CoreyY | Briscoe Network Solutions

Google + and the Small Business: A Relationship Doomed to Failure?

September 26, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

I’m sure by now everyone that is involved with promoting their business through social media has heard about Google+, Google’s social media offering. Naturally, with every new social media movement, you have savvy business owners looking to leverage their brand. (Usually for free.) So far, however, there has been a snag for those early adopters looking to be the first businesses on Google+.

The snag in question is due in part to Google’s Real Name Policy, a controversial rule that requires all Google+ users to use their real names visibly on their account. Many bloggers have voiced their concerns over the ethics such a policy can violate, the most well written in my opinion being Danah Boyd.

The problem with businesses joining Google+ isn’t just the name policy, though. It’s also because Google has openly stated they don’t want businesses cluttering up Google+; at least not yet. Plenty of rumors on when Google will open Plus up have been flying around, and others have commented on the fact that Ford has their own Google+ business page, something that’s not supposed to be possible under the current rules.

This article by Search Engine Land covers Google’s stance fairly well, including citing whose businesses were removed from Plus in the beginning, who has been reinstated, and Google’s current stance on businesses on Google+. Right now, the current suggested strategy appears to be creating a personal profile and getting started that way, which doesn’t help anyone with a business that doesn’t hinge on their person, but rather the company as a separate entity. This article also covers the new rumors of Google opening up a new business option for Plus that could solve this problem soon.

So, where does that leave the rest of us right now? Personally, I think that while Plus has its benefits and is fun to use for the tech savvy user, there’s less of a reason for the common person to switch from Facebook at this time. The reasons for this are myriad, and mostly hinge on the fact Plus is still invite only and technically in beta. On top of that, a lot of the features popular on Facebook aren’t there, such as the quizzes, plethora of games and yes, brands offering free content to their fans.

My advice would be to sit back and wait to see how Google manages the business side of Google+ before jumping through the hoops for a business profile. Most likely is that the popular Google Adwords system of pay per click ads is going to be utilized in some way to make Plus as profitable as possible, and there could even be a buy in feature to make a business profile elite in some way. Google knows that they will have to differentiate Plus from Facebook in some way, and they are in a much better position to offer businesses comprehensive advertising and customer outreach packages than Facebook at this time.

Google has the resources to make Plus the new wave for social media, but only time will tell if they seize this opportunity for improvement and run with it, or get bogged down trying to copy Facebook, losing the few loyal followers they already have.

EDIT: Since this article was written, Google+ has opened up to everyone, and games have been added to the offering. This combined with the very recent Facebook privacy/redesign debacle definitely makes Google+ a more attractive alternative for the mainstream. I still caution that only time will tell how many people move over to the new system, and how complete that move is, but Google+ may very well be the next step in social media. More on this as the situation develops.

Filed Under: Blog, Corey's Corner, Google

Are You Upholding Your Digital Rep? “10 Easy” Steps for Reputation Management

September 22, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

Reputation management is one of the fastest growing parts of online marketing and that’s most apparent by the number of specialists and companies cropping up claiming to be experts. What they don’t want you to know, however, is that reputation management is no more difficult than the normal PR any small business needs, only done with online resources such as Facebook, Yelp, Twitter and other popular social media sites as well as the Local pages for search engines, such as Google Local.

Social Media is all about interacting with your customers.

At it’s core, reputation management means that you keep appraised of what people are saying online about your business and what your business says back. Managing this digital PR is what gets a bit more complex. What sites do you watch? How can you control how your digital business identity is perceived? The simple answer is that you can’t absolutely control everything that’s said on the internet. You can, however, work at doing all you can to interact positively with customers in as many ways as you can manage.

Reputation Management is about connecting with them.

To help you prioritize, here are some simple steps to get started managing your own online reputation:

10. Ask yourself if you’re willing to make the commitment. Reputation management is a process that takes fairly constant monitoring, and could mean you’re spending anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes on it per day. If you find that you’re not willing to put that much effort in, you’re better off hiring a specialist. Your customers won’t be appreciative of a halfhearted attempt, and you shouldn’t be satisfied with one either.

9. Devise a strategy. What do you want to accomplish with your online presence? It can be anything from wanting to gain more customers through broadcasting promotions using social media to actively making the experience for established customers better through direct interaction. Whether that interaction is through responding to reviews or inviting customers to communicate directly via Facebook is your choice.

8. Don’t Spam. It’s tempting to post every little thing that comes to mind to Twitter and Facebook using a personal account, and it can be much more damaging to indulge that urge with your business account. Try and keep your posting to a healthy balance of minimalistic and timely. Have a sale? By all means, post a short notice with a link to your site! Closed during a holiday? Feel free to wish all of your customers a happy holiday and inform them that you’ll be closed. Do not, however, post 8 different articles about semi-related topics to your industry on top of that. Your customers like to be reminded that you’re around and care about them. They don’t want to feel like you’re dominating their online lives.

7. Make sure you’re registered. Besides Facebook and Twitter, do you know where else customers go to get the lowdown on a company they want to try? (Hint: It’s usually a review site.) Do you have a Google Places listing? What about a Local listing on Bing? Is your Yelp account active, and are you listed on other places such as CitySearch? How are customers supposed to learn more about the customer experience you provide if you don’t give them a chance to see what other customers are saying about you?

6. Get reviews. As I mentioned above, customers want to see what other customers are saying about you before they want to be your patron. Seeing the good, the bad and the “meh” reviews helps them decide if you’re a good fit. So, find ways to get your customers to give you feedback! Even if you train your staff to remind new customers you’d love them to write about their experiences with you can generate reviews for your business.

5. Surveys and testimonials are your friend. There are plenty of companies that offer easy and inexpensive survey services and data collection, and many times, solid customer testimonials can come from these. (My suggestion would be to Google “Online survey tools” and then use common sense in choosing an option. When in doubt, Google the site name. If it’s not legit, someone more than likely has blogged about it.) Simply set some questions that will help you determine if your service is at the level you are happy with, and then leave your customers a chance to make a comment. You may be surprised what you learn.

4. Check your listings! Once you have a Google Places listing, Yelp account, etc, check them regularly. Reputation management at its core is keeping your online reputation as sterling as possible. Unanswered concerns written in online reviews can make you appear uncaring, or in agreement with angry customers. Not checking your listings also doesn’t allow you to utlize the good online reviews can do. Remember, critique is necessary for continued growth and improvement, and unsolicited reviews are an excellent source of honestly. (Of course, they are also an excellent source of insanity, but you should be able to weed the crazy out from the actual reasonable reviews. If you can’t, you may need more help than an article can give.)

3. Don’t Be Afraid. Sure there’s a chance that someone will give you a bad review. In fact, the more customers you ask, the better chance you’ll get a nasty review. You need to let go of that fear right now. The internet is all about having a thick skin, and those of us that deal with customers and not peers must have the thickest skin of all. Remember that you aren’t a person to these angry reviewers. You are a business, and they aren’t happy with you, right or wrong. Take a deep breath, think of the sunny beach you’d rather be on, and move on to the next tip, which is:

2. Responsibly address concerns. Whether you deal with Yelp or the reviews Google and other services collect from their users, there’s generally a way to get in contact with those unsatisfied customers. Yelp lets you privately and publicly address the problem. With Facebook and Twitter, responding to negative comments are only a few keystrokes away. Get your customer service hat on and do your best to be understanding, polite and brief.o not give in to the temptation to put someone in their place. It’s tempting to call someone out for being unreasonable in a public forum, but who does that really hurt? Them for being unreasonable or you for eagerly rising to the occasion to discredit them? Think long and hard about how you want to appear when responding to customer complaints online, and you shouldn’t hit any snags. A good resource is the Yelp Support Center. I find that their advice on how to properly respond to negative reviews nicely covers how you should deal with most dissatisfied customers online. Which brings me to my last bit of advice:

1. Above all else, be mindful! Whether you’re sharing a video on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter or responding to a review on Yelp, stop and think before you press enter. Is what you’re saying going to help your customers? Does it represent your business the way you want potential customers to see it? What will someone that’s never been your customer think? As long as you’re mindful of these questions and keep in mind that you are acting as the face of your business, you can handle your own reputation management with relative ease.

Filed Under: Blog, Corey's Corner, Customer Relations Tagged With: Busines networking, Corey's Corner

Corey’s Corner | What’s Working For YOU?

April 21, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

As an SEO by trade, I’m used to managing expectations and helping guide my clients in an increasingly complicated and at times nonsensical digital world. Yet, one of the largest problems I keep coming across is the desire to dominate a keyword on search engines like Google simply for the sole purpose of having dominated it. Now I can understand wanting to accomplish everything your competitor is accomplishing and then beat them at their own game, but what if what they’re doing isn’t effective? How can you blaze your own digital marketing path without simply copying what others are doing around you and be certain you’re not missing something?

Digital marketing advice for Seattle businesses

While competition is healthy for business, it shouldn't be all you focus on with digital advertising.

The fact is, you can’t. Just like with traditional advertising, you can’t always be sure you’re covering a marketing area with 100% effectiveness. When I’m working with my SEO clients, we generally have a long discussions about reality vs the internet and how we can find an affective strategy that works with their current business situation, location and the kinds of services they offer. No business is an exact copy of another, even businesses in the same locality and industry. No matter how similar you feel your and your competition are, there’s going to be something you do better than they do, and face it, there will be something they do a little better than you. With online review sites such as Yelp and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter enabling information to be passed customer to customer with ridiculous speed, the differences between competitive businesses is starkly outlined for anyone willing to do a little research.

What to do then? As with my initial example of working with customers going after keywords to stay in digital competition with their brick and mortar competitors, education is key. You may want to rank #1 in Google for something like “silky draperies Seattle” because the store down the street does, but take a step back from your competitive side. How many people do you think are searching for that exact keyword? If you were shopping for window coverings, would you trust Google to find a store that not only carried drapes but also carried the specific texture of drape that you wanted? Or would you rather find a store that sold drapes and then would take a look at what they had to offer? Asking yourself what a customer would reasonably do when looking for a new business to patronize not only works for search; it works for any digital marketing out there.

The moment you put yourself in a customer’s shoes and let go of the knowledge you have for your industry, you’ll have what matters for your digital ad campaigns. The greatest challenge in that is exploring how well you know your customers and how their needs are met by your business. To achieve that level of knowledge or broaden it, I suggest the following:

Take regular surveys either through email or in store. Then, read the results and organize them in a way that makes sense to you; in an Excel spreadsheet, posted all over all wall with paper notes, whatever works for you.
Engage actively on review sites such as Yelp, Citysearch and even the Google Places review section. Listen to what customers praise and criticize.
Ask your Facebook fans what they like the most about your business or what they want to see next from you. What they say may surprise you.
If you’re savvy with something like Google Analytics and are comfortable with the concept of organic search results, you may want to take a look at the wealth of information there. (Or wait for one of my future articles about Google Analytics.)

These are only a few ways you can connect with your customers and find ways to tailor your digital advertising campaigns to have maximum effect. If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities before you, it’s always good to step back and ask yourself, “If I was one of my customers, what would I do? What would make me come to a business?” Once you know the answer to that question, you may be amazed by how easy the rest is to implement.

Filed Under: Blog, Corey's Corner Tagged With: search engine optimization, SEO

Marketing With YouTube

April 12, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

I recently saw an interesting article via Mashable concerning how to successfully market your business/site through YouTube. While I do feel that YouTube is a great supporting player in the world of social media marketing, I also think that its possibilities are rarely seriously explored.

The article is titled “5 YouTube Marketing Tips for Better Engagement“, and does cover some great ideas for a business trying to make an honest go at viral marketing through YouTube. If nothing else, it gets you thinking about the reach and potential of YouTube and how best to use it in conjunction with other social media efforts.

One point I would like to add, however, is that many businesses miss the opportunity to use education to form a connection to their customers. Own a boutique? Do a short preview on fashions coming soon to your store. Are you a dentist? Do a quick video on why gingivitis is dangerous to a patient’s health. The more personable and connected your business is to the community around you, the more likely customers will be to interact and do business with you. Not into getting in front of a camera? That’s fine! Google’s wide range of instructional videos show that you don’t necessarily have to be on screen to make an informative video.

However you decide to use YouTube, if you decide to use it at all, remember that it’s only one part of what should be a multi-site social media marketing strategy. All parts can and should work together to bring you the results you need.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Marketing

Corey’s Corner: Making Yelp Work for You

April 11, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

I think we can all agree that review sites like Yelp are the way of the future. Not only are they easy to use and provide valuable consumer-driven information, but they can provide businesses with a unique view onto what customers are passing along via “word of mouth”. With this is mind, it’s easy to think that getting better reviews out there can be as simple as having some friends and family get the ball rolling with glowing reviews. After all, it’s just a little push start to help your business and there’s no harm in that, right?

Unfortunately, you’d be wrong. With online review sites come a certain expectancy of veracity. People using the sites are trusting that the site takes measures to prevent fraudulent reviews from taking over. In fact, a recent FTC crackdown about online reviews paid for by businesses shows that even the authorities are getting involved with the online review world and how easily fake reviews can overpower the legitimate ones.

Yelp advice for Seattle small businesses

What kind of message do you send through your digital customer service?

So, you want legitimate reviews for your site, and Yelp is a great site to start with. Yelp as a site is pretty user friendly, which explains its current popularity. Its search feature allows you to search for a business and narrow that search down to a city, or even an area, ie Belltown in Seattle, or even the Eastside. Step one on taking advantage of what Yelp can provide is searching for your business by name. (If you don’t immediately find it, I’d also recommend breaking your name into parts and checking those. For example, searching “Bob’s Burgers” and “Bodacious Burgers” for a restaurant called Bob’s Bodacious Burgers.)

If you do find your business, click on it and explore your listing. Is the information correct? Are there hours posted, or even an address or website? If you see inaccuracies, or want to add information, changing all that is as easy as claiming your listing as the business owner. Listings that have been unclaimed will have a button encouraging the owner to claim and add to the listing. If you searched for your business and didn’t find it, the option to add the business will be displayed. (If you find your listing and it’s somehow been claimed already or are having difficulties with finding things on the site, the Frequently Asked Questions section is pretty extensive and should cover what you need.)

Now that your business is claimed/added, all you have to do is sit back and let the positive reviews roll in, right? Unfortunately, you’d be wrong again. If you’re not a restaurant and already have an industry that depends on reviews, you actually need to let your customers know that you would love reviews from them. Many businesses have different ways to do this. They offer contests, attach the request for a review with a survey or even directly remind their frequent customers to place a review. The trick is to be gentle about the encouragement and to avoid asking for only glowing reviews. Yelp does frown on positive reviews that have been “paid” for via free services or products, and do filter out reviews that seem too positive or too negative to be genuine.

Some Yelp users, or Yelpers, only give a 5 star review for a mind blowing experience. Some give 5 stars all the time, and only give 3 when they were absolutely unsatisfied. No matter how they rate your business, it’s always good to actually read the reviews and avoid becoming complacent with reviews that appear positive on the surface. The big challenge is to maintain your thick skin and keep sight of the big picture. Some customers will never be satisfied. Some have legitimate complaints. Take what you need from each review to improve, and keep an eye out for patterns. You may be surprised by what your customers are saying.

Think, Be Mindful and Be Fair when using Yelp

When interacting with customers on sites like Yelp, remember your responses are public for all potential customers to see.

If you decide to take a more active role in your Yelp listing, the ability to respond to reviews is something Yelp offers business owners. I would encourage anyone taking advantage of that feature to stop and:

Think: Why are you responding to this review? Is it to say thanks, is it to right a wrong, or is it to refute the nasty things a reviewer said about your business? If it’s the last option, what positive outcome do you see coming from responding in the way you’re planning to respond?

Be Mindful: All of your other customers will be able to see your response. Is it the face you want to present to potential customers any time they look up your business? If you do try and right a bad experience, have you promised anything that will be hard to deliver on? (I’ve seen plenty of reviewers come back to their review and drop a star off for being promised something that the business never came through on. Sometimes something as simple as a sincere apology can do wonders, and get a customer to give you a second chance!)

Be Fair: Be sure that you keep your responses balanced and fair. So what if they guy that complained about your servers was a drunken boor and deserved the pitcher that was dumped on his head? The other Yelpers don’t know about that and only care how you handle this guy on Yelp. Most of the time, a reader can tell when someone is unreasonable or a jerk and ignore what they have to say in favor of more informative reviews. Sometimes you just need to either ignore the ranting reviews and trust in the intelligence of your customers or give a classic noncommittal answer such as, “We’re sorry that you feel that way and we regret that we couldn’t fulfill your needs.” No further explanation necessary.

It can be difficult trying to do public relations work online, but many business owners are finding that they or a trusted employee have to fill that role in the digital world. It can be challenging, but with the proper time and care, an endeavor such as a thriving Yelp listing can bring countless advantages to your site and business. How much attention and use it gets is up to you.

Filed Under: Blog, Corey's Corner Tagged With: Corey's Corner, Review

Corey’s Corner | How is your Social Media PR?

February 24, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

The BNS blog has been following how businesses can harness the power of social media for several months now. From deciding if hiring a social media expert is worth the cash, to finding all the social media sites that fit your advertising needs, we’ve presented a fairly broad view on how social media can benefit a business, and why it could be smart to get on the bandwagon now.

We haven’t touched on one thing, however. So far, we haven’t written about the darker side of social media, something that every business engaging on Facebook, Twitter or any other number of sites should be aware, and frankly, fearful of. That darker side is that of viral backlash, where one large misstep can turn from a public relations blunder to a death spiral for any company, big or small.

Despite how casual social media is, it’s still PR at it’s best. You interact with customers, inform them of sales, and build a thriving online community you can tap into with the click of a mouse. It’s easy to forget these are your customers, and that despite how close and transparent you want to be with them, what they really want is a company they can trust. They don’t want brutal honestly from you, they want a warm and slightly perfect company interaction with you.

So imagine, for a moment, that in a stroke of supposed brilliance, one of the people managing your Facebook or Twitter decides to take advantage of an international political revolution that millions are following with bated breath. Let’s also say that the person managed in 140 characters to reduce the unrest of an entire country to consumers eager for their product. Heck, let’s just say that you’re Kenneth Cole, and you do what he did earlier this month with the #Cairo Twitter hashtag.

According to the above linked TechCrunch article, this PR flub by the front man himself resulted in almost 1500 negative retweets an hour. In this case, the result was angry, negative, immediate, and fast spreading. With so many people utilizing their social media groups or using spoof accounts to further fan the flames, what could have been a very small news story maybe sandwiched in the national news section of the local broadcast at 11 at night about 10 years ago, this incident became a huge PR nightmare in the span of mere hours.

Now, taking a step back from a large company such as Kenneth Cole and looking at your business, do you trust the person taking care of your social media? Gone are the days where one surly employee was only a small problem. With the advent of review sites like Yelp, or fast ways to spread information such as social media sites or even search engines using online reviews like Google to help searchers, your businesses’ dirty laundry could be hung out to air for anyone searching for your company name or trying to compare your services with that of your competitors.

While you may want to laugh off the Kenneth Cole tweeting fiasco as a minor blip on the consumer radar and that it surely didn’t damage their brand, think on this: social media means more people asking the opinions of people they know. All it takes is a handful of people to be absolutely disgusted with your company to warn all of their entire friends cirlce away from ever doing business with you. Then, those friends will spread the story of your deeds onward to their friends as well. It doesn’t, at that point, even matter if what is being spread is absolute truth. Those complaints spread with the alacrity of a rumor in high school. That’s not even the worst part! Once something is on the internet, it has the potential to be around forever. Thus, I caution businesses with the same adage being given to socially driven teenagers the world over at the moment: Be mindful what you put on the internet, because it could come back and haunt you in perpetuity.

Filed Under: Blog, Corey's Corner Tagged With: Corey's Corner, Social Media

Google Offers: Google’s Groupon Solution?

February 3, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

Can Google Offers help you reach more customers?

Google Offers, like many group offer sites, gives you the chance to reach a captive audience of potential customers.

There’s a lot of buzz going around lately about Google Offers, Google’s new feature to be used in conjunction with a Places listing. The service has been compared to other group deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social, and the fact Google was recently rebuffed by Groupon when they offered to purchase the smaller company back in November for a rumored $6 billion makes the situation all the more interesting.

It’s too soon to tell how successful Google Offers will be, or who in particular they will market to. As explained in a previous post, sites like Living Social and Groupon spread their deals through phone applications and emails to users that sign up for their deals. It’s unclear at this point what Google exactly plans to do with their new innovation or what kind of benefits it will offer their Places customers, but I can say that it will be interesting as more information comes out.

Do you have experience with Google Offers? Let us know what you think in the comments section!

Filed Under: Blog, Trends

Social Media: More Than Meets the Facebook

January 28, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

Who are you capturing with your online marketing?

With social media gaining more and more popularity, it’s easy to lose sight that the social media revolution isn’t just about Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. In fact, there are many sites that you can utilize to target your key demographic through social media sites. Rand from SEOMoz put together an interesting article on the many different sites you may want to consider when putting together a strategy for your social media marketing. You can read his post at SEOMoz for the list, complete with links.

This brings to mind that when thinking about social media, the sky, or in this case, the entire internet, is the limit. When concentrating on what kind of customers you want to bring to your website and business, think about what those customers would be using online. Have a music store, or a business that caters to those that love music? You may want to utilize the advertisements that the music site Pandora uses for both their website and smart phone application. In that vein, maybe you have a business that targets milestone events, such as weddings, birthday parties, or other celebrations that require your services. A site such as Facebook and their ability to target users that have changed their relationship status to engaged or have their upcoming birthday on their profile may be for you.

The more in touch you are with who your customers are, the better social media will work for you. This is true whether you pay for additional advertising, or simply maintain a strong presence interacting with customers. Yet, the same rule that’s been stated over and over on this blog still remains true. Whether you’re paying for advertising, or using free social media services, it’s hard work! This new frontier of the internet isn’t for the weak of heart.

Filed Under: Blog

Happy New Year!

January 10, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

A New Year’s tradition many of us are familiar with is setting goals or resolutions for the new year. These goals may be vague, such as being better to our families, to specific, such as losing 15 pounds or lowering our cholesterol. One thing to consider, however, is the kinds of goals we set for our businesses. So, in the spirit of the new year, and despite many businesses operating on a fiscal year not dedicated to the traditional calendar, we at BNS ask you: What’s your business’s New Year’s resolution?

Do you want to learn more about Social Media? Do you need to finally upgrade that old server? Are you expanding with the recovering economy? We look forward to hearing your ideas!

Filed Under: Blog

Is Your Business Providing Excellent Customer Service?

January 10, 2011 By CoreyY Leave a Comment

Now that a new year is upon us and the holiday season behind us, there is a golden opportunity to take a closer look at how your business interacts with your customers. During the busy holiday season, no matter what your business specializes in, you may have noticed some of your customers acting edgier, angrier and harder to please than normal. Not only did I hear stories from the front lines of holiday retail, but stories of customers blowing up over a perceived slight were numerous from acquaintances working in positions that wouldn’t be even remotely be considered “retail”.

So, how did your business deal with the irrational customers drained from hours of holiday shopping mayhem? Slate recently had an excellent article called How Businesses Cope With Rage-Filled Customers by writer David Epstein about customer service with a book recommendation that may give some perspective for the new year. Whatever your holiday customer service dilemma was, this article definitely has some advice to take to heart.

Thoughts? Have some suggestions not covered in the article? Discuss your reaction to the article and this post in the comments section below!

Filed Under: Blog, Customer Relations Tagged With: Customer relations