Yelp’s filtering system which is supposed to result in the best, most fair reviews does not seem to be fair at all. Great, five-star reviews are blocked for no apparent reason while bad (and often exaggerated) reviews are left for all the world to see. It’s enough to make anyone want to yelp, and cry and tear their hair out.

While I totally understand not wanting to use a service that is so clearly biased, I caution you against ignoring Yelp completely. The simple truth is that they can get away the things that they do because they are the biggest game in town (not counting Google but that’s another newsletter article). When you talk about review sites, Yelp is the most used and recognized.

You can’t simply ignore it because your clients aren’t. Even if you close your account on Yelp, a well meaning client can create a profile for your business and add content like reviews. You don’t have to make it a focus but you do need to at least own your business listing and monitor reviews. You need to know what is being said about your business even if the vehicle is not ideal.

The key to keeping your good reviews on Yelp (short of paying for the service) is being an active participant. Interacting with the clients who post on your account will keep their review from being filtered. Responding to both negative and positive reviews shows that you are care about what people are saying and are paying attention.

Check out the article in further reading for a Yelp Case Study and specific tips to get the most from it.

Further Reading

For a good case study showing the power of Yelp and review sites in general, we recommend “Making Local Reviews Part of the Content Strategy.” In it, the business featured talks specifically about what they did to deal with filtered reviews. It’s from one of our favorite blogs, Duct Tape Marketing, which focuses on providing practical marketing solutions for small business marketing. It is one of our top resources for news and inspiration.

We’re here to help! The upgrade launched on March 30 can be summarized in one word—GRAPHICS. The landing page has been given a huge facelift with the addition of a very large header graphic called a cover image, graphical buttons instead of tab links, and a more visual appearance to status updates called timeline.

Of all of these changes, the one you can’t ignore is the cover image. Without it, your profile will feel very bare. Never fear! There are a lot of things that you can do to make use of that space (but be sure leave the promotional messages out, Facebook is banning them). A single large image works well if you have a really good and high quality photo. If not, a collage or grid of images (think of a portfolio or showcase) is a good alternative. You could also go all out and create a custom banner graphic but this is one best left to the professionals unless you have the creative touch.

Check out the Further Reading article below for details on more on the big changes to Facebook Business Page. And of course, we’re just a phone call (480.219.9069) or email away if you need some one-on-one help.

Further Reading

To really dig into the details of the new Facebook pages, we recommend “5 Tricks that Every Marketer Needs to Know to Exploit the New Facebook Page Design.” It has just enough detail to be helpful but not so much that you get lost. It’s from one of our favorite blogs, Duct Tape Marketing, which focuses on providing practical marketing solutions for small business marketing. It is one of our top resources for news and inspiration.

ASBA

910 West recently joined ASBA (Arizona Small Business Alliance) and are currently participating in their July membership drive. We are looking for businesses who want to grow their business by joining a very powerful and active support network. Learn more about the benefits in our Post “Get Support for Your Local Business from ASBA (and a Great Deal!).” If you are looking for funding for your business or thinking about joining ASBA we’ve got a great deal for you:

• Join ASBA this week (click here to join, and when you get to the last page, use my special promo code jasmine711 to join for only $100!) and receive 2 FREE tickets (a $70 value) to the August 10 Meet the Banks that are Lending seminar being held here at ASBA from 1 to 2:30 p.m. The non-member registration price is $35 and the member price is $15. Save yourself the extra $20 and put it towards your membership (that’s 1/5 of the cost). Pair that with their amazing Staples discount program and the membership pays for itself.

Gilbert Chamber

There are a couple of cool events this week and later this month at the Gilbert Chamber.

• It is kind of short notice but a fun way to support the Gilbert 9/11 Memorial. Networking for a Cause presents Casino Night to raise funds to benefit the 9/11 Memorial being constructed here in Gilbert. The event is Thursday, August 4 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the House of Brews Neighborhood Sports Grill, 825 S Cooper Road (on the Southeast corner of Cooper and Warner Roads). Come meet your Gilbert firefighters, try your luck at Blackjack, and win raffle prizes, including an Apple iPad! Learn more about the event or register to attend»
• Referral Strategies: Building Your Power Team is a don’t miss event and since it’s not for two weeks you have plenty of time to clear your calendar. Referral strategist, Victoria Trafton,provides training and tools to help business professionals gain financial success through relationship-based referral marketing. Jasmine has taken several of Victoria’s courses and they have completely changed how we approach networking and referrals. In fact, 910 West saw results immediately upon adopting Victoria’s techniques. The workshop is Wednesday, August 17 from 7:30 to 10 a.m. at the Val Vista Lakes event facility located on Val Vista Drive, just south of Baseline. Get details or register to attend»

MidFirst Mixer

The MidFirst San Tan branch is hosting a Business Mixer Thursday, August 4 starting at 5 p.m. If you are not banking with MidFirst you should be (we just moved our business accounts and are so happy—bye, bye fees). Take this opportunity to meet the staff and some local businesses. We will be there so hope to see you too! The address is 2849 S Market Street, Gilbert, AZ 85296. (It is just off the 202 near the San Tan Village mall.)

ASBA is all about supporting local and small businesses in Arizona so the group is a natural fit for us. I have also agreed to be a part of their effort to help the small businesses of our area become more successful.  During the month of July, I have committed to share the benefits of ASBA membership with you and to personally invite you to join me as an ASBA Member.

Joining is easy!  Click here to join, and when you get to the last page, use my special promo code jasmine711 to join for only $100! That’s an $85 savings.

ASBA is the only and oldest statewide association dedicated to serving our small businesses. The addition of their local public policy commitment will make ASBA a major force in Arizona business and policy decisions. With over 97% of the businesses in our region being classified as small business, having a group advocate for our particular needs is long overdue.

Here are just three of the great reasons to join ASBA today:

• Save up to 79% with the new Staples Advantage program plus an additional 10% off everything Staples sells. No other group in Arizona offers this deep of a discount. More exclusive discounts can be found at www.asba.com/discounts. This discount is no joke, I was able to save $50 on a new file cabinet for my office and got free delivery! One medium size business supply purchase will pay for your membership.
• More opportunities to do business with thousands of other businesses, like the all new online member discounts program. I’ll also be actively networking at ASBA events and would love to have you join me so I can spread the word about your business!
• ASBA is the ONLY statewide organization dedicated to watching out for small business at local, state and federal levels.

I’m sending you this e-mail because I need your help. In order to be effective we need to combine our efforts. It’s time to band together and make a difference. Thank you for helping me with this exciting campaign!  Don’t forget, you can join today by clicking here and entering my special promo code jasmine711 to save $85 and join for only $100.

Sincerely,
Jasmine and the 910 West Team

Claim Your Oscar

Another great newsletter from Michael Katz, Blue Penguin Development, about why giving away information is not a bad marketing tactic. A client recently asked me this very question about providing how-to steps on his website. We ended up at pretty much the same conclusion—if we provided the basic steps and even a video demo they would still need to visit the store to buy the products and get the specific amounts to use in their home.

Do not think of sharing information as loss because it is not at all. Rather it is a gain—a way to show prospects and clients what it is you do and why they need a professional to help. Though the basics steps are the same, each individual’s situation is different and they still need you to customize the basic information to their unique differences.

Using a Social FAQ to Kick Start Content Marketing

A detailed example of how an amusement park is using online marketing (website, Facebook and Twitter) to answer visitors’ questions. I especially like that fact that they have an individual page for each ride on their site with a video and supporting content. It makes each ride its own mini-page and let’s you know exactly what to expect. This is definitely an out-of-box take on the website structure. And it has got me thinking about a few client projects, hmm….

Be sure to download the materials referenced in the article, to follow along. If you have questions, post them to the comments sections below and we’ll answer them!

• Keyword Research Spreadsheet
• Content Distribution Tree (shows how to post to multiple social media sites with one upload)

Look and Feel

The most obvious change is to the look of the pages—they received the same visual makeover that was rolled out to personal profiles a while back.

Overall the look is much neater, with the tabs moving to left under the logo area. We really like this because it frames that logo area much better especially if you have a lot of white space in your logo.

The image ribbon is also a nice touch giving you some very prominent real estate to display your product. You can also add links to the description text (use the http:// protocol to start and it we will be clickable). By default the ribbon shows the five newest items in a random order (try reloading the page it will change). You can opt to not have an image show in the ribbon by clicking the “x” when you hover over it.

Under the Hood

Though less noticeable, there are behind the scenes changes are seriously cool. The biggest change is that you now choose to comment either as your personal profile or the page. This is great for companies like us who help our clients manage their Facebook accounts but want to remain invisible. It is also a plus for anyone who wants to keep their personal and professional lives as separate as possible.

The wall no longer shows posts chronologically but rather using a “relevance” determined by Facebook. It is a little strange but worth mentioning.

You can also choose to receive notices (either via email or SMS) when someone interacts with the page. It makes interacting with your visitors so much easier for the few who don’t spend hours a day on Facebook.

This last one is the real biggie though it won’t mean much to anyone who is not a techie. Facebook is getting rid of the FBML App on March 11. FBML is Facebook’s flavor of HTML, the language used to create webpages. While not difficult to use, it did require some tech knowledge that many would not want to mess with. FBML is being replaced with the supposedly easier to use iFrames. Any FBML App installed before the cut off will continue to function so if this is concern then it makes sense to install it just in case. The tool we use, the Hubze Fan Page Engine, has already been upgraded to create iFrame pages so you might want to check it out as an alternative.

That is the new Facebook Business Page in a nutshell. For more information, check out the Facebook Pages Manual or visit the notes page that Facebook set up to share the details.

We will save the in-depth for another day. Instead, today’s article is meant as a cautionary tale of what not to do. In the past weeks, several large companies have been busted by Google for black hat (no nos in other words) link building practices. What did they do wrong? Paying for links on irrelevant sites and offering discounts for links. Check out the two articles for more.

• The Dirty Little Secrets of Search
• Google Penalizes Overstock for Search Tactics

Photo credit goes to Michael Hayslip Photography. Thank you!

Making Local Reviews Part of the Content Strategy

Excellent case study on how one Brooklyn optometrist is kicking ass with review on Yelp. I have just started working with a local optometrist and think this might be a good strategy for him. We have been focusing on improving his website but it is going to take a while to get it where we need it be. Pumping up his Yelp profile might be a great intermediary step.

Using Surveys to Automatically Create Reviews and Referrals

This article taps into things that we have been working on in our marketing—how to get more referrals and launching a customer satisfaction survey. Almost as long as 910 West has been in business, we have been planning to create an after the sale survey to ask customers how we did. We have been dragging my feet on it because we weren’t sure what to ask. This article has given us a great idea and we love the fact that it starts off with one question. Who wouldn’t be willing to take a one-question survey? Looks like we might actually have to stop thinking about the satisfaction survey and actually do it!

Photo credits goes to fengergold on Flickr Creative Commons. Thank you!