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Getting Reviews the Right Way for Local Businesses |
Getting Reviews the Right Way for Local Businesses Posted: 23 Mar 2014 04:14 PM PDT Posted by katemorris It's the bane of every business that relies on local traffic: reviews. Reviews are not new to business. We have been dealing with them in business since we had businesses and people could talk. In the last few years, we have been able to participate in the conversations that happen between consumers. Local reviews are just an extension of word of mouth marketing. It's a permanent record of consumer's thoughts of your business much like social media. The worst part is having no reviews, or having reviews (GLOWING reviews) from real customers, and Yelp doesn't show or count them. Reviews are the links of the local world. They drive new business and are imperative to growth. However, if you ask for one or incentivize their posting, they might not count. "You shouldn't ask your customers to post reviews on Yelp." "Reviews are only valuable when they are honest and unbiased ⦠Don't offer money or product to others to write reviews for your business or write negative reviews about a competitor. We also discourage specialized review stations or kiosks set up at your place of business for the sole purpose of soliciting reviews." What's a business owner to do?! Learn from link buildingThis is going to come at an odd time as link building (guest posting) is hot in the search media right now, but the link building world has been through this exact situation and local businesses can learn from it. Don't chase tactics. Look for inspiration from other businesses but modify ideas to your business and your users. Just like link building, if your reviews show up in a pattern, that pattern is detectable by a computer algorithm and will likely be discounted. Anything that is pattern-based is detectable, including:
Scale is the enemy. Along the same lines as the patterns discussion above, trying to scale reviews is going to produce detectable trends. Don't try to go out and get reviews en masse. You need them, yes, but a slow trend is the better way to get them. This brings us to the next point: influence. Influence and integrateWe just covered what not to do; now let's review how to go about getting reviews that are approved, shown, and can help grow your business. Just like links, reviews are best when they are placed there without your interaction, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the matter completely. Businesses can influence people to leave reviews. Influence, not entice or coerce. Influence with communication. Guaranteed reviews: knock down, drag-out fantastic customer serviceThis is the one solid way to get reviews without ever having to mention the word review. I'm talking Zappos, Nordstrom, and Amazon level of customer service. You treat your customersâ"all of themâ"like they are kings and queens. Give them no choice but to tell people about you. The following is a review for one of my favorite food trucks in Seattle: This is a long time investment though and I know not everyone has the time or thinks about leaving reviews. You can't make great customer service happen IRL sometimes, it's not always you in control. Regardless, this is still the best long-term solution. But businesses have immediate needs, so here is how to address getting more reviews now. Define your customer lifecycleThe key is laying out the standard lifecycle of a customer. I am going to pick on a favorite local business that inspired this post: Dreamclinic Seattle. The blue is online interaction, purple is in-person interaction. You can get more color coded with medium (email, organic, yellow pages, etc.) but I went with simple. The main point of outlining the customer lifecycle is to see the cycle part of it and realize you have more than one opportunity to influence a review. Most businesses that rely on reviews have a customer lifecycle. If you haven't defined yours, do that now. Integrate with all email marketing1. Define email contact points Once you have the customer lifecycle, add in when you normally contact your customers via email. You want to know when they are already online and thinking about you (this is key to online engagement!). There should be a few opportunities like newsletters, offers, post-purchase, post-visit, and confirmations. It doesn't matter if you are selling a good or a service, there should be communication throughout the customer lifecycle. 2. When will the customer be in the right frame of mind to leave a review? Now consider when the customer is going to be able to write the best review. Sometimes it'll be almost immediately after the purchase, sometimes a few weeks after. For example: Dreamclinic needs to have a "Drink water!" reminder email an hour after a massage with a mention of social media and scheduling the next appointment (the mentions being side thoughts and the water being the main purpose). 3. Communicate for something other than a review. Once you know when the best time is, line that up with a communication with the customer that is not about a review. Find another reason to get a hold of them. It can be a customer service survey or just a check in about their purchase. In this email, don't attempt to sell them anything, be genuinely interested in how they are feeling. If you get a reply (an engaged customer), then be sure to mention (one-on-one) that you would appreciate a review. Notice that this whole process is basically identifying people that want to leave a review, are engaged with your brand, and are conversing with you individually. There is nothing about scale here; it's all about identifying people individually and helping them help your business. Mention social media in all communicationBeyond email, you should be mentioning your best converting and favorite social media outlets for your business to your customers. Not for reviews, but for engagement. Reviews will come with engagement. Start with the questions:
List those places, don't just use Facebook and Twitter because you "should." Once you know your top converting communities, mention them to your customers in all parts of the life cycle. Think about your business cards, mailers, receipts, the chalkboard outside, your menu, and more. Check out some inspiration I found from Heidi Cohen. Remember, mention your online communities and integrate the mentions into the whole lifecycle, and the reviews will roll in naturally. Speaking of local search issues, have you heard about the new Moz Local? Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! |
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Starting at the age of nine, I played the clarinet for eight years.
Actually, that's not true. I took clarinet lessons for eight years when I was a kid, but I'm not sure I ever actually played it.
Eventually, I heard a symphony orchestra member play a clarinet solo. It began with a sustained middle C, and I am 100% certain that never once did I play a note that sounded even close to the way his sounded.
And yet...
And yet the lessons I was given were all about fingerings and songs and techniques. They were about playing higher or lower or longer notes, or playing more complex rhythms. At no point did someone sit me down and say, "wait, none of this matters if you can't play a single note that actually sounds good."
Instead, the restaurant makes the menu longer instead of figuring out how to make even one dish worth traveling across town for. We add many slides to our presentation before figuring out how to utter a single sentence that will give the people in the room chills or make them think. We confuse variety and range with quality.
Practice is not the answer here. Practice, the 10,000 hours thing, practice alone doesn't produce work that matters. No, that only comes from caring. From caring enough to leap, to bleed for the art, to go out on the ledge, where it's dangerous. When we care enough, we raise the bar, not just for ourselves, but for our customer, our audience and our partners.
It's obvious, then, why I don't play the clarinet any more. I don't care enough, can't work hard enough, don't have the guts to put that work into the world. This is the best reason to stop playing, and it opens the door to go find an art you care enough to make matter instead. Find and make your own music.
The cop-out would be to play the clarinet just a little, to add one more thing to my list of mediocre.
As Jony Ive said, "We did it because we cared, because when you realize how well you can make something, falling short, whether seen or not, feels like failure."
It's much easier to add some features, increase your network, get some itemized tasks done. Who wants to feel failure?
We opt for more instead of better.
Better is better than more.
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Posted: 23 Mar 2014 06:42 PM PDT In response to Failure is Truly Success! Reader Tata commented ... "The key question here is Russia's Crimea annexation legal or illegal, aka criminal. If it is legal, then you are absolutely correct. If it is criminal, then a question of reaction level is not moot." Actually, there are two separate issues here.
Even if one presumes Russia's annexation of Crimea was illegal, the US response has to be judged in and of itself. If Paul robs your house, you do not have the right to block Bob's driveway. In fact you have no right to undertake any action against Bob. If the US Congress declared war on Russia, then and only then could could Obama's response be considered appropriate (assuming of course one thinks declaring war on Russia makes sense). Let's return to the first question: Was Russia's annexation of Crimea illegal? What gives Obama the right to be judge and jury? If three bullies vote (US allies) and there are only five votes is that legitimate? I will answer the question, and not with more questions. But first please consider the following. Transformation of Mainstream Media I highly encourage everyone to read Paul Craig Roberts on Crimea, US Foreign Policy and the Transformation of Mainstream Media The Crimean peninsula was controlled by the Russian Empire from the 18th to 20th centuries until it became part of an independent Ukraine following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.Truthout: How do you assess the current situation? What power struggle is currently unraveling? PCR: Well, I think it would be a mistake to represent the events in Crimea as a power standoff between Russia and the United States. What has happened in Ukraine is the United States organized and financed a coup. And the coup occurred in Kiev, the capital. Either from intention or carelessness, the coup elements include ultra-right-wing nationalists whose roots go back to organizations that fought for Hitler in the Second World War against the Soviet Union. Crimea was added to the Ukraine in 1954 by Khrushchev, the general secretary of the Communist Party. Both of these Russian areas have been part of Russia for longer than the United States has existed. It didn't make a difference at the time because it was all part of the Soviet Union. The population in Crimea is predominantly Russian, and so is eastern Ukraine. These people said, "We don't want anything to do with this government in Kiev, which is banning our language and destroying our war monuments and threatening us in many ways." They followed the same legal steps; the same UN procedures, the same international court procedures. So everything that has occurred is strictly legal. And when John Kerry and Obama say the opposite, they're lying through their teeth. It's just blatant, shameful, bald-faced lies. This is not debatable or a question of opinion. It's a matter of law. So the Parliament in Crimea followed these procedures and has now declared Crimea to be independent. The vote that [was] given to the people on [March 16] . ... So there has been no Russian invasion. That's easily provable. The Russian troops in the Ukraine have been there since the 1990s. It has to do with the lease arrangements it has on its Black Sea naval base [Sevastopol], because when Ukraine was granted independence, Russia certainly wasn't giving up its warm-water port. The terms of the separation state that Russia has a lease there until 2042. Sixteen thousand troops were there, and under the agreement with the Ukraine they can have up to 25,000 along with a certain number of planes, tanks and artillery. All this is specified and well-known, but it is subject to lies from Washington - and they are repeated endlessly in the so-called American media. The result is that eastern Ukraine returns to Russia, western Ukraine will be captured, subject to an IMF [International Monetary Fund] austerity plan, looted by the Western banks and stuck in NATO while US anti-ballistic missile bases will be put in western Ukraine. This is intensifying the strategic threat to Russia that Washington has been pursuing since the George H.W. Bush regime when he violated the agreements that Reagan had given not to take NATO into eastern Europe. These same agreements were violated when Washington withdrew from the ABMT [Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty] in 2002 so it could construct an anti-ballistic missile defense. These are extreme provocations, and they are reckless. It's the same kind of behavior that gave us the First World War. Truthout: In your latest writings you've discussed the failure of the so called mainstream or American media in reporting about Crimea objectively - that is, without displaying a bias toward one side or the other. Can you discuss the role alternative media has played in relation to the crisis in Ukraine? PCR: A very important part of it has to do with something that happened toward the end of [Bill] Clinton's second term. He permitted five mega companies to consolidate the formerly independent and dispersed US media. What were once independent networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, all became cogs in a larger media empire. The value of these big media companies is their federal broadcast licenses: They can't go against the government and expect them to be renewed. Another big change is these media companies are no longer run by journalists. They're run by corporate advertising executives and former government officials. And their only interests are protecting the net worth of the company and the flow of advertising revenues. I am a former editor of The Wall Street Journal and a columnist at all the major publications as well, and I personally witnessed the change in the media and the people in it. So I already know what they're going to say; I can write the scripts before they go on and mouth them. It's been going on for some time. A similar thing happened with the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. It was a lie told over and over. And everyone repeated it. The New York Times didn't even go to the weapons inspector we sent to Iraq, Hans Blix! Instead, Judith Miller repeated a lie endlessly in the pages of the newspaper. It reflects a total lack of integrity. One of the main reasons for this is that many of them know they cannot tell the truth, otherwise they'll be fired. They know it's pointless to take a story that contradicts the president or the secretary of state or the CIA or the NSA to the editor. He or she will look at you and say What are you crazy? Do you want to get us both fired? So they simply don't bother. It's quite a corrupt milieu, and it must be deadening to the soul. But that's what it is to be a mainstream journalist today. Truthout: Looking back on your time as assistant secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, how have the global politics of brinkmanship changed? PCR: Oh, yes, it's changed tremendously, in two critical ways. One is the Soviet Union and Communist China existed, and these were huge constraints on American power. The US couldn't go waltzing in blowing up countries throughout the Middle East, for example. Those constraints on American power no longer exist. The Cold War is gone, and the alliances that were part of it have disappeared. When I was in the Reagan administration, the neoconservatives had not emerged as the ideological force that they are today; they had not written their position papers calling for American world hegemony. The neoconservatives had nowhere near the same power or influence [under Reagan] that they did under Clinton, George W. Bush and now Obama. In fact they caused so much trouble for [Reagan], he fired every one of them. They were behind the Contras in Nicaragua. Some of them were actually prosecuted and convicted - such as Elliot Abrams, who was assistant secretary of state. He and others were later pardoned by George H.W. Bush, but the Reagan administration itself took very strong action against neoconservatives. They were fired, thrown out of the government. Richard Perle was even thrown off of the [President's Intelligence Advisory Board]. The neoconservatives emerged with the American attacks on Serbia - what we call the NATO attacks - and the theft of Kosovo from Serbia and its setup as an American protectorate. Their influence then exploded in the first years of George W. Bush. The entire national security apparatus, the entire Pentagon, the entire State Department were all staffed-up by neoconservatives. The agenda was there. It had been set out in papers from the Project for the New American Century, and much of the government was run by its representatives. The Obama administration has many of the same people, but now they're able to go further because they have more resources to fund dissent groups like we've seen in Ukraine. This is a reckless thing to do. The Russians cannot accept strategic threats of this sort; it's just too high. End Truthout Interview Looking for Hitler Comparisons? Ironically, US media portrays the actions of Putin to Hitler. The reality is right-wing Hitleristic goons now occupy key posts in Ukraine. Even the generally-liberal Huffington Post recognize that fact. Please consider The Neo-Nazi Question in Ukraine. The Obama administration has vehemently denied charges that Ukraine's nascent regime is stock full of neo-fascists despite clear evidence suggesting otherwise. Such categorical repudiations lend credence to the notion the U.S. facilitated the anti-Russian cabal's rise to power as part of a broader strategy to draw Ukraine into the West's sphere of influence. Even more disturbing are apologists, from the American left and right, who seem willing accomplices in this obfuscation of reality, when just a cursory glance at the profiles of Ukraine's new leaders should give pause to the most zealous of Russophobes.Dark Side of Ukraine Revolt I also invite you to read the Dark Side of Ukraine Revolt on The Nation. "You'd never know from most of the reporting that far-right nationalists and fascists have been at the heart of the protests and attacks on government buildings," reports Seumas Milne of the British Guardian. The most prominent of the groups has been the ultra-right-wing Svoboda or "Freedom" Party.Take Your Pick: Story A or Story B Story A: Crimea has historically been a part of Russia for centuries. Russian troops in Crimea were there by agreement. Thus, Russia did not invade Crimea. The US fomented trouble in Ukraine(and got it, but did not like the result). Crimea voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia. There is no legitimate reason to disavow that vote, whether we like the result or not. The US reneged on promises to not let NATO expand into Eastern bloc countries. Obama and US officials lie through their teeth, even to the point of supporting neo-nazis now running Ukraine. The IMF is now poised to wreck what remains of Ukraine. Story B: Russia invaded Crimea. The vote for independence was illegal. It doesn't matter that the US reneged on promises not to put NATO in Eastern Europe. Any force Obama wants to apply to Russia is valid. Sending US missiles to the Check Republic and Ukraine makes sense. Freedom fighters now run Ukraine. I Vote for Story A The US fomented a coup of freely-elected Viktor Yanukovych and now does not like the result. Crimea did not like the result either. Crimea leaders defected and held a vote. Crimea returns to Russia and it never should have been given to Ukraine in the first place. This is what happens when you meddle in the internal affairs of other countries. S*** happens, and the US is to blame. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Posted: 23 Mar 2014 12:39 PM PDT In a political gambit that at best is likely to result in some face-saving statements of support for the president, Obama Heads to Hague Hoping to Strengthen Europe's Resolve. US President Barack Obama arrives in Europe after Russia's annexation of Crimea grappling with conflicting advice, anxious allies and unsure about Russian President Vladimir Putin's next move in Ukraine.Too Little Too Late? It is interesting to see warmongering Financial Times see this as "too little, too late", while the Fiscal Times proclaims, Obama Crippled a Russian Bank with a Stroke of a Pen. (For discussion, please see Criminal Actions by Obama; Two Wrongs Make a Right). My own view is the Fiscal Times overstated the effects on St. Petersburg-based Bank Rossiya, yet the US has already done too much because no amount of sanctions will force Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine. The Financial Times continues ... Economic officials have broadly cautioned against tough sanctions because of the potential blowback against a US economy still struggling to regain solid growth, while Mr Obama's political advisers have pushed for tougher action, because of the diplomatic principles at stake.Principles or Egos? Are principles at stake or egos? Perhaps both, but any principles involved in this are misguided at best. For discussion, please see Buffoon Bluffery; What are Sanctions Really About? The neocons would love to have another war. Indeed, they would be happy to have perpetual war on multiple fronts (which is precisely why we seem to have perpetual war, frequently on multiple fronts). Everyone Should Hope Obama Fails All further sanctions can do is provoke military or economic war. There will be no winners in either outcome. Sanctions, war, and economic war are a Negative Sum Game. Thus, a failure by Obama to secure any additional sanctions is the best possible outcome. The second best result is some face-saving but meaningless statements. As is typical of misguided politics coupled with bigger than life egos, the bigger the political failure to achieve stated goals, the better off we will all be. Failure is truly success! Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
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Let's say you wanted to improve the katana, the legendary fighting sword.
You could ask your team to come up with a sword that's lighter, sharper and more durable.
Built into that charge is the requirement to compromise. And just about everyone who has come before you has tried to come up with the same sort of compromise, and your chances of a breakthrough are slim indeed.
Compromise gives us an out, because, with multiple goals, it's easy to play it safe.
But what if you picked just one?
What if you sought to make the sharpest katana ever? Or merely the most durable one? By optimizing for just one attribute, you've eliminated most of the compromise from the design discussion. As a result, you're far more likely to encounter something extraordinary. It might not be practical, but there's plenty of time to compromise later.
It's almost always easier to roll something back a little than it is to push it forward.
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Criminal Actions by Obama; Two Wrongs Make a Right Posted: 22 Mar 2014 05:40 PM PDT To President Obama, two wrongs make a right. Also, might makes right. Suppose a neighbor steals your cat. Would it even be morally just to punch another neighbor (or the neighbor's kid) in the face to retaliate? If you are president Obama, the answer is yes. Please consider How Obama Crippled a Russian Bank with a Stroke of a Pen. On Thursday, President Obama sent a message to Russian president Vladimir Putin about strength. Specifically, economic strength. The message was this: Whenever I decide to, I can pick up a pen, and kill a significant financial institution in your country.Criminal Actions by Obama Bank Rossiya is frozen out of the US dollar even though it is not a rogue bank, is not involved in any criminal investigation, and in fact has not done anything wrong. I cannot predict the result of this, and also suspect the impact as assessed above is a bit trumped up. After all, how many US dollar transactions does Bank Rossiya conduct? Regardless, the actions of Obama are disturbing. You do not (rather you should not), punch an innocent party in the face as a means to force a third party to do what you want. The action by Obama is both criminal and hypocritical. And I bet it does not even work. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
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