What Are People Saying About You Behind Your Back?
People are talking about your business online. Do you know what they’re saying about you? And if they’re not talking about you, it’s time to get them started.
A quick Google search today yielded the following list of sites that post consumer reviews of local businesses in my stomping ground, the greater metropolitan Indianapolis (Indiana, USA) area (this is just a partial list):
· Google.com
· Yelp.com
· InsiderPages.com
· Local.Yahoo.com
· Cityguide.AOL.com
· MojoPages.com
· IndianapolisLocal.com
· Indianapolis.Citysearch.com
· JudysBook.com
· 46240.net (Works for most, if not all, zipcodes nationwide.)
· Merchantcircle.com
· Planetpages.com
· Yellowbook.com
· Yellowpages.com
· Citysearch.com
(Yes, some of these sites access the same database, but they still represent multiple sites people can choose to go to for that information.)
· My3Cents.com
· TheIndyChannel.com
· WTHR.com
· WISHTV.com
· IndyStar.com
Now, it goes without saying that some of these sites are used by a whole lot of people. That’s a lot of potential customer reviews of your business, and a lot of people to read them. A lot of places for your customers to tell others how great your business is to deal with – or a lot of places where they can talk about how you let them down.
You’ve probably heard of the “Social Web”; these sites are a prime example of that phenomenon, of people using the Web to make a connection to others with a similar interest, to express their feelings about their experiences with local businesses. In this scenario, it’s no longer the World Wide Web, but the Locally Focused Web that’s connecting people and allowing them to gush – or vent – about your business.
What does this mean for you as a business owner or manager? Well, a couple of things: first, it means you’re probably being talked about behind your back – unless you make a habit of searching sites like these for mentions of your business’s name (and, while you’re at it, your competitors*). This talk may be favorable, or it may be negative – and if it’s negative, out there where anyone in the world who knows your name can find it, you can bet it’s hurting your business. Marketers have known, and research has confirmed, for decades that consumers place a high level of trust in endorsements, and criticism, from “people like them” – in this case, people who have an internet connection and an interest in your business.
Next, it means that if you’re not being talked about, your marketing efforts, whatever form they take, aren’t working. The online conversation offers a good snapshot of how people feel about your business. And if no one’s talking about it, then they either don’t know you’re there or you haven’t made a strong enough impression, positive or negative, to compel them to bang out a quick review.
And finally, all this cyberchatter means you have an opportunity to connect with your customers and future customers for free – if you just take a little time to find the conversations, participate in the conversations (many of these sites allow a business owner – or anyone – to post a reply or comment to a review), or even start a conversation about your business: all you need to do is talk to some of your most loyal customers and politely ask them, since they clearly feel very strongly about your business, if they’d consider doing you a favor by typing out a two-sentence review of your operation on Google or any of the multitude of other sites. After all, it’s not really cheating, or lying, if they’re really your customers and they really have positive things to say about your business.
As an example, one of the local network television affiliates’ sites listed above is presently running their annual “Best Of” contest, with at least thirty categories. Three of my clients fit into one of those categories; two are actually being voted for but aren’t in the top ten yet, and the third could be listed but isn’t. In all three cases, the clients, the owners of the businesses, were unaware of the contest. Wouldn’t it be a shame to miss out on a free-promotion opportunity this good – especially if, with an investment of nothing but a little effort, you could boast of being one of the Ten Best in your field in the fourteenth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. for an entire year? How much is that kind of publicity worth?
Will this boost your customer counts overnight? Not likely. But devoting, say, half an hour a week – maybe when you first roll out of bed or into your office – to monitoring and participating in the local online consumer chatter is a free and pretty easy strategy that holds a lot of potential for enhancing your marketing efforts in the long run.
* I’m sure I shouldn’t admit it, but there’s a certain satisfaction in coming across a snarky review of a competitor (or a former client or employer you had a falling-out with). And no, I would never post them myself. It’s just not sporting. It’s much more fun to see what misery they’ve visited on total strangers.
