Is Your Business Disoverable Passion Squared blog

Is Your Business Discoverable?

November 7, 2016Nina KovnerENGAGE

The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw

One of the most effective ways we grow our business is by engaging new clients. Word of mouth and referrals are the way this happens. We all know this. With the social + digital web, we have an awesome opportunity to amplify word of mouth and referrals. Yet, unless we are present on the platforms that people use to find businesses, then we have missed the opportunity to be discoverable.

So let me take you on a little journey, and before you jump on, put your “client” hat on…

Intent
I want or need something

Search
I am going to look for it

Discovery
Yay, I found it.

Action
I am going to click, call, book, buy…. or NOT!

There are two ways I like to look at search and discovery. There is social and digital. Both need to be looked at now as mobile search as nearly all of our day to day online activities are happening via our mobile.

Social
Social search is what it sounds like, searching on social. This is what we do when we use the search bar on Facebook, peruse hashtags or use the discovery page on Instagram or even use Snapchat to find businesses via a tool like Ghostcode, Add Nearby, etc. See where I am going with this?

Digital
Digital search is a more traditional type search like Google, Yelp, YouTube, Yahoo, Siri, etc.

The Job of Search Engines & How You Benefit
Both social + digital platforms and search engines are designed to deliver to us the most relevant and recent results for the terms we used to search. So if your business is relevant to the search and you are active on the platforms you have chosen, you have more of a chance of being in the top results.

Put Your Consumer Hat Back On
Ask yourself and think about the last time you searched for something online.
What terms did you use?

Now think about clients looking for your business.
What terms would they use to find you?
What is your “thing”? What experiences do you offer?
Who is your audience?
All these things need to be thought through to ensure you get matched up with the ideal target clients.

The words, posts, photo descriptions, about sections, etc. need to be relevant to your brand and business so when I go looking, I find YOU.

What Pages Matter?
Well, there are some that matter to all and then some that matter depending on your target audience as we always want to be where our clients are. But here is a good start.
Yelp
Google Business
Facebook
Instagram

Now Its Your Turn!
This week, I want you to set aside one hour to do some more searches of your own. Then head back to your social + digital pages and see where you can improve your chances of becoming more discoverable. Think words, think pictures and their descriptions, think contact info, brand name, services and specialties, all those things matter.

And if you feel extra inspired, click here and let me know what you discovered and what actions you will take.

Love + Awesomeness-
Nina

#QandAwesome Episode 10 Should I Care About YELP?

April 19, 2015Nina Kovner#QandAwesome

Awesome offline experiences create awesome online reviews. In this weeks episode of #QandAwesome, I answer a question about YELP, by far one of the most controversial online referral platforms. Love it or hate it, it can work. If you choose it to. And yes, it still matters. Thanks so much for watching.

Larisa Love

From Instagram To Eyelash Extensions In Two Clicks

June 9, 2014Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“Make it easy for people to talk about you.”

Andy Sernovitz

 

Larisa Love
Here is the audio version of this post. Thank you so much for listening.

This is not a story about my beautiful new eyelash extensions, but one of how word of mouth and referrals happen when you truly become a social business. It does not get any more simple (not easy) than this. Here is how the story goes…

I follow larisadoll on Instagram. She is one of the most insanely talented colorists I have seen and has truly mastered the art of content creation, sharing and engagement on Instagram. She is so in demand, she is not even taking new clients. OMG, how many people can say that?

So as you can see in the pic above, she posted about her new lashes she got from the amazing Claudia Rod, miss_c_rod26 at Sinful Lashes. Now let me get something real clear, I had no intention of getting eyelash extensions. In fact, anything on or in my eyes makes me crazy. But I am a student of the social + digital web, and had to see what the fuss was all about, why did Larisa love her lashes so much?

So I quickly clicked on the Sinful Lashes page, and saw that a promotion was happening with Claudia.   (I found out later Claudia was just beginning her career as an eyelash extension artist and is working hard on building her biz).

Sinful Lashesphoto 3-4The Sinful Lashes page had a link to their website which allowed me to book online. Immediately. It was SO EASY. Just as it should be in 2014. A simple and seamless user experience. Is your booking process simple and seamless?

 

 

 

 

 

I was so excited for my new lash experience and to meet Claudia. She was so professional, sweet and insanely talented. She also, as professionals do, educated me on caring for my new lashes and recommended all the Sinful Lashes products I needed to care for them. Did I invest in the products she recommended? You bet I did. I just invested time and money into my new lashes and want to be sure they stay awesome in between visits. And yes, there will be more visits. Every three weeks to get a touch up.

My New LashesBut the story does not end there. Of course I had to share my experience on Instagram with all my beautiful followers and now I am writing a blog about my experience.

This is how word of mouth and referrals work in 2014.

It will never replace offline word of mouth, it only amplifies it. This is as simple as it gets. But it takes commitment, time, energy and consistency. It takes creating an awesome offline experience. It takes engaging on the platforms your clients (and potential future clients) engage on. It takes making it easy for clients to talk about you.

Thank you to Sinful Lashes, Larisa Love, and Claudia Rod for the experience and for creating awesome on my lashes. If you are in or around LA or planning on visiting, well, you know what I am going to say… book a reservation with Claudia at Sinful Lashes.

Love + Awesomeness-
Nina

YELP

The Truth About YELP

December 10, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“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

 

YELP

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.
YELP ratings 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.

(shared with LOVE from your passionista Nina)