better ways for people to connect, find information and benefit the community. YouGottaCall’s model occupies intellectual property at the intersection of these trends.

Thanks again Tim for your time. For those in Connecticut go take a look at YouGottaCall.com. Good luck Tim and let us know how things go.

 

Q. What is schmap.me?
A. Schmap.me is a simple way to share map links using a meaningful, memorable, custom url.  For locations that you share frequently this can be a much more effective way of communicating location than sending a cumbersome google map link. For example, you can see the schmap.me url for Donald McMillian, VP of marketing. It includes additional information related to the location, such as phone numbers, directions, and photos – schmap.me/donald.mcmillan

Coincidentally, venture capitalist Fred Wilson recently commented on exactly this issue on his blog – http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/06/linking-to-google-maps.html (we’ll have to get him a schmap for Union Square Ventures)

Q. I see you have a limited number of preloaded cities on your publish or widget programs. Will those cities listed be expanded at any time?  What if someone like myself wants to publish or schmap about something not in one of those cities?
A. We do plan to expand those cities for which we offer browse-able guides, but do not have a release schedule at this time.  However, our services, including schmap.it, schmap.me & geotweeter, are designed for the sharing of information from any location.  And in fact we have seen schmaps created for places in all corners of the world, in cities as wide ranging as Singapore, Moscow, New York, Reykjavik, and many many more.

Q. So how can a small business benefit from using schmaps?
A. Many small businesses are already using Twitter for local marketing: bars tweeting happy hours, stores with discount sales, restaurants promoting lunch specials, realtors marketing property – these are examples of local businesses trying to drive foot traffic from Twitter for commercial gain. Schmaps give these same local businesses a much better way to do this – extending a 140 character tweet into a rich local marketing resource.

Q. Are they any costs involved in using your site/services?
A. The basic service is free, with an optional $9.95 /month PRO account for power users. The PRO account has some nice additional marketing resources, including tweet scheduling, direct message and @message marketing campaigns, and the ability to track campaign metrics. We’re currently offering a limited number of free PRO accounts – details at www.schmap.it/PRO-account-for-FREE – if any of your readers would like to take advantage.

Q. Where do you see local mobile marketing going in the near future.
A. Right now, we’re seeing an epic commercial migration taking place at the intersection of ‘local’ and ‘social’. The same local restaurants, bars, shops etc. that took ten years to discover the Internet are now adapting to Twitter and Facebook with much greater speed, finding some great opportunities to engage local consumers with a blurred mix of content, service and local marketing. Local consumers are increasingly accessing social networks and local content from mobile devices: we see the future of local mobile marketing being driven by these two trends – local businesses going ‘social’ and local consumers going mobile.

Again, I want to thank Paul for his time and insights.

 

Mobile-local and social-local are growing areas small business needs to understand and areas where they can reach more potential clients. Schmaps is one of those companies doing some interesting and cool stuff online in the mobile-social-local market. I wanted to learn more, so I reached out and was able to interview CEO, Paul Hallett of Schmap. Below is part 1 of that interview. (The more I investigated their site and business, the more questions I have. I hope I covered everything you might have a question one.)

Q. Good day Paul, can you tell us a little about your company?
A. We started out in 2004 – at that time, there were just three of us, developing a platform to combine maps with local content (reviews and photos) in a compelling and dynamic way. This platform became the foundation for our popular Schmap guides – www.schmap.com – a series of desktop and mobile local guides for 200 worldwide cities.

Q. What is schmap currently doing?
A. Our current focus is at the intersection of local and social, making it easier for local businesses to reach local consumers, and help these same consumers discover vibrant, real-time local content. One aspect of our rollout here is the geoparsing of content shared on social networks. Taking Twitter for example, at any point in time, there’s a wealth of vibrant local information being shared in tweets: people tweeting about great restaurant experiences, bands tweeting about gigs, bars tweeting about happy hours and so on.

The challenge is filtering and deciphering: if someone tweets ” Cool bash tonight at Joe’s”, has that person just returned from a private party at a friend’s house, or is there some kind of event coming up at Joe’s Bar? What is the event, where is Joe’s Bar, and who might this information be relevant to? The second aspect of our local/social rollout is http://schmap.it – a Twitter app for event marketing and local promotion.

Q. I recently signed up for that app,  can you tell us what this new tweeter app does?
A. Our schmap.it Twitter app basically allows the user to add rich local content to a tweet, in the form of a schmap – a map with text, photos, hash tags, and functionality that allows the recipient to retweet, add comments and RSVP to local events. The app is designed for commercial users – event promoters, marketing professionals and local businesses trying to drive folk from Twitter to real world locations: we saw a gap for this type of service left by the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla (services that focus on individuals sharing their current location).

Q.  After looking at your website, can you tell us a bit about your mobile apps….Schmap GeoTweeter?   Any Android or Blackberry versions coming out?
A. Geotweeter is an app that allows users to share their location via twitter as a customized map that can include photos, notes and custom icons. It was among the first iPhone apps to combine GPS coordinates with Twitter’s service.  We are currently developing a new iPhone app that uses many of the concepts from Geotweeter, but will integrate with our offering of real time local information.  We are considering Android and Blackberry platforms for development following the release of the iPhone app, but have no firm plans at this time.

I will end Part 1 here.  Tomorrow I will finish up the interview but if you are interested, you can sign up for a Free PRO account at  http://www.schmap.it/PRO-account-for-FREE.

 

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Can you really make a lot of money in a very short period of time? Well, may be, if you are really lucky. However, realistically speaking, you can’t get rich overnight. Success comes after you put in efforts.

See, I am saying this because there is a common notion that social media is a new way of making a lot of money online. There is no doubt that it is a powerful medium for marketers, but you can’t grow your small business and make hundreds of thousands of dollars in a matter of days only. You will have to remain consistent and keep evaluating and improving your performance and results.

If you rush, you will waste time. When you rush, you make mistakes. Sometimes, in marketing, we make big mistakes and we can’t undo them. It happens mainly when we rush without a proper plan. If you continue to make progress at a consistent pace, you will achieve the desired results soon. Of course, it won’t happen overnight, but you will eventually create your success story like others.

Make Up Your Mind First:

When you are ready to promote your business on social media, you need to make up your mind that you won’t become a millionaire in a week. It will take time. This way you will work with dedication and remain persistent. If you start marketing with a short term plan that you will achieve the desired results in a month, then you will end up wasting your efforts.

Stay Away from Spamming:

A lot of people have this misconception that simply sending promotional message will help them socialize with their network. Wrong! This is spamming, not networking. You need to communicate with your network just as you communicate with your friends. If you spam, you will lose your credibility and get labeled as spammer.

Get to Know Your Network Personally:

If you begin to know your network personally, then they will begin to recognize you as well. It can happen if you communicate with them regularly. When they post something, don’t forget to provide them with your feedback. Also, share articles and videos that your network will like and ask them to leave their comments.

Help People in Your Network:

This is a great way of connecting with people in your network and get closer to them. If they ask a question, try to help them out with a good answer. Don’t hesitate to offer any advice that you think will be helpful. This will help you build trust and become credible.

Now, You May Ask: Why Get Closer to Your Network?

The reason is that once they get to know you, they will take your offers seriously. See, if you just add friends and start posting links to your products, then you will soon become notorious. However, once you establish a connection with your network, then whatever you say will hold weight and your voice will actually be heard.

So, don’t rush and don’t waste your time. Walk towards success with a plan!

 

It still amazes me how some of my clients (and potential clients) run their business..ignoring the Internet or what is going on really is not a smart move.  (Ok I am off my soap box) Below are the articles I think provide a nice overview for these areas.  Happy reading!

A. Social Marketing:
10 Creative Ways Businesses Used Twitter in 2009 by Matt McGee

B. Linking:
11 Effective, Efficient Ways To Use Limited Time To Build Links

How To Take Control Of Your Link Building In 2010

C. Video Marketing
42 Ways to Use Online Video for Business Marketing by Mark Robertson

11 Predictions for the Online Video Industry in 2010

D. Reviews
How To Handle Negative Reviews Of Your Business by David Ingram

E. Local Search
Local SEO Predictions 2010 by Andrew Shotland

Blocking And Tackling: 10 Fundamentals Of Local SEO by David Mihm

The “Other 20%” Of Local SEO: Advanced Ranking Factors

Predictions For The Changing Local Search Landscape In 2010 by Neg Norton

 

Mom-and-Pop Operators Turn to Social Media from the New York Times

The Twitter Guide Book from Mashable Social Media Guide

Twitter 1o1 from Twitter

How to Twitter… Naked from Will Scott, might have mentioned this one already

Twitter: Incredibly Valuable Or Utterly Useless As A Link Building Tool? by Eric Ward (Google is indexing twitter posts-saw one of mine the other day

 

From the press release/blog:

To further increase local business exposure online, MerchantCircle also announces the first-ever local city coupon Twitter feed. Merchant-built coupons are now automatically fed to city-specific Twitter feeds, so that local consumers can find local coupons and events in real-time. MerchantCircle local business owners create more than 50,000 online coupons and events every month.  Merchant-created deals and events are automatically posted to the new Twitter feeds to expose local merchants to even more potential customers.

“I’m thrilled MerchantCircle is always coming up with ways that make it easier for customers to find us,” says Ken Mapel, owner of The Glass Guy in St. Paul, MN. “I can create coupons for free on MerchantCircle and they distribute them across the web. And now with the direct Twitter feed, they’re making it even easier to find more local customers. I currently receive around 80 calls per month from consumers who have found me on MerchantCircle; ™ looking forward to this bringing in even more.”

Are you on Merchant Circle, if you let me know how it is working for you.