However, it’s vital to harness the power of reviews in the right way.

The first step is to see reviews as useful even when they’re negative.  Very few people will write a negative review of your business for no reason at all.  They will have a good reason, and even if you disagree with their reason you should consider whether you can improve your business in a way that would mean the reviewer would not be impelled to complain.

When you respond to a negative review, don’t lash out at the reviewer, or even argue with them.  By all means gently point out factors that you think they have overlooked, or explain why your service is provided in the way that it is, but your overall tone should be conciliatory and even apologetic.  Your aim should be to placate the reviewer and assure him that his complaint is seen as valuable and that it will be acted on if possible.

Customers don’t expect firms never to receive complaints – they know that is impossible.  What will impress them is if you handle complaints courteously and attentively, and seriously consider how you can act on them to provide a first-class service.

• blog posts
• photos with messaging that pull users into the content
• contest highlight
• links to social media
• sign-in ability so readers can comment on blog articles
• a short video

Your site’s content pages and posts should all have:

• SEO (search engine optimization)
• social media links so readers can immediately post links to Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• a print tool, so the page can be easily printed.

Search engines like “busy” sites whose content changes frequently – this is one of the ways they distinguish between defunct sites and “live” sites.  Sites that include prominent media content such as videos also tend to rank more highly in Google.

Google AdWords.  When people search on Google using keywords that are relevant to your business, you can have your ad appear above or alongside the top organic results.  You only pay if someone clicks on your ad.

Facebook allows you to advertise to surfers in a specific geographical location.  As with Google, you only pay when people click on your advertisement.   The fees for these advertisements are based on click through, and not impressions. You can also look at Facebook applications like “GoRecommend”:  http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=68009493238

MySpace is similar to Facebook but you have the flexibility to pay-per-view or pay-per-click.

YouTube Promoted Videos (brand channel) feature a thumbnail image on Youtube with three lines of text.  When the ad is clicked it takes the surfer to your video or Youtube channel.

There are also industry-specific sites where you can pay to advertise.  For example, if you own a hotel you can list your business on travel-related web sites.

The problem with “real world” social networks is that most of the connections between people are hidden. A customer of your business probably has friends who could also be a customer of yours. But how do you reach out to those people? The traditional way is to hope that a brochure or a web site address is passed to them. Or you could saturate a market with advertising in the hope of picking up a few customers from your target market; but this is costly and inefficient.

A modern, technological social networking solution however enables the customer to instantaneously share their experience. Everyone in the customer’s network can see comments, pictures, links and videos he posted concerning his experience of your business. Your firm can use this fact to assist, inform and convince people to choose you over other companies.

Furthermore, you can see how people are describing and rating your business using social media. You can use that knowledge to create social media groups and pages, as well as a blog that will help you attract people who are interested in your company’s products or services. You can stimulate discussion by adding content, news, advice and help for people who are looking and commenting. All these activities help to generate a “buzz” around your company, and drive traffic to your web site.

Site Before Redesign

He also wanted to use media such as photography, video and social media to help tell his story.

Dr Kelly says: “The Prosser Group provided an outstanding photoshoot, video and design that I could really be proud to show my colleagues”.

http://www.naturalrosaceatreatment.com

Stephanie came to the Prosser Group already using social media and wanted a Web site that tied all her social media activity together.

She also needed photography, a logo design, and print materials made that keep a consistent look and feel with her Web site.

The Prosser Group setup a photoshoot, made video, and created a logo and print materials. As well as wrote custom content to describe her services.

They then took all this content and added it to Stephanie’s social media sites.

Stephanie says: “It was really amazing how Prosser Group came in and provided a total package in getting my Web presence up and tied in. My web presence on Google Maps and Google search is amazing”.

Just a few years ago, it cost a small fortune to integrate a content management system into your Web site.  Then along came WordPress to the rescue.

Yes, WordPress started life as a blogging tool, and is one of the most popular. What’s less well known is that it is now also a powerful content management system (CMS) that can be used to manage a web site.

Using WordPress to manage a real Web site

WordPress may have been designed as a platform for blogging, but with a few tweaks (see emu) it can be used to manage a full Web site as well.  The fact that WordPress was designed as a blogging platform gives it some compelling advantages.

Top Five Reasons to Use WordPress for Your Small Business Web Site:

SEO – WordPress provides great search engine optimization (SEO) right out of the box, for free. Google’s own Matt Cutts says WordPress is “made to do SEO well”.  Find the video on YouTube under “Matt Cutts gives tips to small business owners.”

Rapid Updating – with WordPress it’s easy to update content on your Web site without knowing html code. It’s vital to update your site as often as possible, but the fact that no one has time to learn html code means this task is often let slip, and many web sites fail as business endeavors for this reason.  However, once WordPress is set up for you, you can easily create new pages or edit existing pages using a simple rich text editor.

Saves Money – A wide range of plugins is available for use with WordPress if the basic version doesn’t meet all your needs.  This can mean great savings in development costs, as the plugins are free; but please do remember to donate, to keep the Web ecosystem healthy.

Support – If you encounter problems, or need to add custom features to WordPress, there is a wealth of literature about WordPress, and no shortage of affordable developers who can assist. Help is only a Google away!

Easy to Upgrade – Instead of having to update old code every year. WordPress enables you to easily update your platform so you will always be current with the latest developments in the Web arena, such as social media plugins.

The site ties in to Google Store, so they can also display products they recommend to site visitors.

Using the same “look and feel” as the main site, Prosser created a social media tie-in for both Facebook and YouTube, and also created templates that could be speedily set up for coaches to enable creation of a personal site within around two hours.

http://www.endurancesportsnw.com