Using Yelp to Connect with Customers

A lot of small businesses are jumping on the bandwagon and using Facebook and Twitter to promote their business and connect with consumers. I think that’s great. However, I’ve noticed that Yelp is one of the most under utilized sites on the web. If your a retail brand, here is my case for why you should consider using Yelp to market your business.

Growth
Yelp has seen continued growth over the last couple of years. In 2009, the site saw a 60 percent increase in unique visitors! The site has also seen adoption from mobile users and is thinking ahead by launching one of the first Augmented Reality iPhone apps.

With all of this traffic, chances are your business is already being reviewed on Yelp. I’d recommend looking right away.

Yelp Business Accounts
Most businesses I talk to are surprised to hear that you can create a business account on Yelp for free. This feature alone makes Yelp a great tool.

As explained above, creating a Yelp business account is very simple. All you need to do is click on “get a business owner account” and your on your way to claiming your business. Once you’ve claimed your business, you’ll have the ability to take full control of Yelp. At minimum, make sure you update the information for your business. This will help with local listings on the search engines. Below is a quick capture of just a few other things you can do once logged in.

Using Yelp to Interact with Customers
The best part of having a Business Account is the ability to interact with customers. Once you’ve followed all the sign-up steps, it’s time to utilize these tools. Here are a few things you should be doing:

1. Special offers
   What better way to capture a potential customer that is checking out your reviews than giving them a special offer? Try to add some exclusivity to the offer (i.e. “Yelp Members Special”). These are the type of visitors that are going to come back to Yelp and give you a review following a great experience, so make sure you capture them when you can.
2. Respond to reviews
   Make sure you respond to both positive and negative reviews. You can choose to send a public or private message to anyone that post a review. Try to change a negative reviewers perception with an offer to make things right, on the house. And thank your positive reviewers, perhaps with a free meal. These are the influencers that are going to spread the word about you, so take advantage!
3. Ask for reviews!
   Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews from your best customers. Once you have enough reviews, Yelp will send you signage that you can display in your storefront.
4. Watch Analytics
   The business account comes with analytics so you can see how many people are viewing your page. It will be interesting to watch this data and see if there is any connection to page visitors and sales. A great way to measure your success.

Hopefully this is enough to convince you that Yelp can be a powerful business tool. Good luck!

Columbus Social Experts – Are You Keeping Up?

Don’t be the Last to the Party when it Comes to Marketing Your Social Media Business

It’s tough to keep up with trends in search. Technology changes, behavior changes, terminology changes – but if you’re in the Social Media space you need to be aware of the spike in search behavior in your space. People are becoming aware of your business and they are starting to search it – are you ready?

Trends in Search for Columbus Google Searchers (source: Google Insights)

Which Phrases are Trending Up So Rapidly?

Of course phrases such as Facebook, Twitter, and other large site names are contributing to this trend, but we researched the more ‘action oriented’ phrases such as ‘Social Media’ and ‘Social Networking’ and we find the trend to be just as sharp, if not sharper.

What Can You as a Social Media Expert Do?

Get your name out there on the non-social sites! Yes, you may be known in your social marketing circles, but does the average business owner who is investigating the need for an audit or a strategy know your name? This can be done easily in your area using paid search and organic search.

Here are some great keyword starters:

• social web
• social sites
• social media sites
• social marketing services
• social marketing agency
• social marketing campaigns
• social marketing plan
• social marketing strategy
• social marketing research
• social marketing strategies
• social marketing campaign
• social marketing advertising
• social media press release
• social marketing theory
• what is social marketing
• social marketing firms
• social marketing agencies
• social marketing program
• social marketing programs
• social media marketing

Wrapping it Up

The tips and keywords in this post should get you started along the path of thinking about search marketing for your social marketing business. Use the keywords above as a way to get thinking about the ways people may search for you. Quick hint – there are about 1,000 other such phrases being search on the web right now, so this is not a comprehensive list, but just a ‘brain-tickler’ to get you started. Go out and start a paid search campaign to ‘test the waters;’ I’ll bet you’re surprised at how many people you are not yet reaching through just social marketing.

Take Risks with Social Media

We see it everyday. Company X says they’re ready to jump into the social media space, but when they get into the planning stage (assuming they followed a strategy development process) all the fear and old-school marketing techniques set in. Let’s face it, social media requires a new approch and the ability to take a few risks.

Companies have been here before. Remember when email first rolled around? Companies were a little scared to give all employees access to email. Mobile phones? Ability to surf the web? Today companies are starting to realize that employees are going to participate in social media whether the company likes it or not. Some approch this the right way and develop social media policies and take the time to educate employees about the right way to participate.

One example of taking a risk
I love sharing the story of Oxiem client Ohio Hi-Point Career Center. They are one of the first educational institutions to start utilizing social media to communicate with students and the community. Earlier this year, the mind behind the social media program at Hi-Point, Shane Haggerty, approched us about taking his social media efforts to the next level. He had the idea of giving select students the voice and a platform to tell their story.

Shane selected 10 student bloggers, all from a variety of different programs at Hi-Point. He armed them with Flip Cams, established  guidelines and educated the students on the basics of social media. The students have since taken control and are telling their story to the community, potential students and parents. What better way to capture the true essence of being a Hi-Point student? All of this takes place on a microsite called Hi-Point Journeys.

This usually catches many corporation by suprise. Shane found a way to give 10 high-school students a voice! These are teenagers! If he can do it with teenagers, I’m sure corporations can find a way to give their employees a voice. Of course I’m not suggesting companies just let employees loose and give them the ability to say whatever they want. Follow the Hi-Point process:

1. Have an objective
2. Create a plan
3. Develop guidelines and educate those involved
4. Monitor and moderate where needed

Are you ready to take a few risks in 2010?

Developing a Social Media Strategy

Please forgive me if you’ve already heard me stand on my soap box and lecture on the need for a strategy when it comes to social media. You would think this is a topic that is pretty obvious and overdone, but it obviously needs some more attention. Speed and low start-up costs are two things that make social media so great. However, because of those things many organizations jump in without asking themselves one very important question. Why?

Before just jumping right in I recommend you take some time and follow these steps:

1. Discovery
Research all the important players in your business. This includes your consumers, employees, competitors and companies you admire. Are they using social media? If so, what are they using it to do? Also take a good look at your brand and its perception in the social media space. This should be much deeper than just doing a Google Search. Try a social search engine like SocialMention.

2. Goals
This is the most important part that many organizations skip. What is it that you actually want to accomplish? If you can’t answer this question I’m willing to bet that in 6 months you’ll be dissapointed by the results of social media. Avoid saying things like “we just need a Facebook page.” Dig deep and think about some goals. Here are a few examples that you might consider:

• Improve customer service
• Help our internal sales team communicate with each other
• Increase awareness of the thought leadership that exists in the organization
• Launch a new product line

3. Planning
Ask yourself a lot of difficult questions. Who will manage our online presence? How will we respond to negative comments (since you should be responding)? Will we allow employees to particpate? Will we allow employees to show personality or will it all be behind the brand (please, consider showing some personality)? Do we need a social media policy (Yes!)? Consider all the tough questions now. You’ll be glad you got it out of the way.

4. Measurement Plan
How will you measure and evaluate your success? Measuring social media requires a different mindset. It’s all about engagement. Worry less about fans and followers and more about the quantity and quality of the interactions. Who cares if you have 1,000 fans that never comment or interact with you. Also, set realistic goals and don’t expect overnight results.

Nothing ground breaking here. In fact, this is probably a similar process you follow when making other business decisions. Good luck!