How do you begin to manage your online reputation?
Do you know what your customers are saying about you? How are you handling the constant stream of online reviews and ratings by customers? Are you interacting with prospective customers and actively promoting your brand through social media? Now more than ever, social media and reputation management are an essential component of many industries that impact not just your marketing team, but touch on every aspect of your business as it relates to the customer experience. If you’re not effectively monitoring your online presence, you could be putting your brand at risk.
Keeping on top of your brand reputation can be daunting, especially in this age of social media. With the onset of the many customer review and social media sites, we all know the days of traditional customer satisfaction surveys have passed and consumers now have free-reign to publicly post their experiences and opinions.
The travel industry leads the way in online customer feedback, with all types of travelers leaving detailed reviews on hotels, restaurants and excursions, sometimes before they even reach home. In turn, these review sites are often the first place future travelers visit when planning a trip, and customer reviews carry significant weight in evaluating hotels and determining where to stay. Social media sites such as Trip Advisor, Yelp, Facebook, and Google + have become a valuable source of information for travelers, as well as a place for businesses to interact directly with customers and prospective customers. If your pages are welcoming, informative, responsive, and gives consumers what they want, it can have a huge impact on their decision to book a stay at your property.
Developing a successful presence and reaping the benefits of these types of sites requires a significant commitment on the part of management, however. Assessing customer reviews and sentiments toward a business, managing multiple sites or brands, responding to reviews and posts, converting postings to business, delivering ROI on time spent on Social Media and promoting brand advocates can all add up to a major investment of time and effort.
Travel sites may be the most used by customers these days, but businesses across the board can benefit from using the same reputation management strategies that are worth their weight in gold.
Read MoreFrom Our Friends at Compendium: “FAIR USE: THE LEGAL USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL GUIDE”
Our friends at Compendium developed a fabulous Guide worth reading:
FAIR USE: THE LEGAL USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
Great information on SOPA, PIDA, ”What is Fair Use?” and “Examples of Fair Use for Bloggers”.
Thanks Compendium!
Read MoreAn article on “Website Design – Identifying a Quality Design and Development Firm”
This article, sent to me by Active Search Results (ASR) today as their Search Engine: Featured Article: http://www.activesearchresults.com/articles/422286.php
Daljeet Sidnu’s take on web development and design really makes some key points that should be considered when selecting a Quality Web Development firm. As we often manage the web development and design for client’s, we are constantly striving for design that is timely, fits the client’s target markets and marketing strategies, allows the client accessibility to the site, and delivers what was promised. Thanks Daljeet for these exceptional points!
Website Design – Top Ten Ways To Identify A Quality Design And Development FirmBy Daljeet Sidhu An effective website attracts customers to your business, generates sales leads and closes sales – multiplying your profits in the process. Professional web design firms must combine uniqueness and innovation in design with state-of the-art technology and maintenance support to create a powerful website that produces results. Before hiring a web designer, consider the following ten factors: 1. Effective Web Designers communicate well Experienced web-designers support multiple modes of communication for interacting with their clients. These include phone, email and live chat. Depending on your requirements, you can use the communication method that suits you best. 2. Website Design Budgets Should Focus on Results Effective web-design teams often combine the method of flat fees with hourly billing for software design and installation. It is never advisable to enter into open-ended billing relationships with Web designers until the maintenance phase of the project. 3. Smart Web Designers and Developers Make Billing Easy An experienced web-design company usually charges twenty to fifty percent of the project fee in advance, and accepts payment through checks and major credit cards. 4. A Web Design Company Shares Its Work Professional design companies encourage their designers to maintain portfolios representing their best work, client information and testimonials. You can request portfolios to assess the effectiveness of the company’s web design solutions. 5. Flexible Website Designers Use Time Saving Technology Quality web design teams support the use of inexpensive and time saving technology. This includes open source publishing and e-commerce tools like WordPress for handling Weblogs and corporate information pages, osCommerce for online shopping features and Zope for building customized content management and customer interaction tools. These tools enable businesses to achieve professional standards while saving time and money. 6. Efficient Web Design Professionals Blend Stock and Scratch sources Efficient website designers always maintain a set of stock templates and images to speed up work. When designing a website for a client, they select an appropriate stock template and customize it from scratch to meet client-specific requirements and ensure uniqueness and freshness in design. 7. Intelligent Web Professionals Distinguish Design and Hosting Many website design firms offer complementary and low cost Web-hosting solutions, usually as part of their maintenance packages. Quality firms provide excellent uptime, reliability and service. Compare the cost and benefits of an in-house hosting solution and an independent web-host before making your decision. 8. Creative Website Designers Let Clients Handle Minor Updates Experienced Web designers develop architectures for Websites including publishing platforms that simplify the process of making changes. These plans are so effective that they allow you to make minor updates in-house or with the help of a less expensive Web professional. These web designers often save their skills for launching or re-launching websites and major revisions requiring considerable work on design, templates and graphics. 9. The Best Web Developers Understand Standards and Accessibility The designed website should comply with both web standards like standards for interface design and browser accessibility, and state and federal guidelines such as providing accessibility features for the visually impaired and people suffering with other medical insufficiencies. Experienced Web designers should also ensure SEO optimization of your website and prevent it from become inaccessible and unusable. 10. A Good Web Design Company Gets Honest about Rates and Turnaround Time Even the most efficient Web designers can combine only two of the three features (High quality, speed and low cost) when designing your web-site. Professional web design teams will provide you accurate estimates about their rates, speed and turnaround time. Firms that are more expensive often have smaller waiting lists. If sufficient time is available, you can get a high quality website at a lower cost. Select a Web design firm that meets your requirements. Effective Web designers comply with all of the above-mentioned practices. More importantly, they make clients feel comfortable about wading into unfamiliar waters. The right Web design firm can enable your business to save thousands of dollars and valuable time. About the Author: Daljeet Sidhu is Co-founder at TradeSeam. See guide to hiring web site development firms. Compare web design services quotes. Sellers JOIN for sales leads. Source: www.isnare.com |
Some Really Great Pick-up’s for LuCorp Marketing Clients
We just have to tout our clients and tell what we have been up to….bragging? YES! Excited? YES! Really excited for clients? YES! AND, to top it off all of our client’s web traffic is up and sales are up as well! Check out these great articles and releases for our clients:
Arizona River Runner’s
Cover story: ”52 Weekend Adventures” Phoenix Magazine: 
“Hidden Hikes on a Grand Canyon Rafting Trip”
American Roads
http://www.americanroads.net/archives.htm
Arizona Tourism Information
www.wegoplaces.com/USA_State_AZ_Cat_Tourism.aspx
“Recapture the Best of Summer with A Grand Canyon Rafting Trip”
The Travelers Journal
http://www.travelersjournal.com/press2.php?ID=8527
El Portal Sedona
“El Portal Sedona Hotel Receives Condé Nast Traveler: 2011 Readers’ Choice Award”
Travel Age West
http://www.travelagewest.com/Travel-News/Arizona-Travel-Info/Sedona-Boutiq
The Sedona 10
Todays Dog online
http://www.dogsblogtoday.com/17309/el-portal-sedona-hotel-receives-conde-nast-traveler-2011-readers-choice-award/
Forbes
www.specials.forbes.com/article/069SdJb9Sr0vI
Go Kids
“Unforgettable Winter Visits to the Grand Canyon”
Travel Tips
http://www.traveltipsguy.com/2012/01/
“El Portal Sedona Offers Exclusive Designation Wedding Packages”
Luxury Hotels
Dallas News
http://topics.dallasnews.com/article/0f0qawW1ibh1k
Paul Martin’s American Bistro
“Paul Martin’s American Bistro Expands its Popular “Taste of Paul Martin’s” Menu of Premium Small Plates, Wines and Cocktails”
News 10 Roseville
http://roseville.news10.net/news/food-and-drink/paul-martins-american-bistro/74089
“Paul Martin’s American Bistro Joins with Local Farmers”
Fresh
http://agro-biz.com/local_farming.html
Farming With Family
http://farming-isfun.com/paul_martins_american_bistro_j.html
“Support Adult and Pediatric Epilepsy Day at Paul Martin’s American Bistro”
Roseville Patch
News 10
http://folsom.news10.net/h/events?ct=d&evid=231398471
“Paul Martin’s American Bistro Expands its Popular “Taste of Paul Martin’s” Menu”
Orange County Register
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/paul-290839-irvine-martin.html
Wine Industry Insight
Capital Review Group
“Capital Review Group Announces Membership in EnOcean Alliance North America”
Strategic Business News
Money News
“Marky Moore Joins HotelExecutive.com as Contributing Editor to the Hotel Business Review”
Hotel Newswire
NY Inc.
“Tax Deductions: Understanding Renovations and Improvements”
Hotel Business Review
http://hotelexecutive.com/subscribe/2835/
Hotel Online
http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2011_4th/Nov11_RenovationDeductions.html
“Bonus Depreciation is Expiring – Catch it Now!”
Money Profit Spot
US Green Building Council
http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/News/Bonus%20Depreciation.pdf
“Financing HVAC and Building Controls with §179D Deductions”
Distributed Energy
DCS Industries and DCS Pool Barriers
“Sliding Glass Door Closers – A Simple Solution for Hotels and Resorts”
Tourism Link Directory
http://w-tourism.com/Resorts/Page-27.html
“DCS Industries Opens New Facility and Customer Showroom in Phoenix, AZ”
Wrought Iron News
“DCS Global Patents Ultra Glide Wire Mesh Gate Closing System for Distribution Centers,
Materials Handling
World Fence News
http://read.dmtmag.com/issue/32232/77
Pets in the Classroom
“Pets in the Classroom Grant Program Now Available to 7th and 8th Grade Teachers”
Life with Dogs
The Pet Wiki
Good News for Pets
http://www.goodnewsforpets.com/archive.asp?archive=
“Pet Care Trust Names New President to Board”
Good News for Pets
http://www.goodnewsforpets.com/Articles.asp?ID=1867
“PETS IN THE CLASSROOM PROGRAM SETS GOAL OF REACHING 1 MILLION CHILDREN”
The Pet RX
http://www.thepetrx.com/blog/archives/710
Wyld’s Wingdom
Pet Product News: http://www.petproductnews.com/product-finder/page/4/bird-listings.aspx
“Wyld’s Wingdom to Exhibit at Global Pet Expo”
Dallas News
http://topics.dallasnews.com/article/06ZF3ffbIqbnX?q=Orlando+Florida
Forbes
http://specials.forbes.com/article/0bpUbVp2e44Dl
Pets Meds
http://pets-meds.net/wylds-wingdom-to-exhibit-at-global-pet-expo-2/
World Pet Association
Pet Groomer Forums
http://www.petgroomerforums.com/chat/
“The World Pet Association Positively Impacted Communities through America’s Family Pet Expo”
The Pet Wiki
http://thepetwiki.com/wiki/The_World_Pet_Association_Positively_Impacted_Communities_through_America’s_Family_Pet_Expo
Cat Info
http://www-cat.info/the-world-pet-association-positively-impacted-communities-through-america’s-family-pet-expo/
Coffee Reserve Brands
http://dailyshotofcoffee.com/coffee-cupping-basics-via-coffee-reserve/
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/potmsearch/detail/submission/519171/Deborah_Sandoval
Read MoreEnd of Year Thoughts, Google Panda, Marketing Strategies
I just wrote all of our client’s a note on what to expect in 2012 as the Internet is ever changing and our marketing strategies have to always be dynamic and evolve. Here’s a recap of what we will be doing for our client’s in 2012:
- Constantly selecting and revising keyword phrases that are relevant to target markets
- Implementing keyword changes to deliver improved positioning in the search
- FYI: We conduct keyword positioning assessments about 3 times a year
- Continuation of delivering fresh-quality content that fits the business – through social media, web content, blogs, articles, PR efforts, email campaigns and anything we may be working on.
- Pushing messages to high quality and relevant sites.
- Promoting messages through “guest blogging” or quotes or articles/press releases
- Watching brand reputation online for issues or new story ideas.
- We are always thinking of creative ways to promote our client’s businesses…we continually look for opportunities….but we can’t do this alone….we love working with our clients and collaborating! It’s what gets us up in the morning!
Great Article: “The New SEO” by Mark Nunney
Another great article that hits the nail on the head! I shared with our client’s and it is incredibly important to monitor and watch your Brand and encourage customers to promote your brand!
THANKS Word Tracker for this article! http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/authors/mark-nunney
The New SEO
Posted by Mark Nunney on 12 November 2011
Although the use of keywords on website pages and in the anchor text of inbound links remains important for SEO, search engines are increasingly using a site’s branding, visitor behavior and social data. This is The New SEO, introduced here by Mark Nunney in an edited extract from his new book, SEO for Profit.
Google’s new Panda update has changed SEO and it appears to include user behavior and (possibly) branding data.
But even if they aren’t considered at all by Panda, these factors are considered by Google’s main algorithm.
So you must consider them in your SEO planning.
To become a leader in your niche’s SERPs you have to be a leading brand in your niche.
That’s branding.
To stay a leader, visitors from SERPs are going to have to like what they find on your site, probably stay on it and certainly not return to the SERP that brought them.
That’s user behavior.
Engagement – that’s comments, mentions, sharing and links from social media (Twitter, Facebook, G+, StumbleUpon, etc) – will increasingly be used to rank and verify ranking.
That’s social.
The old SEO factors of on-page optimization, site build and inbound links with target keywords in the anchor are still important.
But branding, behavior and social data now count too. And will likely count more in the future as search engines learn how to use them.
All this means the user experience is now at the heart of SEO.
This is the New SEO.
Branding
Google engineers say they don’t favor big brands.
But Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, and ex-CEO, seems to disagree. When talking about the “cesspool” (his description) that is the internet (ie, spammy results on Google), he says:
“Brands are the solution, not the problem”.
These two viewpoints are easily reconciled though. Google favors sites with a wide range of factors that big brands just happen to display. Factors like:
• Brand mentions, shares and links in social media.
• Brand mentions and links on highly trusted sites.
• Searches with brand and domain names.
It’s important to note that the definition of a big brand is relative to the keyword and the market it is part of.
So a big brand in a small market might not be a large company. But a big brand in a big market will be a large company (or a smart small one).
In practice, this means if you’re a small company it’s going to be hard to do well in a big market.
This is a bit like high rents keeping small shops out of the shopping mall.
Behavior
User behavior data is all the factors that Google can measure via its toolbar, search results pages (SERPs) and other data sources it might choose to use from its vast store of information. Factors like:
• Time spent on site when clicking through from a SERP.
• Bounce rate.
• Bounce rate back to a SERP.
• Use of the ‘block all results’ button on Google SERPs.
• Time on site.
• Return visits.
(About those other data sources I’ve mysteriously referred to: you might believe Google that it was an accident its Street View cars downloaded the web browsing data of the wifi signals they passed. But it wasn’t a coincidence because Google is dedicated to gathering as much information as possible about everyone.)
That Google uses toolbar data is now clearly documented. For evidence, read SEO veteran Mike Grehan:
“Andrew Tomkins, Engineering Director at Google and former Chief Scientist at Yahoo, made it quite clear at SES New York in 2008 that, in his opinion, whereas anchor text had always been the ‘workhorse’ of search, the strongest signal now comes from the toolbar.”
Also, when Panda 2.0 rolled out, Google publicly stated that user feedback signals were now being used. These signals can come from use of the ‘Block all results’ links which now appear next to search results if you quickly bounce back to them. See the example below:
Learn how to make sure your site delivers what searchers for your target keywords want in SEO for Profit (A Wordtracker Masterclass in SEO in the real world).
Social
All forms of engagement including comments, likes, tweets, +1s and mentions, either:
• Might be found by search engines and directly used in their algorithms; or
• Share your content with a person or website (it may be automated) that then might mention or link to your website in a way that is used directly in search engine algorithms.
Also, such engagement might also lead to repeat and new direct visits and response.
That social might work and work for SEO is clear. The question then becomes: is it significant? And the answer is: yes.
A simple piece of evidence to support that answer is that Facebook is now the most visited site in the USand therefore more popular in the US than Google.
It’s not hard to see why Google would like a piece of that social action.
Google and social
Social websites, especially Facebook and Twitter, are now serious competitors for Google’s audience and subsequent advertising revenue.
So Google has tried (but failed) to ‘do’ social eg, with Lively, Google Buzz, Orkut, Dodgeball, Google Wave and Google Me.
Google+ is its latest effort and this time it might succeed. We’ll see.
With +1 buttons, Google is trying to integrate social with search. If you visit a page or see a search result you like, Google wants you to click a +1 button (similar to Facebook’s ‘like’).
“+1s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query.”
That means that if a searcher’s friend +1s a page it will move up the results when you search.
Exactly how and when +1s, Facebook likes and tweets will affect others’ results is not yet clear and will evolve. Whatever the answer …
Social is now part of search and therefore part of SEO.
Mark Nunney has been a successful professional SEO since 2000. He is CEO of The Website Marketing Company and he publishes Leadership & Management Review from ThinkingManagers.com, the business management website.
Mark wrote SEO for Profit, Wordtracker Masterclass: Keyword Research bookand co-wrote Wordtracker Masterclass: Link Building with Ken McGaffin. He also is also the founder and project manager of Wordtracker Strategizer .
You can follow Mark Nunney’s SEO on Twitter , LinkedIn and Google+ .
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