Honest Reviews Important Online For Business

Online reviews are becoming even more important when people are making decisions about where to stay, where to eat or just where to purchase goods in an easy and safe way.

TripAdvisor has been called out for fake reviews and action taken against them by one B&B in Scotland. You can read about it here where they deny they are subject to Scottish law.

So how do you deal with reviews of your business? Are you even monitoring what is being said about your business? Do you know how to monitor your business mentions online?

In planning a trip overseas, I am very aware of the attraction of finding good quality reviews to use to support the decisions that I am making when choosing places to stay. But I am also conscious that there are so many people gaming the system and paying for fake reviews that it does make it hard to sort the real reviews from the fake ones.


Some ways to build credibility online:

• Make your website, blog and Facebook consistent with your identity
• Make it easy to contact you.
• Have a physical address where possible 
• Respond to enquiries quickly
• Make it transparent when people are paying you money
• Ensure your emails (and service) is always in a friendly tone
•  Respond to negative comments and take the follow-up offline
• Thank people who comment on your website or blog or social media page.
• Use widgets on your website that show other local people who have Liked your page. This allows for "social proof" to work for you.
• Make sure that you have updated your Google+ Local entry online.
• Manage your reputation online at all times.
• Ask happy customers to recommend you online and make it easy to do.

 
All in all the best strategy for business is to provide as many ways as possible for customers who don't know us to get good insight into who we are, our good reputation and our stability in terms of being around to sort out any problems, and put would-be customers at peace that we are legitimate and real people who can be found  and trusted to deliver what we promise.

Lindy Asimus
0403 365 855

Businesses increase local sales with internet presence 

Your Reputation Online. Watch It

You Want A Bright Shiny Reputation Online (and Offline)
Whether you're using social media, want to use social media in your business, or believe you can ignore social media in your business.  Social media questions are becoming more and more the topic that emerges in my discussions with clients and business owners. The amount of bad information out there, on TV on radio in the newspapers and still many business owners who are either oblivious or misinformed about online matters and how to make good decisions about what to do online.

It still remains that many small business owners think that they don't need to be online, or that their lack of interest in computers in some way is significant to their customers!  Nope. Whether you use a computer for anything more than checking the weather, other people (people with money who are and who could be customers for your business) are using their computers for many, many things. Notably, for researching future purchase options, for one example.

Yes you need to be online.
No it doesn't need to cost a fortune.

Just because someone offers you a "deal" - if you don't understand what you are getting for your money and how to determine if this is value - or a rort - then find out before you start.


A Cost of Doing Business
Yes it will cost something.
Getting a website is the beginning - not the end.
Guess what - online people are offline too! Bring them together.
Get to know people who understand social media, the internet and business.

Professional Resume - Linkedin
 Now  don't tell me - someone has invited you to Linkedin but you're not sure if you have a profile on Linkedin or if you do, you don't know what it says or how to connect with anyone. Or even what to do with that invitation.

Is it important to complete your Linkedin profile? Yes it is. This is where you can establish your credentials online and people who are looking you up on Google can see if you have roots to the community (not a fly-by-night type). And yes people look you up on Google to check you out. You should Google yourself. No information is no better than bad information.

Reputation Management. 
Go through and clean up any items that you would rather not show online and set about getting good quality information on the record about you and your business.

Learn how to monitor and manage your online reputation this is crucial  whether you are young and looking for a first job, experienced in the workforce, or manage or own your own business.


Related
Honest reviews online important for business

Your Business Blog

For any business, informing the public that you are in business, where you are located and what products and services you provide is key to being successful.

Once upon a time we did this through word of mouth, advertising in the newspapers and on TV and radio.

We still need to do this but now we have more options.

You'll have noticed that the newspaper industry is going through a lot of turmoil now. That's because the area that made the most money for them, is drying up. Classifieds are not generating the profit that they used to bring into the newspaper.

What does that mean for business? It is a clue to what's happening in the marketplace. Why are the newspapers not selling so many classified ads? Because the marketplace - customers - are looking elsewhere to find out about what they will buy.

Customers are looking on the internet to find out about what is available, what works best, what price should it be and who they know who has one.  Searches directly on  Google are one way that we research now. Asking our friends on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is another way.

Our blog is the key to getting our information out to the marketplace - all the things that we want customers to know about our services and products, and why they should do business with us.

• Our blog gives us the place to put that information and update it regularly.
• Our blog creates a link that can be shared on the social platforms like Facebook or G+
• Our blog is the space where we can continually share new stories about the business. Where customers can get to know us, know what our values are, what we are great at.

Just like having our own media and public relations office, our blog allows us to  expand our reach and answer all those questions that customers need to make a good purchase decision and to feel welcome to do business with us.

Next time we'll look at how we can approach content marketing using a blog.

Lindy Asimus
0403 365 855


Part Three: Blogging For Business: Ideas
Part Two: How Do I Start Blogging For Business?