“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
Marcel Proust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOyKom5BQ8M&feature=youtu.be
Raving Fans
“More contact means more sharing of information, gossiping, exchanging, engaging – in short more word of mouth.”
Gary Vaynerchuk
There is no denying the facts. In today’s world, it is so important for local businesses to be engaged on review platforms such as YELP, Google Places, Citysearch and the like. People are talking about you, people are looking for you, your job is to know what they are saying and to be discoverable on the web.
Check out this super cool infographic that shows the facts about how potential new clients use review sites. Powerful stuff, and even more powerful for your business if you pay attention and use these platforms to help generate word of mouth and attract new clients.
(infographic discovered on Google courtesy of Milo)
To learn more about how to claim your YELP page, click here to view our webinar.
If you are looking to engage more deeply in the social + digital web in 2013, we offer one-on-one mentoring to help you craft a plan and learn how to use these platforms to help you achieve your dreams. Click here for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
Scheduled Posts- A Facebook How-To
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
Albert Einstein
We were working with a client the other day and were talking about planning and had a big AHA! We realized that many people with Facebook Business Pages do not know about the super handy feature called Scheduled Posts.
We firmly, 1000% believe that the social web is about real time engagement, two-way communication and building relationships, which means being very active on your pages. However, we see this as a great tool for when you want to take a vacation, have an exact plan of your posts for the week, or know that you will be out all night on New Years Eve and want to sleep in.
What it is NOT is a way to remove yourself from making authentic daily connections with your community such as posting shout outs to clients and team members, posting awesome pics from the day in the salon, commenting on posts from others on your page, responding to inbox messages, etc.
Here is how it woks. It’s super easy.
Step One
Create your post just like you always do.
Step Two
Click on the little clock on the left hand side of the Status Box.
Step Three
Select the Year, Month, Day and Time you want the Post to go LIVE.
Step Four
Click on Schedule. When you do, this little box will pop up to show you your Post is scheduled and where to find it if you want to edit or delete it.
Step Five
If you want to Edit or Delete the Post, you can go to Edit Page in the Admin Panel and click on Use Activity Log. You will see all of your scheduled posts and can edit them by clicking on the little arrow drop down thing on the right.
Congratulations! You have successfully scheduled your post. You are awesome. It’s time to celebrate!
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
The Truth About YELP
“We’re living in an era where word-of-mouth is on steroids. People aren’t just talking to their neighbors and the folks they run into around town; they’re talking to the world via social media.”
Gary Vaynerchuk
I have seen so much lately on the web about small businesses being mad at YELP. Rants on Facebook and other pages, and quite frankly, many of them are just small business owners who do not understand how YELP or social review and referral platforms work.
Is YELP perfect? NO! Is any social platform perfect? NO. But these platforms can be used for good, and my suggestion is to learn more about them, and to realize they are here to stay, whether you “like” them or not.
So here is my attempt to clear up any misunderstandings and hopefully inspire you to take the energy you are using to hate on YELP and turn it towards understanding YELP and how it can empower and gorw your business.
The Facts
1. YELP has more than 15 million reviews and over 40 million visits to its site every month.
2. Five star reviews lead in terms of percentage of reviews given.
3. YELP uses a formula called an “algorithm” to catch fake reviews or pages that get several reviews in a short period of time from new YELPERS, and filters them in an attempt to keep the site as authentic as possible.
4. Most frequent YELPERS know about filtered reviews and check them out.
5. YELP is one of the number one new traffic drivers to small business, both online and offline.
6. You DO NOT need to advertise on YELP to make it work for you, just like Google or Facebook, you have the choice of PAID discovery and/or ORGANIC discovery.
Here is a graphic that shows the average number of reviews by star.
My friends Pilates Studio in Los Angeles, Whole Body Method, who I have the pleasure to work with has received over 1500 visits to their website this year alone directly from YELP.
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Over 60% of those visits were first time visits.
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They stayed on the website over 2 minutes and viewed 2.5 pages, more than any other social or digital referral visit.
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Many of those visits have turned into new clients, as in hundreds of new clients.
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In fact, besides existing client referrals and traditional word of mouth, YELP is their number one referral tool.
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One of the keys to this is they also offer online booking and the ability to purchase packages online.
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Their business is up over 50% from last year. While there are several factors that made this happen, their choice to embrace the social + digital web is a significant part of their success.
My tattoo shop here in LA, Velvet Grip Family, attributes over 90% of new client traffic to YELP. How do they know? It’s the first question they ask when you walk in. “How did you hear about us?” Nine times out of ten the answer is YELP.
So here’s the deal. You can choose to NOT do business with YELP, whatever that means. But you must understand your business will remain on YELP, Citysearch, Google Places and all over the Internet. That is the reality of social business, and it’s not going away.
So you have a choice, bury your head in the sand, or take advantage of these powerful platforms, begin paying attention to what people are saying about your business on the web, and use them to grow. Your choice.
If you want to learn more about YELP and the other social referral platforms on the web, click here to see if our one-on-one mentoring program is right for you. You can also visit our YouTube channel PassionSquaredTV to view a webinar on YELP we did several months ago.
(shared with LOVE from your passionista Nina)
The Last Lecture
“Your passion must come from the things that fuel you from the inside.”
Randy Pausch, author of The Last Lecture
As I sit here on the eve of the last day I ever spent with my Dad alive, to say I am in a space of reflection is an understatement. Everyday for the last 5 weeks, I have replayed every moment. If you have lost a loved one, I know you can totally relate.
From the rainy Monday morning in early last November when I first got the call, to the long drive to the hospital that morning, the three week vigil at his bedside praying that he would wake up, to these last two weeks, when he was awake, and we were promised he would be home by Christmas.
It was Thursday, December 8th 2011, the last day I spent with him, just he and I. I brought him an Americano from Starbucks, we talked, watched a movie (As Good As It Gets), did his physical therapy together, I gave him a manicure, we played Skee-Ball on my iPad, and even wrote a love note to each other on it, this is the note.
I had no idea, as we never do, that four days later, I would get a call, on another rainy Monday morning, telling me it was time to say goodbye.
The Last Lecture is one of my favorite books. The year it came out I read it and gave it to everyone on my list. This book and video helped me realize that we have a choice of what we do with our limited time on this planet.
If you have not seen the video, or read the book, I really recommend you do. While it’s a tearjerker, they are also filled with inspiration and are well worth the tears.
In this first video, Randy speaks about passion. I just love his simple yet profound wisdom. Here are some of his wise words.
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Find your passion and follow it.
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Don’t give up on finding your passion.
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You will not find it in things or money.
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Passion must come from what fuels you from the inside.
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Passion is grounded in people and the relationships you have with people.