The Underexplored Science Behind Your Customers Hardwired Emotional Response to Certain Color Hues.

Your company logo is probably the first thing potential customers notice so its message must be carefully considered, and should express who you are and what you do.

Another consideration that is often underexplored is your logo’s design and coloring scheme.

Discussing his research in an article titled "The Fascinating Neuroscience of Color", neuroscientist Bevil Conway stated, “Knowing that humans might also be hardwired for certain hues could be a gateway into understanding the neural properties of emotion.

Since researchers know that certain colors provoke strong feelings in people - blues and purples are more pleasant than yellows, for instance, while greens tend to be the most arousing - they might then work backwards to uncover the basic mechanisms for these feelings.”

Choosing the Right Colors to Brand Your Business

The research suggests a deep hardwired process that certain color hues may have on people’s emotions that could effectively be used in your company’s branding efforts.

Research collected by WebpageFX found that in under 90 seconds a person makes subconscious judgements about a product based on colors alone the majority of the time.

In fact, nearly 85% of people say the primary reason they make a purchase decision is based on color, and 80% say a company’s brand recognition increases based on color.

Red is The Color of Fire and Blood, so it is Associated with Energy, War, Danger, Strength, Power, Determination as well as Passion, Desire, and Love.

Light Red represents joy, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.
Dark Red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Reddish-Brown is associated with harvest and fall.

Yellow is The Color of Sunshine. It's Associated with Joy, Happiness, Intellect, and Energy.

Dull (Dingy) Yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy.
Light Yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.

Blue is The Color of the Sky and Sea. It is Often Associated with Depth, Stability and Character.

Light Blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark Blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

Orange Combines the Energy of Red and the Happiness of Yellow. It is Associated with Joy, Sunshine, and Tropics.

Dark Orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-Orange corresponds to desire, passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.

Green is The Color of Nature. It Symbolizes Growth, Harmony, Freshness, and Fertility.

Yellow-Green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua Green is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive Green is the traditional color of peace.

Purple Combines the Stability of Blue and the Energy of Red.

Light Purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark Purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.

A Dramatic Shift in Marketing (That Benefits You)

For local service companies, marketing and advertising has changed dramatically over the past 5 years, and continues to change at an exponential rate.

The Internet has replaced many marketing and advertising platforms of the past, and now offers the cheapest and most effective way to reach new customers and retain existing customers.

New technology allows you to simply and easily connect with your customers to drive growth and increase revenue.

These new strategies revolve around helping you spend less time and money on customer acquisition by doing more to retain new and existing customers.

By encouraging more repeat business you can quickly increase your profitability within just a few weeks of using these new services.

Powerful Automated Tools to Grow Your Business

These new platforms transform your data into actionable insights that grow your business.

They engage your existing customer base to promote more repeat business and increase your revenue.

They connect the dots between your on and offline marketing activities and what's really driving revenue growth, and they automate the process of asking for customer feedback and systematically filter out unfavorable reviews.

The new technology engages your new and existing customers through targeted text, email, and social media campaigns.

Fueled by your customer data, these campaigns will rapidly increase repeat visits, revenue, and profitability.

The New Platforms Take Advantage of These Existing Technologies ...

Get Actionable Insight, Accurate Attribution & Simple Reporting

Not only do you get valuable information about your business, but these systems can actually identify opportunities for growth and increased revenue as well as provide advice on how to be more profitable.

No more vague or confusing marketing reports. Easily track trends in revenue, average order value, lifetime value of the customer, your actual % of repeat business, ROI, and many other valuable insights.

How to Tie This All Together & Get Started (As Soon As Today)

You can now take advantage of an online marketing system for your service business that is simple yet more powerful and effective than any previous system available.

Freshlime® is the first of its kind automated marketing & customer engagement platform for the local services space. Our technology allows us to simply and easily connect you with your customers to drive growth and increased revenue.

Our strategy revolves around helping you spend less on customer acquisition by doing more to retain new and existing customers. By encouraging more repeat business you can quickly increase your profitability within just a few weeks of using our service.

Click HERE to learn more about Freshlime® http://myfreshlime.com

See how quickly you can tie all this together and take advantage of all these benefits. Contact me and I will personally guide you through the simple step-by-step process of setting up a Freshlime® account.

Frankly, Freshlime® is the best marketing platform for your service business and you will be amazed at our zero contracts and profit guarantee... 3x your investment every month!

Challenge me today to start growing your business faster and more profitably.

It’s been said so many times that it sounds like a cliché, “Your customers are the lifeblood of your business.”

Cultivate a pool of regular, loyal customers and your business is guaranteed to have a long and prosperous life.

But given the sheer volume of prospective customers available to any business on the internet, is this really true?

Why focus on outstanding customer services when there are literally billions of people online? Couldn’t you simply just get new customers all the time and still be successful?

The answer is, yes, you could, but it would be foolhardy.

That’s because repeat customers are more valuable to you than any other type.

They are more loyal, they usually will promote your business to their family, friends and – most importantly – their social media contacts.

And you can sell products to them again and again.

For the online marketer, the key to building a loyal customer base is creating interpersonal relationships with your customers.

You need to try to cultivate thousands of BFF’s by sharing personal information about your life, talking about your family and the good people who work for you.

You want to make your vacation and holiday photos public and other ways to invite your customers into your life.

When your customers feel they have an interpersonal relationship with you and they know who you are and what you are about, they are going to want to do business with you.

In marketing, this is called the Cheers Strategy, after the TV show from the 1980s.

People want to go where they feel as if they belong, where “everybody knows your name.”

When your customers feel they know who you are, they will feel at ease and will be more likely to return to buy your products and services again and again.

Cultivating Your Existing Customer Base

Of course, interpersonal relationships are a two-way street.

You also are going to have to get to know your customers.

When you own a local brick-and-mortar business, it’s not much of a challenge learning names and faces and cultivating relationships by remembering details about your customers such as their kids’ names, where they grew up and other tidbits you can use to make people feel at home.

With online marketing, however, it can be more difficult because you are dealing with thousands of customers.

But while it can be challenging, it’s not impossible.

For one, online record keeping makes it easier to keep tabs on what people bought in the past, when they have visited your site and what they did while they were there.

Second, if you treat all of your customers as if they were your best, you can give the impression to every visitor to your site that you genuinely care about them and their business.

In most cases, this perceived emotional attachment will be enough to get them to return and do business with you in the future.

Please Mr. Postman

You may have heard that email is dead.

According to the ‘experts’, web users today prefer more immediate forms of communication such as the text message, the Facebook post, the Instagram photo and the Tweet.

Many high school and college-aged people don’t even have email accounts, or so the story goes.

Reports of emails’ demise have been greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase Mark Twain.

The death of email is a fiction probably first promoted by the smart phone industry.

The truth is that email is alive and well and – for the time being, at least – just as powerful a marketing tool as ever, if not more powerful.

Most internet users still own and use email accounts.

Many have multiple accounts.

While it is true that email is used less frequently for communication between internet users – other than your mother, of course, who continues to forward emails about how much better life was when she was growing up – it is used more often for commercial purposes.

All those years of giving your email address to businesses and on forms for most people has resulted in an onslaught of daily messages promoting products and services.

While email eventually will retire and move to Florida and may go the way of snail mail, for now it should continue to be used as a means of interacting directly with your customer base.

But you need to make sure that…

1. You build trust bonds with your customers so they feel as if they have an interpersonal relationship with you and,
2. That within your emails you provide your customers with something that makes opening them worthwhile.

Lists & the Importance of Subscriptions to Your Business

Until they actually do become completely obsolete in a few years, email lists will continue to be an important tool for nurturing your existing customer base.

They are a great way to shore up loyalty bonds by giving customers access to your inner circle, sharing rich, personal details about your life and business, alternated with exclusive offers and rewards aimed at your closest, most loyal customers.

But email is an elderly system.

Sadly, it will eventually cease to be vital.

Given the improved tools now available to web users – including free video chat and instant text messaging – email really will someday become as obsolete as the US Postal Service.

Be honest: With the exception of holiday messages, when was the last time you sat down and wrote a letter to somebody and sent it to them through the mail?

Probably during the Clinton administration, am I right?

Yet building your email list is still important because it currently is still an effective way to reach some customers and it also provides your business with a point of contact with your customers so that when email does become obsolete, you can migrate your marketing efforts to whatever communications tool replaces email, be it Facebook, Twitter, or panoramic 3D holograms.

Who Knows?

Do you know who knows best what is wrong with your business?

Hint: It’s definitely not you! It’s not even your employees (although they may think they do).

Both of you are too close to your business to see its real flaws.

Your customers, however, can tell you precisely what you are doing wrong.

Unless you ask them, however, they are unlikely to share their opinion with you until you really screw up.

Then they will complain. And you should listen because complaints are opportunities.

It’s human nature to get upset when somebody complains about your business.

After all, your business is a part of who you are. When people complain, it’s easy to take it personally.

Resist this impulse.

Complaints are actually your friends.

They help you improve your business’ performance. They identify breakdowns so that you can correct them.

They aren’t personal attacks.

They are customers who care enough about your business that they will overcome their own shyness and bring your faults to your attention.

And you shouldn’t wait for complaints to find out what you are doing wrong.

When you nurture interpersonal relationships with your customer base, you can speak to them as friends.

Just one-on-one.

When your customers can achieve this comfort level with you, they will be more than happy to share their opinions.

Asking Your Customers to Help Grow Your Business

People love to be asked for help.

It’s human nature: If somebody asks you to help them, in most cases you will gladly provide the assistance that is requested.

Especially when it doesn’t cost you any money or an extraordinary amount of time. Especially when there is something in it for you.

Incentivize your customers to share their opinions with you by offering special discounts for filling out comment cards or entering them into a drawing for some sort of prize.

It doesn’t really matter a whole lot what you offer, as long as you offer something, most people will participate in your customer opinion survey.

You can simply follow up via email with selected customers and ask them about their experience.

Or you could open a free Hangout on Google and invite your customers to participate in a video chat about ways to improve your business.

The more information you have about your business’ performance from outside parties that aren’t caught up in the day-to-day pressures of running your operation, the better equipped you are to correct the mistakes that you can’t see.

Information truly is power.

Asking your customers to provide you with quality information about your business helps you improve and it strengthens the trust bonds you need to convert customers into raving fans.

Hands on a Hard Body

Hands on a Hard Body was a 1997 documentary about a promotional contest run by a Longview, Texas, truck dealer.

A group of 24 contestants competed to see who could keep their hand on a pickup truck for the longest time.

The winner got to keep the truck. He lasted 77 continuous hours.

The film was fascinating because it delved into the psychology behind each of the finalists, and dramatized the promotion so that it was as exciting as watching the Super Bowl.

More exciting, actually.

The film was even turned into a stage musical with music written by Trey Anastasio, of the band Phish, and had it's world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse, California, running from April 2012 through June 2012, with productions on Broadway in 2013, and in St. Louis, Albany and Chicago in 2014.

I cited that example because it’s a great example of how promotions and contest can engage your customers deeply, making their ties to your business all the more powerful.

The film proves that people will go through extraordinary lengths in order to get something for nothing, even forgoing sleeping and regular eating patterns for more than three consecutive days.

Although you probably don’t want to do something as extreme as the pickup truck contest – and I doubt even the truck dealer imagined its promotion would be so dramatic and ultimately famous – contests and promotions are a fun, interesting way to draw attention to your business while engaging your customers on another level.

Contests and Other Customer Engagement Techniques

Businesses have used contests and other customer engagement techniques for generations.

From Christmas coloring contests to guessing how many jelly beans are inside a jar, business owners have found fun, colorful and interesting ways to bring their customers closer to their business while at the same time generating a little free publicity.

Or in the case of the Longview truck dealer, a page in Broadway history.

Contests and promotions should be fun and playful.

The prizes you offer don’t have to be extravagant.

Something as simple as a freebie or a discount on future purchases is often enough to convince your customers to participate.

Once they do, they will feel closer ties with your business, making them more loyal and more willing to give you their business in the future.

Whenever you interact with your customers – whether it is through a promotion, a contest or some other fun event – always try to include a way to get their email address so that you can add it to your subscription list.

The more people you have on your email list, the bigger the pool of prospective customers to which you can market your products and services in the future.

Finally, always try to offer something to everybody who participates, not just the winners.

By offering some sort of consolation prize, it will increase their chances of participating in future promotions and encourage them to share their experience with others, broadening your base.

Vote For Me!

Every November, the airwaves are bombarded with advertisements for political candidates.

‘Vote for me, I’ll make your life better’, they all promise.

Creating a marketing program for your business is sort of like running a never-ending political campaign.

You want your customers to vote for you by giving their business to you rather than your competitors.

You also want to encourage existing customers to recommend you to their friends — especially their social network – so you can significantly expand your customer base.

Successful political candidates build a base of volunteers and other staff whose job it is to convince other people – their friends, family, neighbors and even strangers – to vote for them.

This kind of person-to-person endorsement is stronger than any newspaper editorial or an endorsement from some organization because it’s based on human interaction.

“Trust me on this,” the person seems to be saying. “You won’t be disappointed, I promise.”

Using this same technique is an effective way to build your business.

Asking your customers to recommend you to people they know is the single best way to get new business through the door.

It’s even better than advertising or other marketing because it’s based on word of mouth, the strongest type of endorsement there is.

One great way to convert your customers into evangelists for your business is referral incentives.

This is when you give your customer something for every new person they bring to your business.

It can be a discount, a premium, a giveaway or anything you like.

Money works best.

How Referral Incentives Can Help Your Business

Referral incentives help build your business because in essence your existing customers are vouching for your business to people they know.

When they recommend your business, they are in effect putting their own reputation on the line, so they then have something at stake in the success of your business.

Talk about a great way to create loyalty bonds!

The other benefit is that people who have been referred to your business by a trusted adviser, comes to you with a pre-existing positive expectation.

They already anticipate you’re going to provide great products and excellent customer service when they walk in the door because the person who referred them promised that’s what they would get.

If that’s exactly what you provide, you'll convert them into yet another raving fan.

Imagine you are driving cross-country and you pull off the interstate to rest.

As you pull into the nearest town, you see a drug store on the corner of the main intersection.

Next to that is another drug store. Across the street is yet another.

As you drive down the town’s main drag, you notice that every storefront is a drug store, one after the other.

This Twilight Zone scenario is surrealistic because no town’s livelihood could survive like that.

If everybody was in the same business, there wouldn’t be enough customers to support them all.

And the town’s citizens wouldn’t be able to get the goods and services they want because there wouldn’t be enough businesses that aren’t drugstores.

Instead, natural free-market forces lead business owners to open new businesses in areas that aren’t oversaturated.

If the town already has several drugstores, the person who opens a pizza parlor is bound to do well, as is the businessman who launches a clothing store.

This kind of diversity is what draws customers to markets and what provides stability for the towns and cities of America.

The drugstore doesn’t compete directly with the pizza parlor.

They appeal to different customers, or at least for different business from the same customer.

So, when the drugstore owner wants to run a promotion, maybe he offers free pizzas.

And when the pizza store owner wants to bring in more sales, maybe he asks the drugstore owner to print discounts for pizzas on the drugstore receipts.

In this way, both businesses benefit.

Business Partner Relationship Building

Whatever business you are in, it’s unlikely that you have set up shop in a town where every other business is offering the exact same goods and services that you offer.

Instead, there’s probably a variety of different kinds of businesses in your marketplace so that customers have can buy many various things when they come to your town.

Building relationships with your customers is important, but so is building relationships with the other business owners in your community.

Getting to know other shopkeepers, business owners and other professionals allows you to share information, cross-promote your businesses, and provide a better marketplace for your customers.

There are other benefits to partnering with other businesses as well, including having a unified voice when it comes to public policy and dealing with government bodies.

If one store owner on Main Street complains about poor garbage pickup, for example, it’s unlikely anything will be done about it.

But if all of Main Street’s store owners visit the mayor’s office together and demand that action be taken, you can be assured that there will be some butt-kicking going on in the sanitation department.

In other words, it takes a village to make a village.

The Spaghetti Circuit

Getting to know your fellow business owners in your community could mean walking around, knocking on doors and introducing yourself.

And this is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, especially for those businesses in your immediate vicinity.

Another way to network is by participating in civic events, church functions, chambers of commerce and other places where you are likely to run into other business owners and community leaders.

As the owner of a business in your community, you have a responsibility to add to the culture of your town or city.

Political leaders are going to look to you for support. Your customers will be more likely to give you their business if you are a civic booster.

It’s just human nature, people are social beings.

Attending meetings of clubs and organizations – a/k/a participating in the “spaghetti circuit” – helps improve your business’ reputation and provides you with valuable connections to other business owners that can be helpful in running your business.

You never know what you can learn from talking to other people who have a shared interest, but one thing is for certain:

If you shun other business owners or isolate yourself and your business, you will never learn anything.

It’s also helpful to get to know the local, county and state elected officials in your community, as well as law enforcement officials, city department heads, and other people who can help your business run smoother.

Promoting Your Business by Becoming More Involved in Your Community

Like it or not, as a business owner, people in your community are going to look up to you but they also are going to have some expectations.

Schools, church groups and social organizations are going to approach you for donations for their fundraisers.

Elected officials are going to ask for your support come election time.

You may even be encouraged to take leadership positions such as joining committees, participating in boards, or even running for public office.

All of these things can be beneficial for your business because when you participate in the civic operations of your community, you are representing your business.

While it can be gratifying to get the admiration of the people in your community, it’s even more gratifying when your respected public profile brings you more business.

If you establish yourself as a business leader, people will want to hear what you have to say.

Your opinion takes on more weight. Your customers will support many of the same things you support.

Those things you oppose, your customers will oppose.

Your influence will grow along with the size of your business.

Finding Hidden Connections

You wouldn’t think that the drugstore owner and the pizza parlor guy next door would have a lot in common, but by virtue of the fact that they are both doing business within the same marketplace they actually have quite a lot of mutual interests.

For one, they want to make sure there are a lot of people coming to their street so that both of their businesses prosper.

In addition, they want their neighbor’s business to succeed so they don’t have to have an empty storefront next door.

It might not always seem obvious, but frequently businesses can find cross-promotional opportunities that benefit both operations and can increase revenues.

By finding these hidden connections, you can drive more customers to your business while at the same time helping other community business owners build up their own revenues.

When business owners isolate themselves from the rest of the community, it doesn’t benefit anybody.

It just makes people suspicious of each other, foments feelings of ill will, and often leads to malicious rumor and gossip.

The sad part is that there isn’t any need for it.

Cooperation and mutual aid is far better for the overall community than having a siege mentality about your business, which can actually damage your reputation, drive away customers and poison the marketplace for everybody.

There’s usually plenty of room for everybody in the marketplace, even when other people compete directly with you for the same customers.

If you own a restaurant, and another restaurant opens down the street, it’s not likely that your business is going to be suddenly cut in half.

Customers will visit both restaurants and appreciate the fact that they have more choices.

How to Identify Unexpected Cross-Marketing Opportunities

Cross-marketing opportunities are not always obvious.

Look for ways to cross promote your business with others in your community that are unique and logical.

For example, if you own a clinic that specializes in training young baseball players you probably want to get to know your local orthopedist.

Not only can you recommend them to your customers, but they may be willing to give a talk at your business for your customers, increasing their exposure as well.

Make sure you join and are an active participant in your local chamber of commerce and merchant’s associations.

Not only will it help you network with other business owners, but it will increase your political influence as well.

If your community doesn’t have a business association, start one.

The knowledge shared by community business leaders can make all the member businesses operate more efficiently and you can also use these contacts to develop cross-marketing opportunities.

Anything you can do to partner with other business owners in your community will be mutually beneficial.

These types of cross-promotions can improve your reputation and strengthen bonds within your community.

Trade You Mickey Mantle for Minnie Minoso?

Being a good neighbor means more than just keeping your garbage cans clean and being civil to the people you encounter on the street.

In today’s changing marketplace, old business models are falling apart and those businesses that are bold and innovative have a better chance to succeed.

This not only means providing the most cutting edge products and services, but also finding ways to partner with other businesses to provide unique offerings that will attract a larger customer base.

In today’s business environment, playing it safe isn’t a viable option.

While in the past, during economic downswings some businesses could afford to lay low and wait for things to improve, today such conservative approaches are a fast track to going bankrupt.

Businesses need to be able to adapt and change quickly.

You may be selling health insurance today but if or when the new health care act takes effect, you are going to have to dramatically modify your business model.

If you own a bookstore, the rise in popularity of Kindles and other e-readers means you must figure out another way to make money fast.

If you own a steakhouse, you probably want to consider adding some vegetarian options to your menu to appeal to the growing number of diners who are turning their backs on animal protein.

If you own a bank that specializes in mortgages, you probably want to find another financial product to offer until the housing crisis resolves itself. And so on.

Cross-Utilizing Promotions and Giveaways

Because the business environment can change so quickly today, partnering with other business owners for cross-promotion purposes makes more sense than ever.

Think of it as a way of diversifying your business.

The more involved you can become with other business owners – especially when it comes to cross-utilizing promotions and giveaways – the more options and contacts you will have when the inevitable shift occurs in your business niche.

It may not seem obvious to you that the car dealer down the street has anything to do with your day care center, but you never know.

One day you may need to stay competitive by providing transportation services for your clients and that car dealer may be able to get you a discount on a school bus.

The car dealer may be able to use your day care to provide supervision for his customers’ children when he is taking his customers on test drives and going through the lengthy process of finalizing a car deal.

By seeking out and identifying these unexpected connections you can both make your business stronger and more adaptable and increase the size and scope of the business network you enjoy within your community.

The new business environment requires a new business paradigm.

Conservative, slow-to-change businesses that are afraid to take chances simply won’t survive.

But you can improve your chances of survival by partnering with other business owners and finding unexpected connections.

“You’re Listening to WII-FM”

While businesses change and adapt to rapidly moving business conditions, the one thing that can remain constant are your customers.

If you have done a good job building your base by nurturing interpersonal relationships, your customers are always going to be looking to you to provide high-quality products and services, as well as fast and friendly customer service and support.

Still, as a business owner you need to be guided by your customers own selfishness.

Even the most loyal customer is always going to be listening to his or her own personal radio station, WII-FM (What’s In It For Me).

That means that whenever you design a promotion or come up with a new marketing campaign, you should keep in the forefront of your mind the way your customer is going to perceive it, especially from the perspective of what it offers them.

PT Barnum once said in the 19th century that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

In the 21st century, that statement could be modified to say that nobody ever went broke overestimating the self-absorption of their customers.

Show your customers that what you are offering benefits them personally, and you can exponentially increase your odds of making the sale.

Promoting Cross-Marketing Value via Social Media

One of the reasons people love social media is that it allows them to create a persona for themselves that they can share with their friends, family and acquaintances.

There’s no easier way to show how cool or connected you are than pushing the ‘Like’ or 'Share' button on Facebook, being the first to forward a cool link on Twitter, or pinning something cutting edge on your Pinterest page.

That means that whenever you identify cross-marketing opportunities with other business owners, the most effective way to promote them is through social media.

By appealing to your customers’ sense of entitlement by showing them how they can personally benefit from what you are offering, they will be quick to share it with their social media connections, expanding the scope of your promotion and increasing its chances of going viral.

What people today want more than anything else is to show other people how cool they are.

When you let your customers do that by sharing your cross-promotion offers, you can quickly and effectively reach hundreds of social media contacts across a wide variety of marketing platforms.

Remember back when you were in fifth grade and there was a classmate you liked sitting a few rows ahead of you or behind you? 

Do you remember the method you used to let them know you were interested in them? 

You probably wrote them a note. And as your teacher was blathering away up at the chalkboard about science or math or something, you asked the person next to you to pass that note to the object of your affection. 

Hopefully, your note arrived at its destination without being intercepted by a nosy classmate or – worst of all – by your teacher.

If so, you could expect either a shy smile or a cold shoulder as a reward for your brave note-writing.

In today’s business environment, everybody is writing notes and passing them along to other people.

Except instead of being scrawled onto a scrap of paper with a Number 2 pencil, they are texted or Tweeted, or come in the form of Facebook status updates, Yelps, Foursquare comments or myriad other high-tech note-passing platforms.

Yet they are still just notes, simply brief expressions of how you feel, or short bursts of information you want to share with other people.

t’s all innocent and fun until somebody’s feelings get hurt. Then it can be harmful to the reputations of both individuals and businesses like yours.

In the modern business world, you need to be able to control those notes and what they say about your business.

If you can manage those messages, you can successfully drive lots of new customers to your business.

But if you can’t control those notes, you and your business can be in a lot of trouble.

New Media and Reputation Monitoring

Businesses today can’t afford to ignore what people are saying about them on new media platforms such as social media or social comment sites.

Because these comments can potentially be seen by hundreds or even thousands of people, you have a vested interest in both monitoring them and managing them so that your business enjoys the best reputation possible.

People pay attention to what their social media contacts say about the products and businesses they use.

In fact, social media is becoming one of the most popular places for people to look for recommendations when they are looking to buy new products or to try new services.

That gives these digital ‘notes’ increased importance and social media a louder voice than ever in determining the destiny of your business.

Those business owners who can manage their social media reputation can benefit their business, but those who ignore social media or are ineffective at managing the message can be hurt by it, sometimes with disastrous results.

Likes, +’s and Re-Tweets

When somebody says something nice about your business online, it can make people think better of your business.

But did you know that it can also substantially increase the amount of customers you get?

It’s true!

In early 2012, Google - which owns the world’s most popular online search engine - changed the way it ranks websites.

Instead of considering such things as keyword saturation and the number of backlinks your site has from authoritative websites, a primary criteria the Google search engine started using to help determine ranking is social presence.

That means that the more Facebook ‘Like’s’ and Twitter ‘ReTweets’ your site receives, the higher its ranking.

That also means that business owners can stop worrying about fooling around with their website copy to make it more appealing to search engines and instead focus on the people who really matter:

Their customers.

Encouraging social media approval should be Job 1 for most businesses today.

Being listed at the top of the Google search engine for your niche means you will capture most of the business from people who are using Google which, let’s face it, is almost everybody!

How Social Mentions Can Build or Bust Your Business’ Online Reputation

The amount of positive social mentions is directly related to where your web page is ranked on Google, the world’s largest search engine.

But they also play a role on how your business is perceived by internet users.

One comment on Facebook can go out to hundreds of social media contacts.

From there, it can be read by exponentially more people, not to mention being seen by those people who link their Facebook to their other social media accounts such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

If it was a positive comment, your business can benefit.

But if it was a negative comment, your business can be damaged, in some cases seriously.

For the most part, if you run your business well and do everything you can to take care of your customers, the occasional bad social media comment will be buried by the overwhelming amount of positive comments.

It’s almost inevitable that somebody at some point is going to have a negative experience with your business.

Given the immediate access people have today to social commentary sites, they may say something on Facebook or Twitter.

But if most of your other customers are raving about you, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.

The problem comes when you start to see a growing number of negative comments.

These can help you identify a problem with your business that you can correct right away, but if social media is flooded with complaints about your business, it’s nearly impossible to put that particular genie back into the bottle."

"And Then I Yelped …"

People usually don’t like the sound of their own voice when they hear it on a recording, but somehow they still love to hear themselves talk when it’s in their own head.

Social comment sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, Urban Spoon and others cater to this human foible, providing an outlet for anybody to give their opinion on whatever they like.

These opinions are then stored and are accessible to anybody wishing to learn more about a particular business.

Visiting from out of town and want to find the best pizza place?

Check Yelp or any of the other dozens of social media sites.

Not only can you find directions, hours of operation and perhaps even a link to the menu, but you can read what Bob from Baltimore had to say about their experience, or what Lolo151 recommends you order off the drink list.

While this is certainly a more democratic process than reading reviews written by professional journalists or sticking your nose into guidebooks to learn about various businesses, the question becomes, ‘Is this an accurate method for getting a real feel for a business?’

The answer is ‘Not yet, but it soon will be.’

Social comment is still a relatively new concept and most people are still getting acquainted with it.

While you will have the one or two people who will write several Yelp reviews every day, creating a chronicle of what they had for breakfast for all of posterity, most people will only write something when they feel very strongly about a business one way or the other.

Monitoring and Managing Online Reviews

In most cases there isn’t usually a huge pool of reviews for each individual business.

So, if a review is extravagant in its praise of a business, or ruthlessly skewers it based on a single customer’s experience, it doesn’t necessarily accurately reflect what’s really going on with that business.

As the pool of reviews grows larger, however, exceedingly positive and negative reviews will balance each other out and users of the social comment site can have a more realistic understanding of what they can expect if they use that business.

Still, it’s vitally important that business owners be aware of what people are saying about their businesses so that they can respond accordingly.

In recent years, companies have sprung up which will monitor social media for you and take action if negative comments are posted.

Given the expanding influence of social comment sites, you can expect this type of formalized monitoring to become more prevalent.

Other unscrupulous companies have taken to posting phony positive reviews in order to try to influence the opinion of internet users.

Can I Talk to You a Moment, Privately?

If somebody were to go to the central business district of your town, pull out a bullhorn and start shouting to passersby that your business sucks and that you are a terrible person, you would certainly do something about it, wouldn’t you?

In all likelihood, you would ask the person to stop, or at least find out what their problem is and try to correct it.

So shouldn’t you do the same thing when somebody posts something negative about your business online?

In many ways, it’s actually worse than using a bullhorn in a public space, because the people who are going to read that negative message are exactly the people you are trying to attract;

Customers who are looking for the products and services your businesses offers.

Some business owners believe the best way to respond to bad publicity is to simply ignore it.

All the good will you have invested in your business and the loyal customers you have nurtured will make it inconsequential in the long run.

But on the internet, once something is posted, it lives forever.

If you choose to ignore a negative comment or posting, it can continue to haunt you for months or even years.

Ideally, if a customer has a problem with your business they ask to speak to a manager or the owner and share their issue so that it can be corrected.

Sadly, many people today are so enamored by the thrill they get from seeing their comments posted on the internet that they will often skip this logical step and proceed directly to bashing your business online.

Avoiding Public Feuds and Steering Negativity to Private Portals

Because negative comments can truly hurt your business, it’s important to address them in the same way you would address a complaint from a live customer.

You want to resolve the issue to the customer’s satisfaction.

This is actually a great way to win over customers.

If they have a complaint and you correct it for them right away, those people can often become your most loyal customers.

On web-based social comment sites, there is usually a method of contacting the person who posted the comment privately, usually through an email or direct message.

This is preferable to trying to resolve the issue by posting a comment that can be read publicly.

Generally, you want to avoid any public feuding and resolve any problems privately.

If the original poster feels they are being called out publicly for what they said, they may become even more aggressive and attempt to deal an even deeper blow to your company’s reputation.

But if you can discuss their problem privately, especially if you can speak with them in person or over the phone, they tend to be much more rational and hopefully will agree to remove the offending post altogether.

There Oughta Be a Law

Right now is kind of the Wild West era of the internet and social media.

Because everything is so new, there aren’t many rules regarding what people say or how much damage they can cause to your business with negative comments.

Essentially, anybody can say anything they like about your business and unless they are being libelous or slanderous, there’s not much you can do about it other than try to privately convince them to remove their negative comments.

The people that run social comment sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, Urban Spoon and others are businessmen, however.

If you have genuinely tried to resolve an issue with a negative poster and failed, if you reach out to the social comment site’s support staff and explain how the comment is unfairly damaging your business, they will usually remove it.

After all, they have nothing to gain from your business being hurt by one of their users.

Another option is to threaten legal action against somebody you believe is unfairly targeting your business online.

Although actual legal action can be an expensive path, usually just the threat of a lawsuit is enough to get somebody to back down.

Be prepared to follow up on your threat if they don’t, however.

Creative Solutions to Changing Technologies

The internet is changing the way people perceive your business.

Managing its online reputation is now one of the most important elements of your marketing campaign because social media recommendations and reviews on social comment sites are quickly becoming the primary way people choose one business over another.

Monitoring social media for mentions of your business is important, but it’s a passive way of influencing people.

After all, once the comment is posted, it’s already out there.

A more active method would be to incentivize your customers to approve of your site on social media or to post positive reviews if they were happy with their experience.

Another idea is to use comment cards or dedicate an area on your web page for testimonials.

Then you may post those positive comments on your social media accounts and web pages.

When people see that there are a lot of other people making positive comments about your business, they will want to get on the bandwagon and will leave even more positive comments.

The rise of the internet’s influence requires business owners to be highly adaptable in developing responses to rapidly changing scenarios.

By looking for innovative solutions for complicated problems, you can continue to enjoy a positive online reputation and counteract negative postings before they can damage your business.

In the old days of doing business online, meaning any time prior to 2011, an internet marketer who wanted their website to appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) for their niche, simply had to include a few search engine optimization (SEO) techniques in the content of their page, build a few backlinks from authoritative sites and - Boom! - the website jumped to the top of the list.

On January 30, 2012, Google – the world’s largest and most popular search engine – enacted sweeping changes to their search engine algorithm.

That morning, website owners who had grown accustomed to maintaining the top spot on their niche’s SERP, suddenly found themselves evicted from the internet’s most desirable real estate.

Because they were concerned about reports that unscrupulous internet marketers had somehow outsmarted their search engine algorithm, Google executives suddenly and unexpectedly changed the rules.

SEO, the Holy Grail of internet marketing, had been replaced as the primary determinant of top spot placement.

Instead, social presence instantly became the important factor in determining which sites would be at the top of the heap and reap the biggest commercial rewards.

Like most internet marketers that morning, you may be asking, "What the heck is social presence?"

Great question.

A web page’s social presence is measured by the number of internet users who show a preference for that site on social media.

It includes Facebook 'Likes', Twitter re-Tweets, Google Plus '+'s', as well as postings on such social preference sites like Pinterest, Yelp, Foursquare and others.

Call it Revenge of the Nerds Redux.

Pandas, Penguins and the Significance of Social Media

Really, we should have seen it coming.

With near universal internet access and the falling prices of access devices such as smart phones, laptops and tablets, nearly everybody on planet Earth is interacting with everybody else on social media.

When Google released the Panda (and later, similar updates to its search engine algorithm called Penguin & EMD), it was simply responding to the changing trends among internet users.

Businesses no longer controlled the way customers found goods and services.

In a bloodless revolution, consumers themselves were now in charge of deciding which websites get top billing.

Voting with the push of a button, the Google upgrades changed the way businesses market themselves forever.

Or at least until the next update.

Viva La Facebook! The Zuckerberg Conflagration

Remember way back in 2005?

It seems like such an innocent era now.

Tom Cruise was jumping on Oprah’s couch.

Crowds were lining up to be disappointed by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

And the most popular pop music act in the US was 50 Cent.

Meanwhile, undergrad Mark Zuckerberg was huddled in his dorm room at Harvard University trying to figure out an easier way to meet girls.

Instead, what he came up with would change the global business landscape forever.

Say what you want about Facebook, but its growth in influence in such a short period of time is unprecedented in all of human history.

In less than a decade, the site has attracted nearly a billion users worldwide.

More than half the population of the US has a Facebook account and millions of snarky status updates, vacation photos and 'Farmville' or 'Words with Friends' requests are posted every day.

For businesses, Facebook offers a type of global word of mouth.

When somebody on Facebook ‘Likes’ your business or posts a link to your web page, that information is instantaneously sent to all of the family members, former classmates, co-workers, associates and other Facebook ‘Friends’ who make up their social media contacts.

These people can then pass on this recommendation to their contacts and before you can say ‘Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson’ the whole thing can go viral and your website can be overwhelmed with potential new customers.

What Twitter, Facebook & Google+ Mean for Your Business

Given the way business works today, your business needs to be on social media.

That’s because a majority of consumers today use online search engines to look for the products and services they want.

And why shouldn’t they?

The information can be accessed anywhere using their smartphones, laptops or tablets.

Google, Bing and the other popular search engines now use social presence as the primary factor in determining a website’s page ranking.

And as any business owner in the second decade of the 21st century can tell you, if you aren’t on the top of page 1, or at least on the front page, your business might as well be invisible.

Mark Zuckerberg’s determination to meet girls irrevocably changed the way businesses have to promote themselves forever.

It’s no longer enough to buy advertisements on local TV, radio or newspapers. Heck, in many cities actually newspapers don’t even exist anymore.

In order for your business to succeed, you now have to convince your customers to ‘Like’ you, to ‘+’ you and to ‘Tweet’ about you to their followers.

That really does sort of make 2005 seem like a bygone era, doesn’t it?

The [YOUR COMPANY HERE] Show

You may remember a time before cable or satellite television when the only options most TV viewers had were network television and a handful of local stations?

Flash forward to today when most subscribers can choose from hundreds or even thousands of different options, instantly access their favorite programs at any time, and view programs in realistic high definition or even in 3D.

Still not good enough, say many TV viewers.

They no longer want to be forced to sit on their Lay-Z-Boys in the comfort of their own living rooms in order to be entertained. Viewers today demand that they have access to everything from anywhere.

And the internet happily obliges.

Want to see the latest episode of your favorite HBO show while waiting in your dentist’s office?

No problem.

Just touch an app on your smart phone.

Missing the big game because you are at your daughter’s dance recital?

Not anymore.

You can catch every minute of the action on your tablet (whenever she’s not onstage, that is).

Did you fall asleep during your favorite late night chat show?

Catch what you missed over your morning coffee by firing up your laptop.

While this may be an unfortunate development for your TV advertising return-on-investment, ultimately it’s a positive thing for your business because the expansion in access and advancements in micro video technology mean that anybody can create, distribute and profit from their own videos using tools they likely already own.

YouTube, Your Business and the Age of Video

Most laptops, tablets and smartphones today come equipped with video cameras, many of them HD.

In just a few minutes, you can create a video about your company and its products and services.

Posting it on YouTube is not only free, but a fast and effective way to get your message out in front of your customers.

Google Plus, the search engine giant’s entry into social media, even has a free tool called Hangouts in which you can invite up to 10 people to video chat with you live.

The free program is expected to be expanded in the near future so that an unlimited amount of your customers can engage in live video conferencing.

The program also can be used to provide customer service, deal with complaints, and provide assistance and other applications which until now have been limited to text or audio.

Hangouts are also recordable and can be posted to your free YouTube channel, essentially allowing you to create and maintain your own dedicated television network at a cost to you of zero dollars and zero cents.

And because this is the platform of choice for many consumers today, expect even further advancements in scope and technology soon.

Today, anybody can be a TV star.

Why not you?

The Power of Suggestion

Restaurant owners used to fear the local food critic, who usually kept their identity a secret, and held the power to make or break the restaurant’s business.

A good review could mean the reservations book would be filled for the next several months.

But one poorly cooked Veal Scallopini and the restaurant’s reputation could be damaged irreparably.

Today, however, everybody’s a critic because anybody can post their opinion about any business online, where it can be distributed to hundreds of other web users instantly.

Pictures can be posted.

Even videos and audio recordings can be sent automatically and for free.

This is a game changer for most business owners because instead of having to worry about one or two influential reviewers, they have to be concerned about everybody who walks through their door.

If there’s a smartphone in their pocket or a tablet in their backpack, they have the power to influence the opinion of potentially hundreds of people about your business.

Yelp, Foursquare and Other Social Opinion Sites

For users, social opinion sites are fun and entertaining.

And they can provide valuable information about area businesses, including recommendations and tips.

For business owners, however, they can be a nightmare. But they also can be a huge benefit.

That’s because if somebody has something nice to say about your business, instead of sharing it with a limited pool of a handful of friends or family, they can now spread the word with hundreds, even thousands of social commentary site users.

Instead of living in fear of the bad review, successful businesses today are encouraging their customers to promote their business on Yelp, Foursquare, Pinterest and other social commentary sites because this type of positive exposure can be priceless.

Business owners today should embrace these new free marketing tools and do everything they can to build a positive online reputation.

This not only keeps existing customers satisfied, but broadens their exposure to new customers, building future business and maintaining cash flow.

Where many businesses used to place stickers on their doors advertising the Yellow Pages and that they accepted American Express, Visa and Mastercard, now they are posting stickers encouraging their customers to check them out on Foursquare and Yelp.

Their sales staff actively encourages customers to support them on social media, and their Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter accounts offer special promotions and offers to their most loyal fans.

And what about that influential restaurant critic?

Their opinion is now just one of many.

Future Shock

In 1970, a best-selling book called Future Shock identified a psychological state in which individuals and even entire societies experienced “too much change in too short a period of time.”

The book’s author, futurist Alvin Toffler, warned that the accelerated rate of technological and social change would leave people disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation”.

Alvin Toffler could not have imagined the rate of change today.

In 1970, technological advances meant moving from straight leg jeans to bell bottoms.

Today, everything is moving so quickly that people don’t have time to be stressed and disoriented.

They are too busy figuring out how they are going to get the next new iPhone.

For businesses, rapid advances in technology can make marketing investments obsolete.

Consider the businesses that advertise on subway trains.

A few years ago, this was an effective way to get your message in front of an audience that would be held captive for at least several minutes with few distractions.

Today, people in the subway rarely look up from their smartphones, even when they are walking across the platform.

That can make it a challenge to find the most effective ways to spend your business’s marketing budget.

If you can’t be certain how much penetration a certain marketing platform will have a few weeks or months from now, how can you confidently invest your money in it.

Mobile Marketing, QR Codes and Other Emerging Media

The most successful businesses have already abandoned the traditional, stagnant and outdated marketing methods such as television, radio and print media.

Instead, they are embracing new technologies, such as Quick Response (QR) Codes and mobile marketing.

Perhaps ironically, text messaging has replaced the telephone call as the preferred way for most people to communicate with each other.

It’s much more comfortable to simply send off a text to somebody rather than actually talking and risk being stuck in a lengthy and potentially uncomfortable actual conversation.

Successful marketers have exploited this reality by using text messages to promote their products and services.

Currently, it provides the best audience penetration, especially among younger people.

QR Codes have the advantage of being novel.

Looking like tiny Rorschach test inkblots, they invite anybody with a smartphone to scan them, instantly taking them to a web page where they can learn more about the advertiser’s products and services.

These examples of new media marketing are only the latest in what promises to be a fascinating development in marketing strategies as the internet and its users continue to develop.

Newspaper reporters crushed around the famous bank robber Willie Sutton after he was nabbed by police on a snowy day in New York City in February 1952. 

Responsible for more than $2 million in heists from some of the country’s most prestigious banks, Sutton – also known as “Willie the Actor” and “Slick Willie” – had gained international acclaim for being unstoppable. Yet here he was, finally being hauled away in handcuffs.

Fresh-faced New York Herald reporter Mitch Ohnstad pushed his way to the front of the jostling mob of newsmen.

“Willie! Willie!” Ohnstad shouted. “One question! One question before they take you away!”

Sutton glared at the young reporter, then lifted his chin, seeming to say, “Go ahead, kid.”

“Why do you rob banks?” Ohnstad asked. All the other reporters drew silent and turned their eyes to the famous criminal.

Looking at Ohnstad with contempt for a moment, Sutton’s face suddenly broke out in a smile.

“Because that’s where the money is!” he replied.

What a Bank Robber Can Teach You About Your Business

Although Sutton wound up spending nearly the remainder of his life behind bars, he left behind an enduring lesson:

Whether or not he actually uttered those words, banks are where the money is. For Sutton, that answer would seem obvious.

In the same way, utilizing interactive conversations would also seem like a no-brainer for your business.

If you are not yet familiar with them, interactive conversations are a business model based on building interpersonal one-on-one relationships with your customers.

Before the internet took over how business is conducted on the planet Earth, these typically required store owners to strike up conversations with the customers who browsed in their shops.

“Nice weather we’re having. Can I help you find something? I like your shoes!”

This type of relationship-building puts your customer at ease, makes them feel like they are welcome and appreciated, and lets them know that you are ready, willing and able to serve them.

In the internet age, however, when thousands – even millions – of prospective customers can be visiting your web pages at any given moment, this type of one-on-one interaction isn’t possible.

Instead, successful business owners need to replicate that same trust-building dynamic using cutting edge, web-based tools that engage customers in a friendly, reassuring manner.

Why? Because that’s where the money is.

These Go to Eleven!

Regardless of whether you are selling whoopee cushions or Cadillacs, you inevitably are going to have competitors.

Both you and they will be competing for the same pool of customers.

The object of the sales game is to attract more customers than the other guy, and score is kept by who has the most revenue and profits at the end of the quarter and fiscal year.

In order to win the game, you have to strategize to outwit, outsmart and outperform everybody else in the market place.

That means promoting the best products, paying attention to trends, providing superior customer service and carefully monitoring the steps your competitors are taking to lure your customers away and beat you at your own game.

Winning the game requires having a sales program that is louder, more far-reaching, and which speaks more clearly to the people who are going to buy the types of products you offer.

You don’t simply need to turn your sales volume to the highest volume level of 10. You need to figure out how to turn it to 11.

The Power to Convert Visitors into Customers

This is where interactive conversations come into play.

Interactive conversations are a rich media experience that gives customers who visit your web page the illusion that there’s an actual person behind the screen speaking with them online.

These interactions should have a tone that is unique to your company.

The tone can be wacky, friendly, helpful, a little edgy, laid back, even humorous. It should reflect the personality of your business.

In the same way 20th Century sales clerks chatted up customers, virtual hosts of interactive conversations respond in real time to your customer’s questions and needs, while maintaining the personality that you want them to project.

Raving Fans

With interactive conversations, people who visit your web pages are able to not only get the information they are seeking - such as pricing, selection, options, etc. – they also engage in a memorable experience.

It is so innovative that it is an experience they want to repeat and share with their friends, family and even their social media contacts.

Interactive conversations are a unique way to engage your customer’s interest, turning up your sales pitch volume to 11 and even higher, and setting yourself head-and-shoulders above your competitors so that you can capture the largest share of the market.

They are the 21st century solution to the sterility of internet business, adding life and even entertainment to the otherwise cold, barren experience of visiting web pages.

Master the application of interactive conversations on your web pages and you can convert passive customers into raving fans.

"I’m All In"

If you own a later version of the iPhone, you’ve probably already met Siri.

She is the automated virtual assistant who lives in your smart phone, answering your questions, giving you directions and letting you know if it’s going to rain tomorrow.

In her most basic form, Siri is simply a voice recognition software program that is connected to an internet search engine.

Whenever you ask her where the closest delicatessen is located or if your flight to Bermuda is on time, the program in your iPhone converts your words into text, sends them to a search engine, then reads back the results in a robotic female voice that some people find sexy.

It’s actually not that complicated.

Yet the response to Siri has been overwhelming.

Apple was able to convince millions of people to pay five to ten times more for the same smart phone that their competitors were offering simply for the privilege of being able to interact with this faceless virtual assistant.

Otherwise normal people were willing to stand in line for hours waiting for the chance to get their hands on the new iPhone that came with this must-have app.

Television crews beamed images of lines forming all the way around Apple stores, sharing the excitement about this innovative new product with prospective customers around the globe.

Almost overnight, Siri became the poster child for interactive conversations and their ability to breathe new life into your online business.

Brand Building and Customer Loyalty

Interactive conversations can do for your web pages what Siri did for the iPhone.

If you can provide a web-based experience that entertains as it connects your customers with the goods and services you promote, you can create long-lasting, iron-strong loyalty bonds with your customers that will keep them buying from you for years to come.

To be successful in the 21st century, businesses need to do more than simply offer the best products and provide customers with their choice of the most desirable options.

Winning businesses today have to entertain and delight their customers using interactive conversations.

That’s because customers today are looking for more than a transaction. They are looking for an engaging and memorable experience.

Successful restaurants today don’t just offer steaks and sandwiches; they provide a glamorous theme or a self-affirming image that customers can buy into.

When you pay $5 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, it’s not just the flavor of the high-quality beans you are paying more for; it’s the experience of being part of something cool.

It ceases to be a cup of coffee and becomes a lifestyle that tells the customer, You are no longer just an ordinary Joe.

You’re a person, who cares about the environment, appreciates the difference between coffee beans grown on a Sumatran mountainside and an Andean plantation; you appreciate the finer things in life and are willing to pay a little more to prove it!’

Engaging the Customer into the Experience

If you have left your house anytime in the past month, the odds are that you’ve had a poor customer service experience.

Whether it is an inattentive sales clerk, a poorly trained fast food cashier, or a toll booth operator who is more interested in their Angry Birds video game than in providing you with service, being the victim of poor customer service can be infuriating.

Poor customer service is often enough to drive customers away for life.

Worse yet, an angry customer is often the most vocal, sharing their story of neglect and offense with their friends, family and – increasingly more common – with their social media contacts. And once word gets out on Facebook or Twitter, it can rapidly grow viral.

Even adequate service isn’t enough for many consumers today.

If you go to your bank and make a deposit and the cashier didn’t smile, use your name, ask how your day was going and make other small talk throughout your transaction, you probably would think something was amiss.

After all, you come to expect those things because many banks now provide that level of service.

While your deposit still goes into your bank account, you could walk away feeling displeased and may even consider changing banks.

Because competition is so fierce, customers today have higher standards when it comes to customer service.

It’s no longer enough simply to be efficient; you must also be friendly and engaging.

Otherwise, you could be putting your business at risk.

Increasing Engagement During Interactive Conversation

Online, the challenges become even greater.

Someone sitting in front of their home computer or looking at their smart phone or tablet not only expects high-speed efficiency, but also entertaining graphics, flashy design and cutting edge technology.

And if they don’t get it, your competitors are literally only the click of a button away.

Interactive conversations can provide the spark that ignites the customer service experience into something unique and entertaining.

They can create an illusion for customers that there is someone on the other end of that internet connection who genuinely cares about pleasing them and quickly and efficiently provides them with the products and services they are looking for.

Interactive conversations can also help draw your customers deeper into the transaction experience with your business, recommending other products they might like or reminding them of upcoming events and offers.

Most importantly, interactive conversations give you a way to provide your customers with a high-quality two-way conversation that entertains as it informs, impresses as it sells, and exceeds their expectations so that they will continue to choose you above your competitors time and time again.

Why Every Moment Counts

The Average Internet User Spends 32 Hours Online Per Month

The average internet user spends an estimated 32 hours per month surfing the web, but only 5% of that time is spent shopping.

Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the time (22%) is spent on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram.

Conducting searches (20%), reading blogs and other content (20%), scanning emails and other communications such as texts (19%) and watching or listening to media (13%) make up the rest of their internet hours.

Given those statistics, it might seem like your customers would rather be doing almost anything else rather than visiting your web page.

And let’s face it, competing with Angry Birds and streaming Netflix movies or Hulu shows can be a challenge.

Funneling customers to your site is of primary importance to your business so when your customers finally do arrive on your website; you want to keep them there as long as possible to continue to promote your products and services.

To do this, you need to engage your customers in interactive conversations.

When you create an interactive conversational experience for your customers, you can transform a mundane transaction into a fun and lively experience that they will want to sustain longer than it takes to simply make a purchase.

Improving Contact Efficiency

Facebook is not threatening to replace Yelp, and that is not the focus of this article at Wired.com by Ryan Tate, but Yelp should take note of what this article exposes.

From Ryan Tate's Article:

After searching for “Restaurants my friends who live in Berkeley, California have been to,” it occurred to me I had never liked the Facebook page of my own favorite Berkeley restaurant, so I went ahead and did that.

It was hard to get motivated to put information into Facebook when the data was used to enrich CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But now that Facebook lets my friends mine the data, I’m itching to share more freely. A similar query for “Bars in New York, New York my friends have liked” prompted more liking, this time for Bay Area dives and cocktail bars.