Here are 3 things you need to do to prevent this from happening:

The first thing you need to recognize is that your business is being discussed online and it can effect your reputation. (At the bottom of this message are 2 powerful videos that explain this in detail). In the old days, people went to Yellow Pages to look for someone who produces or sells your products and services. Nowadays, they go to Internet and look for references in such places as the Yelp.com, Google+, Merchant Circle.com and hundreds of other places. 80% of people will not go to business that has multiple negative reviews and it takes between 10-12 positive reviews to offset 1 negative one!

On the positive side, 87% of people will go to a business because of a positive review. Each additional Star on Yelp.com will equates to a 5-9% increase in Revenue!

This has become the single most important criteria today in doing business in an online world. Business owners who act like an ostrich and put their head in the sand are ignoring one the most valuable tools they have ever been offered before. They can also get in deep trouble by doing so.

In the old days, people could not comment on the printed book of Yellow Pages about your business and the experience they had with you. The only way they could say anything negative about you was to try and get a letter to the editor in the paper, pay for a Billboard to be put up so everyone could see or tell everyone they knew or met. Now, improperly treated clients will tell the world about how they felt in doing business with you and be able to do it in seconds. Sadly, competitors will also put up phony negative reviews about your business and they are almost impossible to remove.

The second thing that you need to realize is that it’s a brave new world out there and you have to be proactive about the issues. But it must be done in the proper way.

Some businesses have tried to “trick Google” into having friends post reviews about their business. Others have tried to offer bribes or incentives for people to post positive reviews or to “Like” them on Facebook. These short-term solutions can have long-term negative effects. Google, Facebook, Yelp and others somehow know that they had been tricked and will punish you for it. A friend of mine once owned a restaurant and asked a friend of his to possibly ask some of her friends to post some positive reviews about his business. Within 36 hours over 25 reviews were posted online. In less than 24 hours after that, his business was no longer listed online. He could no longer be found and was labeled a spammer by the review site.

The third thing you need to know: surprisingly, many business owners are not aware of what is happening in their own businesses or know how their customers feel about buying from them. Negative reviews can be a powerful wake-up call to owners who are willing to make the best of their business. If they find out that an employee has been mistreating customers in some fashion resulting in these negative reviews, the employee can be dealt with in a proper fashion. Something may be revealed on a review site about the way the secretary answered the phone; the way the shipping clerk improperly packaged the product; the lack of caring shown by the customer service representative; shoddy workmanship produced by the production department, etc.

What you need to realize is that although we don’t usually like or appreciate negative information about our company, you can learn from them and can use this valuable feedback to improve things. Giant corporations pay thousands of dollars (sometimes hundreds of thousands) each year to find out how they can improve their business. With negative reviews the only cost involved is dealing with the remedy.

So how can you deal with this issue? How can you use this powerful tool to benefit your business and reap the positive rewards of having positive reviews? How can you do this in an ethical, moral and non-intimidating fashion that will not cause you to lose your ranking, and still learn valuable feedback about your business?

The answer is proper reputation management.

Reputation management has been discussed several times over the last few years and it’s become somewhat of a buzzword. The problem with most companies who call themselves reputation management experts, is that they are doing things that are unethical and against the terms of service of most search engines and review sites.

We here at The WebSmith Group offer a unique and brand-new solution for those businesses that want to take advantage of the powerful features of positive reviews and to help improve their business at the same time. We offer a service whereby we give you an iPad* with 3 questions that are followed by 5 stars each. All the customer has to do is answer the 3 questions by choosing which of the stars they would rate you.

If they gave you at least 4 or 5 stars on every one of those 3 questions, a window will pop up that then asks them to write a review about your business. Once they select this it will be automatically posted on your Facebook page and a special place on your website. The customer will then be sent an e-mail thanking him/her for the opportunity to be of service to him and asking him if he would post a positive review on a few chosen websites. Obviously, not everyone will do this, but even if you had only 1 out of 10 do it, it is far more than you’re getting now. Since the latest algorithm of Google is highly dependent upon reviews, this can dramatically affect your page rankings for your industry online.

I hope you realize what you just read. Google has changed how they view and rank websites and they take a look at reviews of your business to determine where to place you. This is an extremely powerful feature.

What happens if your customer only gives you a 1, 2 or 3 stars? Here is the beauty of our program. If they select anything less than 4 or 5 stars, the iPad will beep alerting the secretary or person nearby that they were unhappy with some service that you had provided. This will give you an opportunity to ask the question, “What may we do to receive a higher ranking from you?” This also gives you an opportunity to prevent them from running out of your office and blasting to the world something that they did not like.

CAN YOU SEE WHY THIS IS SUCH A POWERFUL PROGRAM? CAN YOU SEE WHY WE ARE SO EXCITED TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU?

Now this brings up another powerful question, “How much is one customer worth to you?” If the customer is worth $100, $1000, or $10,000 per year to you, would it not be worth spending a couple extra minutes to make sure that this unhappy customer was taken care of? Not only do you want this person to be happy, but also you want a positive review about the experience and the opportunity for more new customers to have that same experience. Obviously, the higher value customer you have, the more time you may need to take to make sure that they are satisfied.

We now offer to you a system whereby you can prevent most negative reviews from being posted about you, you can learn about things that you may need to improving your business, you may get far more positive reviews about your business posted online on a much more regular basis, and you can get higher page rankings for your business because of the new algorithms of Google. All of these things can result in more new additional clients, patients or customers.

What would something like this be worth to you? What are you currently paying now for all of these things to be done?

I don’t know exactly what you’re thinking, but I’m pretty sure you have a fairly high number in your head. The good news is that I’m almost certain it will surprise you at the actual cost of such a system. We would like to make you an offer: First of all, watch this video to see exactly how the system works:

If you feel that this is a feature that you can benefit greatly from you can order this online and have a new iPad shipped directly to your office, fully loaded with all the proper information and ready to go right out of the box (with only a few minutes of adding links), in less than 5 days. We will also send you 3 powerful online marketing tools that you can use in your business just for taking the time to consider this.

Here is a testimonial from a Doctor who has been using this system for the past 2 months and wanted to share his wonderful results:

To order this powerful tool, there are 2 payments options: an Annual Contract or a Monthly one. Remember when I asked you what was one customer or client worth to you? Here is the beauty of this system: for only $1497 set up and $397 per month (which is usually far less than most customers, clients or patients are worth) you can have this power program working for you, sending out positive reviews and increasing your website rankings!

And here is the best part: there is a 60-day 100% Money Back Guarantee to make sure it works for you. You just have to make sure you return the iPad in perfect condition. One of my clients, a Dentist got 6 reviews in the first 2 days of using it and that were posted on his website! He is very excited about it and is keeping it forever. We are certain you will feel the same way too and that is why we are making this offer.

Setup: Only $1497

Monthly Investment: Only $397

You can also save money by purchasing it on an annual basis which will save you approximately $714 so it’s worth doing so if you can recognize the value of this system and take advantage of that.

Proper Reputation Marketing can make your business soar! It can energize your profits and make you glad you got in business in the first place! It can be a powerful marketing tool to bring in new customers and boost your website rankings.

Why Delay? Order Today!

Feel free to call me with any questions:
Kelly Smith, (775) 722-4949

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*iPad is on a loan basis only and ownership is retained by Mpact Magic.

**Mulitple Locations (above 10) receive a discount. Additional discounts are available for 25 stores or above 100 stores. Multiple iPads in the same store can also be discounted.

Mobile Marketing: Can Your Customers Find Your Business On Their Phone?

The use of mobile phones has exploded in recent years and there are now more than 5.6 Billion phones on the earth, almost as many as there are people on earth. The mobile phone is no longer just a means of communication; it is a way to connect with others socially, send text and photo messages, search on the Internet, send and receive e-mails, get directions and maps for current locations, take photos and videos of important or silly events and even have a conversation with, like John Malkovich does on that iPhone commercial.

And, things are not slowing down but speeding up.

Here is one of the most important things that every business needs to realize when it comes to mobile phones: can your business be found using mobile search? As your potential patient or customers are driving down the freeway at 65 miles per hour and they yell at their “Bluetooth” device to “find a dentist,” or “where can I get a hair cut in Sparks, NV?” who shows up? It is astonishing how many business listings are incorrectly noted with old or outdated phone numbers, addresses, contacts, locations, etc. Many do not even have proper photos or directions.

Most businesses couldn’t be found with a personalized mobile Google bot on steroids!

Look, you know that going online is a must for every business and is unavoidable. It’s just so hard to keep up with one more thing to deal with in local Internet Marketing. Your eyes get glazed over just thinking about trying to update anything. So, lets start with the basics.

The first place to go for any business is now Google+.

Really you ask? Yes. Google+ is going to become the business social center and is determined to make a dent in Facebook’s current standing, especially with business because money is involved and it isn’t about the latest cat video.

There are at least 3 other major apps that people use to find local businesses: Yelp.com, Foursquare.com, and Dibbs (at gotdibbs.com). They all know that this is the next battleground that needs to be won for the heart and soul of businesses who are listed online.

There will come a day when it will be more important to be found on the first page of the mobile listing than the current search engine listing on your computer. Why is that? It is predicted that 85% of all searches for products, services and businesses will be done from mobile phones before 2015.

I hope you just realize what you just read. That is a dramatic shift away from desktop and laptop computers towards mobile phones and iPad-like devices. These searches are not the same type of listing as “first page rankings” you are familiar with. It has to do with “proximity” to the users actual physical location. Most mobile searches are for products and services that are close to where they currently are while they are using their phone and the internal GPS gives away their location to the invisible satellites above.

That presents another major problem.

Most websites are set up for easy viewing on desktop or laptop computers with a minimum screen size of around 15 inches. They do not work well on 3 or 4-inch screens. Someone who finds your business’ website that is not optimized for mobile viewing has to do a lot of scrolling, zooming and searching to find what they’re looking for. In our increasingly impatient world it’s very easy to lose a customer because of this.

Obviously this must be dealt with, but it isn’t as complicated or expensive as you might think. To get a proper mobile version of your website can usually be done in less than a week and it will be easily viewable on any device. Here are some things that you want to keep in mind:

1. Make sure that very clear and proper information is easily viewable and is fairly large.
2. They must be easy to navigate with large tabs that can be clicked on by a person’s thumbs.
3. It’s best to have large, clearly marked buttons for the map, driving directions, “email us” and “call now” instructions.

It is also advisable that you have an easy way for people to shop and buy your products on their phone, as this is becoming the preference for more and more people. For those who charge for their services, the ability to take credit card and payment information on a phone has never been easier. Gone are the days for the need of a bulky credit card reader to swipe them as they can be easily slipped through a small device attached to your phone.

The costs associated with creating a mobile website from your existing website are fairly minimal and the advantages are obvious. In most cases the increase of just one new customer a year would cover the expense.

By following this advice you will be ready for the onslaught of the number of people trying to find your website on their phone. I have watched the analytics of a number of my customers and seen a rather rapid increase in the number of searches done from mobile phones. When I inform my customers about this they are always surprised because most of them did not think that anyone was searching for them on mobile phones. Most of them think that it’s just for businesses like restaurants, bars, hair salons and gas stations.

That just isn’t true anymore.

Kelly Smith is president of The WebSmith Group in Sparks, Nevada. If you need help with either getting your website properly listed in the appropriate search engines or creating a mobile website that will drive more customers to you, please give him a call at 775-722-4949. You can also reach him at http://www.TheWebSmithGroup.com (and yes, even on your phone).

Google has done it again with the Google+ Business Listing.

It isn’t exactly new or something that wasn’t anticipated, but it is a change nonetheless. In a never-ending and increasingly chaotic world of Internet marketing, this is a significant change and will effect your business. 

In the early days of the Internet everything was searched and listed on a worldwide basis. If your business could manage to get on some server like ARPANET, you could be found. That didn’t last very long as search engines like Google appeared and offered their services to rank websites according to a number of conditions.

Then the whole world turned upside down as everybody jumped on the Internet at once. Every single month there are 31,000,000 NEW websites created and little Internet spiders or robots have to continually crawl every single day to find out the latest and greatest and most relevant information.

Over the last 2 years Facebook has exploded as the destination of choice for most people. Google has now created a thing called Google+ to try to compete with it. It’s been a slow growth proposition.

But that may have all just changed as of May 30, 2012 (my birthday, I might add).

Most businesses are familiar with the Big G Places listings that are free websites for their business showing what they do. When a search term was entered a local business now shows up with a map showing its location and proximity to wherever you are. As already mentioned, the Internet used to be global, now it is gone almost completely local.

What this means to you as a business owner is that you need to update your Google Places listing to the new Google+ listing.

Some people ask, “what for? I use Facebook and there aren’t enough on Google+ to bother.” Have you seen Facebook’s stock lately? It may not survive the IPO. Google is still doing very well and is profitable. It would be wise to make sure this is up and running correctly.

And, so far, all I see is good news with this change.

Many people are frustrated with the number of negative reviews that they get from anonymous people. It looks like any reviews on Google+ will have to be done by someone who is signed in. It won’t be able to easily create a fake negative review by an ex-employee or a competitor. Now don’t hold me to that, because I’m not 100% sure that this is the case.

They also now use a service called Zagat to help inform you of places that your friends have liked that are near where you are.

Here is an infographic (courtesy of infographic labs) that shows a lot of the interesting information in a graphical form related to this change.

For most business owners this is probably a bit overwhelming and even may add to your frustration in marketing your business online. Things are constantly changing and that is difficult for any business to move forward. Businesses make profits because of known potentialities and conditions, therefore extensive changes usually reduce profitability, at least in the short run.

I have a suggestion for you: don’t worry one minute about this change! Call us today and let us deal with the issues for you. This will save you many many hours of time, dramatically reduce your frustration and allow you to work on what you know best: running your business. By letting the experts deal with all the things related to the Internet, you can acquire more customers from all those people who use the Internet to find you instead of the Yellow Pages like they used to.

Give us a call today at 775-722-4949 and let us deal with these issues.

Advertising on Facebook VS Google

Google AdWords is one of the most amazing advertising venues in the history of the world. There is no other medium with which you may acquire customers so quickly to your website. If you set up a proper advertising program with them, in minutes you can have people searching for your product or services from anywhere in the world.

It’s also one of the main reasons that Google is worth as much money as it is.

Facebook is trying to match that performance by creating their own advertising system within its social media empire. It doesn’t matter where you go, you’ll find advertising showing up somewhere. On a typical timeline or newsfeed, some ads are always visible. If you open up a photo you will see at least one ad. Many have complained that Facebook have destroyed peoples privacy in order to make money.

Facebook needs to make money.

The info graphic below shows an interesting side-by-side comparison between the 2 systems. Each one has strengths and weaknesses and right now it appears that Google is the easy favorite for advertisers. What I don’t like about this graphic though is that for some reason, it excludes the core Google search part of Google’s business. I’m not sure why they did that. The only reason I can think of is that the numbers really wouldn’t be fair and appeared to be even greater towards Google’s advantage.

But even as it is, there are some dramatic differences. I urge you to take a few minutes and read each of the items below because it will give you a much clearer picture between the 2 companies. Here are a couple of very noteworthy things that I see:

1-Profits at Facebook are down from the previous quarter by a whopping 32% while they are up slightly on Google’s display network over the same period!

2-The average click through rate of an ad on the Google display network is 10 times as high as on the Facebook ad!

3-While Facebook is trying to earn more money they have increased their advertising rates by over 40% yet their click through rates fell 8%.

4-Facebook’s average click through rate declines by 50% in only 2 days after they are released. That is an amazing statistic because it doesn’t happen at all on Google.

5-Facebook does not support mobile advertising and they have come out stating recently that this fact alone may lower their profit expectations in the future. It was a two-page addition to their IPO offering this week as this need to be disclosed.

6-Facebook only has 2 styles of ad formats: the typical one with a title, description and image, and the sponsored stories. That’s it. Google has everything else: text ads, image ads, video ads, mobile ads in games, etc.

7-Lastly, it looks like GM has pulled all of its advertising on Facebook. That should tell you something. They still use FB for many things including the all important social connections, but gone are $10 Million in ads!

Facebook is an excellent place to build relationships with people and gather more likes to your page or website. It clearly is not the best source for advertising your business using their advertising program.

If you would like a Free $100 voucher to begin an advertising program on Google, contact me at (775) 722-4949. What better way to get customers to your site within minutes?

© WordStream, a Google Keyword Tool, and AdWords Tool Provider.

Call me today if you would like to set up a proper Website, Facebook Page, Social Media Program or Google Adwords Program to bring more customers to your door. Call (775) 722-4949