Jon Legler
Google, Places, Ratings & Reviews
Google has recently released an update to Google Place Pages that now will allow business owners to publicly respond to reviews. This is a great opportunity for businesses to interact directly with their customers. When it comes to negative reviews this has the potential to be an extremely powerful tool. It allows both sides of the story to be told if you will. It is reassuring for a consumer to see that when someone does have a bad experience with a business that the business is aware of the issue and doing everything possible to correct it.
So while this is a great opportunity to clear up complaints, I would suggest against posting a response with a hot head. More than one person is going to see the response. Posting an inflammatory response to someone who is already unhappy with your product is only going to make a bad situation worse. The phrase “The customer is always right” still has relevance in this case. Potential customers will see great value in a company who realizes that they might have a problem, and if they choose to do business with that company the same will not happen to them. In the case of responding to good reviews it is great to let the consumer know that their business is important to you, and be able to thank them directly.
All a business has to do in order to claim their place page is verify their identity and claim their listing. Remember to check your reviews often and stay up to date with responses.
09Aug
Quinn Sheek
Bing, Local, Microsoft, Mobile, Ratings & Reviews, Search Engine Strategies (SES), Search News, Social Media
This morning at SES New York, Bing announced several new Map applications, including a partnership with Foursquare to provide real-time map overlays. This advancement in local search comes at a time when we are seeing several applications with Twitter integration, but Bing’s venture with Foursquare is something that provides a whole new level of local insight.
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25Mar
Michael Kust
IYP, Ratings & Reviews, Yelp
This week, the Dex One Corporation announced it will integrate consumer-business reviews from Yelp, with listings on Internet Yellow Pages site DexKnows.com. It appears that Dex One is attempting to give DexKnows users more reasons to use the site for finding relevant local business information. Reviews from Yelp will help fill gaps in content on Dex’ site, as well as complement reviews posted by DexKnows users.
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05Mar
LeAnn Hoksch
Ratings & Reviews, Yelp
The opinion of others, especially family and friends, is very important when making a decision. It’s just human nature. The same is true for consumers when searching for local businesses, products or services online. In fact, the importance of online reviews for consumers has been increasing over the past few years. According to the 2009 TMPDM/comScore Local Search Usage Study, 57 percent of consumers consider reviews important in their buying decisions, up from 52 percent in 2007.
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04Mar
Jane Wamsley
Behavioral Targeting, Branding, Ratings & Reviews, Reputation Management, blog
Do you remember when you read your first blog? I do. It was about five and half years ago when a co-worker recommended I check out this “really funny” blog that chronicled the life of a then twenty-something guy living in the Big Apple. I won’t reveal the blog here, because it’s slightly NSFW (that’s blog speak for “Not Suitable For Work”). But the recommendation turned out to be a good one, because it’s a blog that I still read regularly.
Did I know what a blog was back then? I think I had a general idea. But I remember recommending the aforementioned blog to friends and some of them being a little confused by the concept. It seems strange to think about now, but blogging really didn’t become the phenomenon it is today until the turn of the century. While journalists and writers began experimenting with “web logs” in the mid to late nineties, blogging really took off after Pyra Labs launched the free blogging service Blogger (which is now owned by Google) in August 1999 (Peter Merholz first coined the term “blog” in early 1999, when there were 23 known blogs in existence).
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25Jan
Janice Crisostomo
Ratings & Reviews, Social Media
As exciting as the emergence of social media is for consumers, it can be down-right terrifying for businesses. The positive side is that opportunities exist to reach consumers on a new level and in a new space. And according to the TMPDM/comScore Local Search Usage Study, social networkers are more likely to make purchases. The terrifying part, however, is that social media can’t be controlled, and it may leave businesses susceptible to consumers who unfairly lash out. But how often does that really happen, and how important are user-generated ratings and reviews for the consumer purchase process? Read the full article…
01Dec
Jamie LeRoy
Google, Personalization, Ratings & Reviews, Reputation Management, SEO, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, online marketing
I’m sure you’ve tried it. We’ve all done it at some point in our lives. Yes, I’ll admit that I’ve Googled myself. And I’m willing to bet you have, too. But you know what? That’s okay. Go ahead and Google yourself. Just don’t blame Google when you find something you don’t like.
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16Oct
