Tag: Yelp

Image representing Yelp as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Reaching out to mobile travelers is good business, especially where I live on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. Every year, thousands of wired [that means “internet connected” for you folks from the U.P., eh?] travelers drive through our area on their way to Door County. The smart restaurateur should be looking at ways to figure out how to get their fair share of that mobile business! Here’s a interesting article that I found on the topic…

“For my project, I had a chance to develop top-level social media strategies and participate in the day-to-day management of social media presences. There is no better way to to hone your social media skills than to roll up your sleeves and “just do it” as this process gives you a way to see firsthand what works and what doesn’t work so well.

Based on my experiences, I have come up with a list of “7 Must-Do’s” for the restaurant industry. Some of these tips are no-brainers and can be implemented immediately. Some of the other tips are bigger projects and tasks that will need to be updated and monitored on an ongoing basis. Each of these tips will contribute to what should be the social media goals of any business: expand corporate mindshare, augment and expand existing marketing channels and increase the number of customer interactions.” Source: 7 Social Media Must-Do’s for the Restaurant Industry « Social Media Musings by Tom Humbarger

You’ll have to click through to the source to get the author’s thoughts, but here are the tools he recommends…

  • socialmention
  • Google Local Business Center
  • Yelp for Business Owners
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Wikipedia
  • Blogging

It’s all great stuff and I recommend the tools he suggest for any small business looking to connect with wired travelers. Unfortunately, however, he forgot to mention Foursquare which is rapidly emerging and Snacksquare which is a location based coupon provider that sms’s coupons to people looking for places to eat in your area. Here’s the skinny:

“Users can get a glimpse of deals on a map, filter by category, check in at venues and have specific deals sent to their mobile phones. From a consumer perspective, Snacksquare offers a nifty way to explore deals before heading out.

The site also caters to hungry business owners anxious to get into the location-based promotion game. Essentially, merchants can use Snacksquare to add their venues to Foursquare (Foursquare) and to compile an SMS contact list of past and present customers for push marketing purposes.

Merchants can send friend requests to customers via Snacksquare and the customers that accept these requests can opt in to SMS messages from the merchant in question. Merchants can then use this SMS list to blast out automated location-based alerts to customers within a specified radius of the venue based on their most recent checkin. The service does come with associated costs, but businesses that sign up for the upcoming Foursquare Day can get free beta access.” Source: Snacksquare Connects Foursquare Merchants to Customers

Cool, huh? At the time, though, only ONE restaurant in northeast Wisconsin is using Snacksquare — The Pub on Main Street in Green Bay. What about your restaurant? Offering deals to wired travelers is what’s next and I can help you figure it all out…

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Because Forrester has some interesting data to support it…

“While only 4 percent of US online adults have ever used a location-based service, like popular check in app Foursquare, data from research firm Forrester shows that young adult males with college degrees appear to be the main user group.

In addition to being the main user group, the group may also be heavy online influencers as 38% of them claim that their networks ask them for their opinion before making a purchase decision. It would be interesting to know what types of products their networks ask them about before a purchase. Most likely, it’s probably electronics.

Finally, the data shows that the group may also be heavy mobile researchers, meaning that they are more likely to search for information on products or services as well as look up ratings and reviews. If the user group is constantly checking in to locations, then they are probably also using their smartphones…” Source: Forrester reveals who uses location-based services the most | VentureBeat

While the Pew Internet Study reports that only 4% of smartphone users are ‘checking in’ — it’s a pretty awesome and influential 4%. Wouldn’t you agree?

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Two of my favorite points from the author?

“Small town people are carrying smartphones, playing location based games, and using Facebook even while out of the house. Visitors and travelers are using Google Local to find businesses in even the smallest of towns. Travelers and locals review small town businesses on sites like Yelp and Urban Spoon. All of this is happening now. Smart small town businesses are taking advantage of this, and 2011 should see more businesses in small towns offering coupons and deals through the established players like Google and Facebook. Mobile-friendly information and QR Codes will pop up, even in remote locations.” and “The wave of global outsourcing may have crested, and small town business can benefit by capturing more of these jobs through ruralsourcing. Rural service firms claim a number of advantages over global firms: shorter supply chains, better data security, intellectual property protection, cultural compatibility, and convenient time zones. Costs are lower than traditional urban firms, reflecting the lower rural cost of living. Those small town companies capable of partnering with large corporate clients stand to gain new business throughout 2011.” Go to the source to read the article: smallbiztrends.com

Smart rural economic development corporations, government leaders and business owners will pay heed and e1evation, llc can help navigate the technology issues. ‘Connect with me’ to discuss how this applies to your organization…

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Consumers More Likely to Use Businesses Active on Social Media

Image representing Yelp as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

Seven out of 10 consumers are more likely to use a local business if it has information available on a social media site, says a new study.

The annual study, called Local Search Usage Study: Bridging The Caps, From Search to Sales, is a joint effort of comScore and TMP Directional Marketing, a local search marketing firm. It includes an online survey of some 4,000 consumers, plus data gleaned from observing one million consumers who agreed to have their online searches monitored anonymously.

Having a page on Facebook is a start, but it’s not a one-time effort: 81 percent of consumers using social media say it’s important for businesses to respond to questions and complaints. And for the record, you do need to worry about reviews and ratings – 78 percent said they’re important when deciding what to buy.

What else do you need to be doing with social media? Nearly four out of five (78 percent) of users want special offers, promotions, and information about events, 74 percent want regular posts about products, and 72 percent want posts about the company itself. (Wondering about posting those photos of the company office—or picnic? Two-thirds of those surveyed want to see them.)

If this all seems too daunting, the survey also suggests a simple starting place: make sure there is correct information about your business in as many places online as you can (Google, Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Social networkers are 67 percent more likely to buy something than general searchers, but one in six searchers is frustrated by the lack of reliable information about small businesses on the Web – either it’s not there at all, it’s incorrect, or it’s confusing or disorderly. One third of searchers give up on a business when they can’t quickly find the information they’re looking for.

via inc.com

Wow. Just wow. You can follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to read the rest of the article. Comment, call or use the contact form to connect and discuss how this applies to your business. Thanks to Dana VanDen Heuvel for tweeting this…

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10 Reasons Not To Ignore Your Blog For Facebook

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

Brace yourself: Facebook is trying to take over the world. Or, if not the world, at least the entire Internet. With Facebook partnering up with popular sites like Yelp, many SMB owners may feel as if their load got lighter. I mean, why waste time worrying about your building your blog or your own site when you can grow your Facebook presence instead? If Facebook’s opening up the doors so that people can take you with them, you don’t have to worry about anything else anymore, right?

Wrong!

It doesn’t matter how hot Facebook or any of the other social media sites are looking right now. You still need to be focused on using your blog to create your own authority and brand. Want to know why?

Here are ten reasons.

via smallbiztrends.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go directly to the source to get the whole story if you’d like to get the 10 reasons. #1? You don’t own Facebook…

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Turn Your Expertise Into Dollars Online

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Image via Wikipedia

Small business owners possess a wealth of knowledge about their industry or sector, and when they share this knowledge with Internet (Internet) searchers, it lends credibility to their business and attracts new customers. Blogging is a key medium for sharing your expertise. The most recent Merchant Confidence Index, a survey of 10,000 small business owners conducted by my company found that nearly 30% are blogging and 35% plan to blog in the next three months. Those who are blogging have found that creating impactful content that people can find online is one of the best marketing tools available — and it’s free. According to data published by Internet marketing firm HubSpot, companies that blogged realized 55% more visitors to their site, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages.

Michele Gorham, owner of the Andover, Mass.-based Cookie Central bakery, is one small business owner who has turned her expertise into dollars online. She has created hundreds of blog entries about how to build a business, run a bakery, and other helpful topics; and she continuously answers customers’ direct questions through various social media platforms, including Facebook (Facebook), Twitter (Twitter) and Yelp (Yelp). Because of Gorham’s rich content contributions, her listings on various sites are highly trafficked and regularly found by search engines — generating more sales for her business.

via mashable.com

If you’re as interested in thought leadership marketing, you’ll want to follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article…

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The Future of Local Commerce = Facebook + Foursquare + Yelp + Groupon [+ Outdoor]

Image representing Foursquare Solutions as dep...
Image via CrunchBase

Buy local? It’s more than just a tagline but if you want more than your fair share of drive by business, you have to consider what these tools can do for you…

“There’s been much hype, crazy valuations, and overall market excitement about businesses that promise to unleash the power of the social graph, location, recommendations and group buying. Facebook’s latest valuation according to SecondMarket is now about $30 billion, Foursquare raised $20 million at a post-money valuation of $115 million while still at a pre-revenue stage, Yelp, short of selling for $550 million to Google, raised over $25 million at an undisclosed but very high valuation, and finally Groupon raised $135 million at a whopping $1.35 billion valuation. So besides their huge success with the investment community, and their users, what do these companies have in common, and what does all this have to do with disrupting Local Commerce?” Source: The Future of Local Commerce = Facebook + Foursquare + Yelp + Groupon

imho, you if you want maximum impact, you also have to consider what these tools will do for you when combined with old media like outdoor advertising as well, but not everyone has the ability to help you integrate outdoor like e1evation does…

What do each of these tools do? Here’s your primer and why you should care…

“Let’s focus on the main function each of these different startups provide to understand how bringing them together will ultimately disrupt multiple trillion dollar industries:

  • Facebook: provides the Social Graph, which is fast becoming a utility. Through its open platform, and APIs, we share more about our lives and our interactions online and on mobile every day.
  • Foursquare and Gowalla: provide location services and check-ins, along with game mechanics that motivate users to unlock badges, earn mayorships, and get discounts at local stores in the process.
  • Yelp: provides crowdsourced reviews of local businesses. Now also provides check-ins, and offers.
  • Groupon: provides discounted offers against a promise to increase sales and bring in brand new customers to local businesses.

The interesting thing here is that there’s a lot of overlap between the features offered by these companies. Recently, Facebook launched Places, a mobile geo-location service that mimics Foursquare local check-ins. Yelp also added check-ins, and recently rolled out Yelp Deals, a Groupon clone.” Source: The Future of Local Commerce = Facebook + Foursquare + Yelp + Groupon

My advice? Find someone who can help you get launched and get moving, but I’m in that business so what would you expect me to say? Really! Comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

via ScribeFire
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