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June 22, 2009 By Susan Barr Leave a Comment

Reputation Management: Are Negative Reviews Good for Business?

Great read this morning by Matt McGee at Small Business Search Marketing, “Five Ways Negative Reviews are Good for Business.” Matt suggests the benefits of negative feedback are:

They create trust.
They provide honest feedback.
They can improve your SEO.
They help you make better business decisions.
They offer a golden opportunity.

Matt’s post calls to mind statistics regarding growth in social media participation by consumers. According to Forrester Research Study (October 2008) on social media adoption, consumers who classify themselves as “critics” (those who contribute to ratings, reviews, blogs, etc) increased by almost 50% over the previous year to 37% of those surveyed. Anecdotally, I suspect the number has increased substantially since then. Many recent studies indicate that between 65 -80% of consumers search the web for local businesses and actively read reviews and ratings as part of their purchase consideration process. Consumers are adopting social media at increasing rates across all categories.

I agree with Matt McGee and recommend the following strategies given trends in consumer behavior:

1. Make engagement a standard part of your marketing plan. Develop a social marketing plan that encourages your customers to provide feedback. Include tactics as simple as asking a customers to complete surveys or as complex as creating a product information and rating system on your website. The truth is that most reviews are positive so encouraging engagement only serves to improve your online reputation and customer loyalty.

2. Develop a web presence on social platforms where your customers hang out. If your target customer is on Facebook, create a Fan Page and develop a plan to engage them there. If your customer is on LinkedIn or Myspace, engage them there.

3. Create a pro-active communications plan to address the customer feedback. I recommend my clients use a simple decision tree process. Include decision points to handle situations such as :

a. Customers with verifiable complaints
b. Competitors planting negative feedback
c. Customers with incomplete information or distorted versions of the truth
d. Customers with positive feedback

Matt McGee is correct in suggesting negative reviews provide an opportunity to improve your operations. The beauty of social technologies is that they place inexpensive tools into the hands of a small business owner to form a more personal customer relationship. The functions of these tools play right into the strengths of small businesses that are already heads and shoulders above large organizations in personalizing the customer experience. Responding to the negative feedback in a positive way demonstrates your commitment to the customer and your desire to improve their experience with your business.

Would you rather use negative feedback to improve your operations and service or lose a customer without knowing why?

Filed Under: Get Connected, Get Profits Tagged With: customer experience, Local Search, online reputation, small business technology, social marketing, social media

March 31, 2009 By Susan Barr 1 Comment

Claim Your Web Properties

Today is the first in a series of Ten Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make Preventing Web Profitability.

No matter how far you have gotten in developing your marketing strategy that includes using the internet as a sales and growth channel for your business, there is no excuse for not claiming your name. These are the 8 basic property categories I recommend every small business claim to begin the process of building a web presence. Almost all are currently free or very inexpensive and can be claimed with a few hours work.

1. Website: Believe it or not, I recently read that only 44% of small businesses have their own websites. Yet, recent studies indicate that between 65-80% of consumers use the internet to search for local businesses and over 2/3 of all consumers read ratings and reviews prior to making purchase decisions. At the very least, claim your unique name using an inexpensive service such as godaddy.com. Claim your personal name (if still available) and your business name.

2. Join several social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There are very easy user interfaces which walk you through the sign-up process and you are certain to find many of your current contacts and friends already there populating an instant network for you. Currently, Facebook has over 150 million users and LinkedIn has 12 million. Growth in social networks has been off the charts across all demographic groups.

3. Get listed on the big search engine directories such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Yellow Pages, and AOL. It only takes a few minutes to claim and update your business listing (which may already be listed) and make sure it reflects your hours of service and a description of your business services.

4. Sign up for local community social networks such as MerchantCircle, Biznik and Konnects. This is a growing segment in the social networking landscape but one which holds benefit for small businesses targeting locals. Think of them as your virtual chamber of commerce. Speaking of the Chamber of Commerce, many local branches have business networks and directories on Facebook or Ning. Check your local newspapers, general as well as local business publications. Many of these media outlets are increasing their online presence with blogs, directory listings and message boards. In most cases, the basic fee to join these listings is free or minimal charge.

5. Business and Industry Verticals: Are there online directories specific to your industry? Many professional organizations and certification boards provide online directory listings: lawyers, doctors, dentists, real estate agents and other vertical industry boards allow you to post your profile and update it with your products, services, etc. Are there referral or certification boards in your field? Add your profile.

6. Rating Services: Ratings and ranking are already a part of some of the directories I have already mentioned (Yahoo and Google are notable) but there are new ones emerging every day. Check out Yelp and Citisearch to see if your type of business is listed there and claim your listing.

7. Microblogs: Twitter, Jaiku and Pluck are the companies in this space with Twitter currently leading the charge (over 1300% growth from Feb 2008 to 2009). Don’t be put off by the stream of consciousness of the worlds millions of Twitter users (see my post Twitterfied?). Remember when you had a chance to claim your own name in email 15 years ago and you did not and now you have an interesting email address like suebarr6667@xxxxxxx.com? At the very minimum, claim your name and/or your business name. When you become more comfortable with the medium and begin to see just how beneficial this tool can be for your business, you will be glad you claimed your real estate. Combined with pervasive mobile communications, Microblogs hold tremendous promise for small business to target promotions.

8. Groups: I use Ning, Facebook, and LinkedIn and have begun to use Ryze for groups. Look for groups in your industry that are active and welcoming to new members. Look for groups where your customers hang out so you can begin forming relationships and getting to know their needs for your business. Create your own groups, fan pages on Facebook or in Ning and invite your followers to join. Start your own group under your company name.

Think of your web presence as if it is a big virtual game of monopoly. When you first start going around the game board, you buy all the property you can afford. Over time, you figure out which properties can be leveraged for the most profit. You build on the most profitable (just like adding hotels in monopoly) and you weed out the unprofitable properties.

I think it is very early in evolution of the social media game. Some social sites will emerge as clear winners and some will disappear. Some businesses will adopt early and succeed and some will crash and burn. Some late adopters will arise to wow and surprise the markets. The only mistake for your business is if you don’t get in the game – your customers are expecting it.

Filed Under: Forward Momentum, Get Connected, Get Customers!, Prepare for the Upswing Tagged With: facebook, Google, linkedin, local directories, Local Search, Microblog, ning, small business marketing, social media, Social Search, twitter, yahoo

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