The worst thing about negative reviews of your local business listing is that these catch the eye of your prospective customers more than anything. But, there is hope! You now have the ability with Google Places to counter negative reviews, or respond to them, and people will see your responses. How you handle this can really show how good, or bad, you are at customer relations.

Managing the Problem

You must handle negative reviews in a timely manner. As illustrated in the diagram below, negative reviews can derive from a number of places across the Internet. Some people employ firms that specialize in reputation management such as ReputationDefender.com to monitor their listings and do the work for them, but there are some actions you can take on your own. Try to respond to all negative reviews within two days, showing your commitment to your customers and your concern for your reputation. Remember not to get defensive in your responses. It might feel right, but no matter how you feel about it you need to keep a level head.

If you can, try to talk to the person who left you a negative review privately. If this isn’t possible, reply to their review. Start your reply by thanking them for taking time out of their lives to leave you a feedback, apologize, and let them know you will be making changes to your business or establishment to make sure this doesn’t recur. If you can address their issues, they might even go back and edit their apology with “issue resolved” or “problem fixed” so people can see that you care about your customers, turning a negative situation into a positive. Bad reviews aren’t always bad though, they can help you change and improve your business. Look at this as an opportunity to grow as a company, and to have a better relationship with you customers.

Sometimes, You Can’t Please Everyone

Remember a few bad reviews aren’t the end of the world. Google Places usually displays the six most recent reviews to your listing, so the bad review(s) can be bumped down in time. Your online reputation is your greatest currency in this day and age, and you need to work hard to protect it. If you get compliments about your business, always suggest that customers leave feedback on your listing, so others can see you are a trustworthy and responsive business person.

See graph below from the webinar hosted by Dan Zarella, it clearly explains to us that negative remarks drive down followers.

Follow Me

Follow others in order to get followed. Personally I do understand that if I click on a profile such as Oprah, The White House or Google the followers will out number who they are following considerably.  You want to balance your followers to following ratio; HubSpot recommends keeping your followers higher than who you follow.

Tweet Time

Twitters most busiest time is towards the end of the week; tweets go on daily while most ReTweets happen towards the end of the day. You can gain more clicks by simply timing the way you tweet. Tweeting back to back lowers your click rate as you increase tweets in a row. Tweet slower, a tweet here and there is more prone to be clicked. Sometimes I open my Twitter account and there are six tweets in a row from a single person. 1 I may quickly read through the titles and choose one to click or 2 simply skip all of them at once and go to another tweeter’s single tweet.

What are you Tweeting?

Use Twitter to market your business, services or products. Again balance your tweets by possibly mixing pitch tweets with quotes,  headlines and ReTweets. Whatever your industry or niche, Google Alerts is a great place to type in a word or phrase and receive the latest information on any given topic.

How to maximize followers with your Twitter behavior:

1) Tweet positively

2) Keep personal information to a minimum

3) Don’t use Twitter to spam people

4) Engage Tweeter with your information

5) Time your tweets

6) Follow others

]]> http://agirlwhowearsglasses.com/maximize-followers-with-your-twitter-behavior/feed/ 0 http://agirlwhowearsglasses.com/artisteer-review/ http://agirlwhowearsglasses.com/artisteer-review/#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 04:31:41 +0000 admin http://agirlwhowearsglasses.com/?p=127

Artisteer offers you the ability to create WordPress, Joomla and Drupal themes relatively easy. The price is affordable, for as little as $50 you can begin using Artisteer with some restrictions, and after one site project it will have paid for itself. If you want to create Joomla or Drupal templates you will need to purchase the Standard version ($129). I have used Artisteer as a useful tool for over a year now for quick small site projects. The click and point interface is easy to navigate and enables you to customize every aspect of your template.  Artisteer also provides a variety of ready made templates or you can create your own. I find the templates to be a little on the gaudy side, so going with an existing Artisteer template is not an option for me.  The latest version allows you to incorporate Flash and customize menus. Do you use Artisteer? What is your take on it?

Once you find one that looks good, research
Traditional offline businesses looking to market their services online will find the guidance of a local SEO consultant valuable as they reach audiences they never knew existed. When you find someone that looks like a great fit, research them! Look around and see who has used them before. Do they primarily work for franchises or independent business owners? Do they have a good track record for finishing projects on time, if at all? Can you find them referenced on other websites, especially in your own local area?  Can you find any information on them, besides press release websites? A good local SEO consultant will be an asset to your business; driving more traffic to your site and eventually through your doors.

Are they right for you?
You want to look at samples and previous clients they’ve had. Have they worked with your type of business? Communication is key to the success of your working relationship. Do you prefer emails of status reports, Skype calls or phone calls? If you’re more comfortable with face to face meetings than weekly email reports, you should let them know. You will need to go over what work has been done during the week, so you understand the progress of your site. Do they work alone, or do they have a team who specialize in each area to work on your project? If you have working knowledge of SEO yourself it would be help to even ask “How” will a consultant deliver their promises to you.

When you first contact them, be clear and concise about your needs. Don’t be afraid to ask your potential consultant questions. Ask them if your expectations are realistic, and what kind of growth you can expect in your business. If you’re a three person shop selling clothes, you won’t be able to handle 5,000 extra customers every day. Ask them if their services are offered as package deals or a la carte. Knowing what you’re paying for is half the battle!

Take Away

A few questions to ask a local SEO consultant include:

• What is your experience as a local SEO consultant?
• How long have you been in business?
• Do you have client testimonials?
• Can you provide me with examples of your work?
• Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
• Is there a project plan and deliverable dates?
• What are your most important SEO techniques?
• How can I expect to communicate with you?
• Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide
  detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
• When will I see results and how are they measured?

Who Are You?
Twitter provides an account profile area to input information about who you are and what you offer. Leaving this area blank effects how you are perceived by propective followers and is like distributing an incomplete business card. People want to know who they are following. The Hubspot webinar confirmed that more people follow people that have completed their bio, added a link to another internet medium (website, blog, article etc) and uploaded an avatar. Another interesting point made was based upon how a bio reads.  Are you the ‘founder’ of your organization? Or is your Twitter account the ‘official’ account of a particular brand? Authoritative words such as these increase followers. Your bio should be short, sweet and give Tweeters a reason to follow you; you only have 160 characters. Keep these few points in mind as you write your bio:

1. Tell Tweeters what you do
2. Let your personality show, by possibly mentioning a hobby
3. Exclude any information that may offend

I have also noticed different ways bios are written:

1. Stating who you are, what you do and phone number
2. Keyword based- stating several keywords that describe who you are and what you do
3. Using complete sentence(s) to describe who you are and what you do (from my research, this is most recommended)

Avatars Increase Followers
Your image is important, an avatar should represent you. As described in Hubspot’s chart below, you can see that profiles with pictures out pace accounts without tremendously. The question becomes should you use a logo, stock photography or photo; using offensive images is not recommended. An accounts experiment which included one absent of an avatar with only a link as bio information resulted in very slow growth compared to my other accounts with complete profiles.

Getting started with a Twitter account is easy, but like most things in life plan the way you use it so that it will be most effective for you.

Online printers have been my first choice for printing for over 6 years. They offer streamlined processes that include uploading your artwork, an instant proof and precise shipping. If you are a graphic designer looking to offer printing services,  online printers offer an array of products to meet most marketing needs. Online printers are priced at an affordable rate that leaves room for you to resell the printing of print collateral such as brochures, magnets, posters, postcards and business cards. Using online printers can help you be more productive, you don’t have to drive to a printer and you facilitate the entire printing process from your computer. Below are just a few that I use regularly, if you have a favorite of your own please comment and I will add to the list.

Overnight Prints

Overnight Prints offers everything from business cards to posters and even mailing services. I also like Overnight Prints for the small quantities they offer like 25 business cards for only $5 bucks. They are also very good about offering coupons via their site and email.

GotPrint

GotPrint price points are very attractive and the quality of the  finished product looks just as good as more pricier online printers. They also offer more products than Overnight Prints and Clubflyers. For green concious designers, GotPrint goes the extra mile to offer paper products that are recycled from certified sustainable production systems. They consider themselves a green printer, this was a major plus for me. I have also found that clients value being offered green friendly printing. GotPrint also regularly sends discounts via email.

Clubflyers

The high quality of Clubflyers products will leave you and your clients pleased. If ever needed customer service is great about responding by phone. I once really needed to speak to a live person in order to have brochures cut a certain way and I appreciated the call backs. Their new streamlined checkout process enables you to check pricing and shipping charges specific to your location before placing your order.

You may have noticed SponsoredTweets as a way to get paid to tweet. I first learned about SponsoredTweets through John Chow’s blog and thought, “Wow you can actually get paid to tweet”. Tweeters simply sign up with SponsoredTweets and wait for advertiser offers to promote a product in their feed.  A Twitter account must meet a few criteria before it will be eligible to send SponsoredTweets. Your Twitter account must be at least 60 days old, have at least 100 followers and 100 status updates to be visible in searches to advertisers. The cash out amount is $50.00 and can be received through paypal.

Tweeters have a choice as to how much they will charge advertisers per tweet, and SponsoredTweets will also suggest a price for you. I have experimented with varied amounts lower than what SponsoredTweets has suggested in one of my profiles which resulted in an increase in opportunities. However, I have observed one profile receive less pay than another profile for the same tweet. Tweeting is about engaging your followers, be selective in opportunities you decide to tweet. Too many tweets or off beat tweets from sponsors can turn off your audience and cause a drop in followers. If you are an active Tweeter, I encourage you signup with SponsoredTweets as a means to earn a few bucks to tweet.

Adding Value to Your Website
Reputable search engine optimization firms recognize the importance of quality content based upon the fact that people utilizing search engines are solely seeking information. People will bookmark, forward and share information they find trustworthy. An organic SEO firm will use methods such as relevant page titles, meta tags and directory submissions. They will also take it a step further and continually research industry specific directories beneficial to your site. Link building is a major component of a search engine optimization service, increasing the web site’s relevance and ranking that will bring in additional, highly targeted traffic. Firms that practice true “organic SEO” will implement these techniques as they transform your site into something of value and increase link worthiness.

Return on Investment
Who wouldn’t want more traffic, year after year, and a constantly growing return on their investment? Search engine optimization firms will provide you with reports so that will enable you to track your investment. Reports may also include: competitor search engine optimization tactics and rank comparisons. As an added benefit, SEO firms may report your competitors who violate the search engine terms of service, which can drastically reduce the number of competitors in the search engine and help to improve your search engine rankings.

The frequent change in search engine algorithms will not be a concern of your company based on the natural techniques and practices implemented by an organic search engine marketing company. Opting to pay for a service that delivers high ranks based on technical loopholes can defeat your Internet marketing strategy and waste money over the long term. Your business reputation goes without saying. As mentioned before, quality content will make your website an industry valued resource while helping to keep your rank high. Overtime you will see the benefits of an organic SEO’s services that will provide a natural boost to your ranking for your product and service pages.

How does Amazon Associates for Blogger work?

1. Utilize the Amazon Product Finder’s ability to search and recommend products closely associated with your blog’s text without leaving your blog post. Each time you create a new post you will see the Amazon Product Finder appear to the right.
2. You will have the option to include a product as a link, image or link/image that includes your Associates ID with the potential to earn up to 15% in referral fees from Amazon

How do I add Amazon Associates Sidebar Gadgets?

1. Within your Blogger panel click on LAYOUT and then ADD A GADGET
2. In the search box input Amazon and all of the Amazon gadgets will appear. Gadgets include MP3 clips from Amazon’s DRM-free music store, Amazon Deals, Contextual Product Ads, and an Amazon Search box

If you have a Blogger account and need an Amazon Associates account, one can be created directly within Blogger. If you are an Amazon Associate without a Blogger account, sign up for Blogger with your Amazon Associate ID.

Have you had success at blog giveaways? If so, tips and advice are welcome!