“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)
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)
“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.
Over 60% of those visits were first time visits.
They stayed on the website over 2 minutes and viewed 2.5 pages, more than any other social or digital referral visit.
Many of those visits have turned into new clients, as in hundreds of new clients.
In fact, besides existing client referrals and traditional word of mouth, YELP is their number one referral tool.
One of the keys to this is they also offer online booking and the ability to purchase packages online.
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.
“Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.”
Walt Disney Company
We all know the saying a picture is worth a thousand words, and on your social pages, a picture can be worth a thousand likes, comments and shares. This is a pretty simple one. Images evoke the highest engagement on social platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest and of course Instagram. But what is important to take away from this super cool infographic is the types of images and the context in which we post them that makes all the difference.
Self-promotion and hard selling is NOT what the social web is about. What it is about is creating value, engaging, listening, sharing, two-way communication and building relationships. So instead of posting an image of a product you have for sale, think about posting a super cool hair image created with the product or client or team member using the product. See the difference?
Understanding these simple “rules of engagement” can transform your content on your social pages and dramatically increase engagement with your community. Awesome.
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
(n) man·i·fes·to
A written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer.
Nearly all of us have seen this image floating around our social pages. But what many of you may not know is the story behind the Holstee Manifesto, which has been shared over 500,000 times and viewed 60 million times online. It started as an idea for a different kind of clothing company, in the height of the recession in May 2009. The rest, as they say, is history.
A manifesto is a story. A statement of values and beliefs. And as we have talked about several times in our blog, webinars and workshops, people buy stories, not things. Will your story go viral and ignite 500,000 shares and an online business? Who knows. Is it worth taking some time to create yours? Absolutely.
So you may be thinking, isn’t this the same thing as a mission statement? No. Let’s be honest, most mission statements are lame, stale, passionless and old school. Manifestos are the new mission statement. They are real, authentic, emotional, relevant, public and immersed in passion. They are stories. Not just words typed on a piece of paper and filed away.
What is your manifesto? Are your team and clients aware of it? Do you share it on your website, social pages, in your salon or business, your communications and materials?
If you are looking for guidance and inspiration to create your story, we offer one-on-one mentoring to help you craft the ultimate manifesto. Click here to inquire about our programs. We are super excited to be part of your growth and success.
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
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.
