Real stories from real people who have done business with you demonstrate the value of your business in ways that self-serving marketing statements just can’t. That’s why third-party reviews of your business at sites like Yelp and Google Places are becoming critically important to your reputation – and ultimately your sales, revenues and profits.

It’s about trust, and reviews help build trust.

Reviews also help build traffic, as proven recently by Intuit, provider of QuickBooks, and Bazaarvoice, a company that enables Web-based reviews. ProAdvisors are consultants and trainers certified in QuickBooks, and those with reviews in their profiles are 555% more likely to get click-throughs than their peers without reviews.

What’s more, the rating doesn’t matter as much as the number of reviews. A business showing a four out of possible five-star rating that had 10 reviews attracts more clicks than a five-star rating with only two reviews. This means that volume matters, so it’s time to start generating reviews now.

Let us know if you need help claiming your Google Places or Yelp listing, or you need any help at all with your review program.

But it will definitely be texted, tweeted, Googled and photographed in mega-pixel magnificence.

It’s nothing TechCrunch readers haven’t been exposed to over and over. Or that  the millions of people who bought iPhones in the last few years haven’t known all along. But the idea that high-powered handsets are going to change the world is finally real for me.

I started using a Droid X recently, and I get it now. I got it last Friday night, when the MapQuest print out led us astray. I turned to the Droid and asked it how to get us where we were trying to go. We thought we were miles away, but it was a quick u-turn to the Stone Brewery — and we made it just in time for our reservation.

Once there I checked in with FourSquare, and got some valuable tips from previous patrons. I took pictures. I enjoyed myself.  And I have some opinions about the food, service and overall atmosphere that I will be sharing on Yelp.

My experience, in aggregate with the thousands of others who visit Stone this year, is going to become part of a permanent public record that will either be good for Stone’s business, or bad.

A trend will eventually emerge — a majority of people will say they love the place, or that it sucks. And that will have some veracity and real influence in the decison-making process of other prospects and customers. It’s a dynamic that smart business proprietors  know they can’t afford to ignore.

Again, this is pretty much old news in some quarters, but the winning businesses of the future will be those who are the first to master:

• Mobile search that facilitates real-time decision making
• Connecting and engaging on social media platforms
• Really listening to customers, and managing to give them what they say they want

That future is here already. Adapting to it is not rocket science. In fact it’s pretty simple. If you are running a small business today, it is imperative that you optimize your marketing for the new realities of hand-held search. At the very least, you need to:

• Set up your Google Places page (and do it correctly)
• Have a Facebook presence that generates leads for your business
• Respond to reviews on Google Places, Yelp, etc.
• Control your local presence at Yahoo and Bing, as well as Google

Of course, you have a business to run, and no time to spend on this stuff. But it’s critical, in this economy, to stay competitive. The future of your business depends upon it.

If you haven’t taken these steps yet, call us today at 858.779.4866, and we’ll get you started.

Yet his invention gave manufacturers the impetus to begin buying advertising space in faraway newspapers. Suddenly, distant parties could communicate instantaneously, and everything radically changed. New markets opened and the Industrial Revolution got under way in earnest.

Is something nearly as monumental happening today? Suddenly, the newspaper, TV, radio station, Yellow Pages, etc. are no longer necessary for a business to get its message in front of prospective and existing clients and customers. Everyone is a publisher — has been for years now — and the publishing tools just keep getting better.

What this means is that every business has to be prepared to engage with its customers in an authentic dialogue. You can’t just put up misleading ads and expect to continue growing the business at 10 or 15 percent a year.

What you can do, instead, is find your market, however tiny it is, and connect with and engage your customers in a real partnership, in an exchange that benefits and satisfies both you and your client.

While doing this is not rocket science, it can be a time-consuming endeavor. Especially if you’re running a business, and you’re not an expert communicator, and not particularly focused on the latest Internet technologies.

That’s why SmarterCompany is here. We’re a lean team of expert communicators, programmers, artists, and people who just know how to get it done.

Amazing things are happening every day with social media properties like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; and technologies like the iPad and Android platforms to come. There are exciting new capabilities for businesses of all sizes. The time is right for a new kind of marketing agency that helps small businesses integrate these technologies to operate more efficiently and effectively.

And today we are lifting off!

How do you become more findable to the right people? And then convert those prospects into customers? It’s a science and an art.

SmarterCompany provides strategic messaging and search engine optimization services to help you get your site ranked high in your locale. It’s the smarter way to get in front of prospects, tell your story the right way, and build a sustainable business faster.

We can also help you integrate your Facebook presence into your marketing effort. Call us today at 858.779.4866 to get started!