Now you know the facts.  It’s more critical than ever to know what is being said about you within major review engines such as Yelp.com, Yahoo Local, and Google Maps.  In most cases these reviews are appearing higher in the search engines than your own web site when consumers are searching for your business, product or service.  We have developed a proprietary solution that reviews and collects data that is posted within top review sites such as Yelp.com, Yahoo Local, Google Maps, and City Search. We’ve created a service that, not only, monitors the top review search engines but also monitors and collects data from industry specific sites such as RateMd.com, UrbanSpoon, and more. Interactive Imprint is designed to automatically search the top review sites once you create your account you can set up numerous other industry specific review engines as needed to suite your business needs.

Today, after many, many hours of refining and revising, Interactive Imprint is now available to your business! Put an end to manual searching receive instant alerts, keep all reviews in one central place, monitor historical activity, monitor progress, and eliminate the need of manually reviewing each and every site.

• Daily, weekly, or monthly alerts
• Comprehensive view of the review sites that matter to your business!
• Variety of package to choose from

Learn more about this service:  Interactive Imprint – Finally an easy way to track and monitor online business reviews!

The Facts:

• During the Facebook Conference, also known as F8 the Facebook  team announced well over 25 major changes that have already been fully implemented or will be fully implemented by the end of this year (2011).
• The majority of the changes directly impact the personal Facebook account (though there are implications to the business page).
• Facebook has over 750 members, 1 in 3 members visit their Facebook account at least 5 times a day.

The Feed:

Public view:  Facebook is now more visible than it has been in the past.  More and more of our posts are  “public” in that, you still have to have an account to view information within Facebook but now with the new “public” feed option as well as the “subscribe” button you can now share posts beyond your close network of friends and/or family.  A word of caution – if you want to keep your posts private it will be CRITICAL that you check the audience selector. All of your posts can now be published via the Audience Selector, you can choose from Public, Friends, Acquaintances, or Custom.  Next time you create a post click on the icon in the lower right hand area of the post area, you’ll see Audience Selector.  The most secure option is the FRIENDS option for any and all of your posts including your photos.

Choose who within your network sees your activity.

Subscribe Option:  Anyone can now subscribe to your posts as long as you have the subscribe button turned on you can share information with people who are not your friends

You may not want someone to be a friend or within your close network but you may want to get regular updates to their activity and posts.  Search for their name within Facebook and then select the Subscribe option.  You will then see their activity in your ticker.

You can now "subscribe" to others within Facebook

Once you have subscribed you will then see their activity in your feed.

Feed options – Hover Crazy!  There are, what feels like, hundreds of ways to view data about your network via the news feed.  You can modify what you see via the subscribe options (hover over an update, name, or activity).  You can select the level of information you will see about them.  I love that you can view so much from one page without having to commit to a click but I have gotten into “hover” insanity a few times!

The Wall is now The Timeline– a collective place of everything about you, your likes, photos, comments, music listened to, etc. etc. The new timeline can be created/activated by using Developer Tools or you can activate it once it rolls out on December 21^st.  By far, in my opinion the coolest new feature rolled out by Facebook.  Businesses are doing some really neat things to help consumers with the transition – Modern Family is now offering cover photos for your timeline:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.300881846622625.77315.270204986356978&type=3

Very clever and only the beginning of how marketers will utilize this new space.

The Business Page :

Biggest fact here is that the new timeline will not impact the business page, at least not yet.  Most of the other major changes have to do with security and interactivity:

Secure Socket Layers (SSL) requirement – this went into effect on October 1, 2011, what this means is that if you have any type of third party application, custom welcome page or any other special application you will need to get an SSL certificate for the site that holds these applications in order for your Facebook content to be accessible.

FBML is now iFrames-  which basically means you can build out custom pages and tabs without having to use Facebook MarkUp Language.

User Insights — The best improvement so far has been the improvement to Insights.  When logged into your business page you’ll now see a new public metric called People Talking About (right underneath your fan count to show the number of people on Facebook who have engaged with your page in the last 7 days).

Reviews and Discussions are no longer applications supported by Facebook.  The thought is that the best way to engage in conversation is through posts and comments on your wall rather than via, usually segmented, review and discussion applications. The best way to encourage conversation and feedback is through posts and comments on your Wall.

All in all a lot of really good changes and upgrades.  I continue to be a “fan” and amazed by the growth, usability, and sustainability of Facebook.

A series of interesting applications, views and features.  Just activated my timeline, very neat to watch this all unfold.  Very interested in what this means to the business page….more to come….

Services provided:

*Social media and directory set up
*End to end information architecture: Site Maps, wireframes, use cases, data capture process
*Site design concepting
*Robust SEO copywriting services
*PHP and Flash development
*Selection & implementation of a content management system (Expression Engine)
*Site activity tracking, goal set up, and reporting
*End to end quality assurance

OLD Website:

Ayurveda Wellness Web site - Before Redesign

It’s been over one year since the introduction of Google Places (as a replacement for the Google Local Business Center), the name and look has changed but Google Places results continue to dominate search queries and with a heavy local slant.

Google Places, in my opinion, is probably the single most important tool available for online marketing because it is directly related to searches people are making on a local level. Further, these are searches taking place by those who are most likely to buy from your business. If you are new to Google Places, watch this quick and informative video created by Google.

Few of the basic steps to get the most out of your Google Places Page:

1) CLAIM or CREATE a Google Places Page: Even if you haven’t actively created your business page, it’s pretty likely that your business already has one. As of this past March over 58% of business owners have not claimed their profile. Head over to Google and do a simple search for your business. If you see a listing click on the place page and look for the “business owner?” option. From there, Google makes it very simple for you to claim your page. If you don’t find a listing, you can easily create one via the Welcome to Google Places Page.

2) PROFILE: Google Places provides a wide variety of ways to build your profile. Few of the most important factors are:
a. Description: You have 200 words, use them. Don’t over-stuff for the sake of using all the words.
b. Keywords: Use terms that relate to what you do and what customers use to find you via searches.
c. Category Tags: You will have 5 options, use them.
d. Media and Imagery: Upload photos and videos. Geo-tagged photos and videos in general make your Google Places Page stand out in the crowd. Make your profile as complete as possible.

3) REVIEWS: Customer ratings and reviews of your business…. The single most powerful feature on Google Places Page as well as all of the review sites. Customers spend more time looking at review sites when doing an evaluation than on your website. A consumer expects that you will say great things about your business. They want to see what others think about you and your business. That said, encourage your customers to post positive reviews about you on as many of the review sites as possible. Space out your reviews and do not offer an incentive for positive reviews. Don’t panic when you get a negative comment (for more information on how to manage the review process, click here).

4) ANALYTICS: Use the dashboard! When Google created Google Places they tied everything into their very robust and detailed analytics system. You, very easily, see graphs, charts, and analytics which work together to give you a clear picture of who is finding you and what they are doing on your profile page. This dashboard offers great insight into where your customers are coming from and what they are most interested in within your business page.

These are only a few of the very basic steps to consider. If you’d like a detailed step by step overview of how to make the most of your page or how to create one, contact me, Vanessa Capozzi at vcapozzi@ieinteractiveservices.com or by calling 412.400.7205.

Next phases include: mobile optimization, an interactive skin consultation, a blog, and many, many more features.

Previous version of The Skin Center Website

Newly redesigned and developed web site

We had an incredible team working on this effort starting with the account leader Mary Kirk and our “do-it-all” coordinator Rachel McBroom — we couldn’t have pulled together all the assets, bells, whistles, and copy without them. Approvals never would have happened without you MARY!

A special thanks goes out to the extended ieInteractive team:

Brian Kalinowski – End all, be all programmer, developer, whatever it takes neek
Valerie DiCarlo — The SEO GURU
Creme Fraiche Design — Dana Boulden — The concept queen!
Daniel Casciato – One of the MANY talented writers on the project

Now onto the next 20 phases of the project!

Looking forward,

~Vanessa

The impact of social networking channels on today’s small business is unmatched; even by search. Search, of course, is a critical component in the marketing mix but doesn’t have the crippling effects that the social rating and review sites can have. The rating and review sites continue to have a profound and even, in some cases, paralyzing impact on small businesses all across the Internet. Along with the multitude of brand advocates you will acquire, you are sure to encounter more than a few, very vocal unhappy customers along the way — which is why it’s become a great task to manage your online reputation. These sites , as with the web in general, moves fast – much faster than any one business can keep up with. Which is why implementing a reputation management program and true extension of your marketing efforts is a must, now more than ever.

Remember the phrase “word of mouth” the phrase used to describe how one person tells another and that person tells another and so on? The advent of the Internet, its ease of use, and consumer adaptability rates wipes out any thoughts surround “word of mouth” and now challenges us to think of this act as WORLD OF MOUTH. In fact, a study conducted by Opinion Research earlier this year found that over 32% of consumers had personally posted feedback or a review on a web site after an experience with a product or service. This number will continue to grow and it will grow rapidly. At one point very soon, if not already it will be nearly impossible to escape the likelihood of being evaluated. There’s simply nowhere to hide. Your fans, your critics, your current and prior employees, your competition, and quite frankly anyone who has an Internet access and an opinion can post a comment, rate and/or review your business at any given time.

So, again, you may be asking yourself: How do I manage my online reputation when everyone’s a critic? Let’s get to the heart of how to actively own, participate, and engage with social media networks so that you can begin to manage your online reputation. Word of caution before we move forward…I used the word manage because in this age of real-time, instant universal dialogue you cannot expect to control this space. Before moving forward, put down any thoughts you have of controlling your online reputation. It will help you be much more effective in this effort. Further, these new tools and your marketing efforts require a whole new skill set, including monitoring the online conversation and engaging with customers to promote the good news about your business in the best channels. These new marketing skills are becoming essential for mainstream businesses.
Boiling it down:
Listen: According to a survey by the Opinion Research Corporation, 84 percent of Americans say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions. Consumers are being influence by what they are reading online about your business which is why it’s so critical that we get our arms around this chatter and listen to what’s being said. For some businesses this will be a very easy task while others (as we have seen over the past year) will be a very time consuming and, dare I say, daunting task.
• Search for your business name and/or any other related phrase at Google – do you like what you see?
• Set up a Google Alert, a simple and easy way to get automated alerts about your business.
• Rate/Review Sites: Review your profile and comments on CitySearch, Yelp, SuperPages, Google Directory, along with a host of other rating and review sites. Again, do you like what you see?
• Search Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Get an idea around what sort of results are appearing when searching for your business.
Claim your listing within all online directories (Yelp, Google, YellowPages,DMOZ, Yahoo)
• Consider an online reputation management software, there are a host of new and old applications out there to choose from ranging from relatively inexpensive to very, very expensive:  Interactive Imprint (I must admit is a service developed by my team within ieInteractive) The Marchex Reputation Management, My Media Info., Brandseye, and AgentGenius are just a few of the dozens of suitable services, which I’m sure by now are clamoring for your attention.

Participate: Get into the conversation and turn your prospects into consumers. Engage your consumer, show them that your business is actively listening and participating in the dialogue. Few things you must consider before you venture into the conversation. The most important thing is not to argue with the consumer, especially not in such a wide open and visible place. Simply try to listen and put yourself in the customer’s place. If the topic seems to be of a delicate matter, which most of them are in this space, invite the consumer to contact your office directly.
Another big no-no is posting false reviews. Don’t write fake reviews to boost up your business or trash a competitor. Businesses have been publicly exposed for shilling and suffered major embarrassment. Many of you probably are aware of the Lifestyle Lift incident which occurred last year. Authorities said the cosmetic surgery clinic Lifestyle Lift would pay $300,000 in civil penalties after an investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s office found that employees had posed as plastic surgery consumers to write glowing reviews of their own business — a bogus grass-roots movement known as “astroturfing.”
Keep it simple and keep it honest:
• Participate in the review sites; Rate, review, comment, blog.
• Publish press releases, articles, service supporting documents, post videos.
• Be the one to create the news for your business, don’t wait for something to react to, spread the good word about you and your business.
• Implement a rate and review program : Invite consumers to comment about you and give you feedback on your service.

React and Respond: Turn your current consumers into evangelists. Implement monitoring activities whether a paid subscription, free automated tools, manually have staff members monitor, or any combination of these. Make a point to do something with what you are learning. If you have an overwhelming number of consumers all complaining about time to make an appointments or lack of follow up – do something about that. Don’t ignore what you hear even if it’s negative. If you receive a suggestion for an improvement, do something with that or at least acknowledge the input and let your consumers know you are listening.
• Modify, respond, react.
• Promote the good news.
• Utilize the free analytic tools.
• Monitor the chatter.
• Implement what you learn.
• Ultimately get to know your customer & capitalize on good reviews.

If you are serious about implementing a reputation management program, you have a variety of actionable items here to employ as soon as possible. No doubt, this is a lot of information to absorb. The most important point to all of this is that there is a conversation happening with or without you online. These social media tools have transformed the way we interact with our consumer and it’s up to us to master the conversation rather than the storytelling; this is no longer a one-way conversation. And finally, the fundamentals of marketing have changed and the best approach now is to look at this as an exciting opportunity to talk to our customers as we never have before. This opportunity can transform the way we do business and ultimately grow our business.

Embrace the change, see it in a positive light and follow the steps outlined above and you’ll be on your way to implementing a successful online reputation management program.

Vanessa Capozzi
Founder & President, ieInteractive & Interactive Imprint

Lately it seems as if I’ve been asked this question a lot by my clients.  Surprisingly it appears as if most of my clients are just now learning the value of “organic” SEO rather than just PPC.  They all claim to “know” what it is, but when it came down to executing on that knowledge my clients were learning pretty quickly that they really didn’t know what it meant. 

First and foremost, “organic” search engine optimization involves the optimizing of MANY different elements and, to optimize your website effectively, we have to look at and optimize each of the following components:  Keywords, Metadata, Content, Inbound links, Header tags, Alt tags, Internal links and finally website structure & code. 

Each of these components require thoughtful review, planning, and execution.  Doing one well without the other sort of defeats the overall outcome of SEO.  For example, if you spend a good deal of time identifying keywords that are the most relevant and have high search volume and you add those keywords to your metadata but do not modify your content then you will have defeated the purpose of finding the best keywords. 

Once your web site is organically optimized it will stand a much greater chance of being found for desired keywords.  Granted Organic SEO is only one layer of many layers that need to be considered when optimizing your site, but it’s a very valuable, obtainable, and usually free tactic that should be addressed as soon as possible. 

In the coming weeks I’ll spend additional time discussing some of the other layers of SEO such as, link building, tools and services to help your SEO efforts, choosing your keywords, and working with Google.

Facebook fan page … Check, Twitter account…check, Business blog…check, Search Engine Optimization program…check, Pay Per Click campaign….Check, eMail communications…Check….and, oh yeah, business web site…..CHECK!

Congratulations!  You have just entered into the phase of information and data overload! If you are like the hundreds of other businesses trying to maximize every single interactive marketing channel then 2009 was probably a year when you, head first, dove into interactive marketing by creating all the hot 2.0 web technology offerings.  Most of them are free so why not….right? So now what?

The answer, I believe, lies in the new level of service offerings for 2010 and beyond. 2010 will be the year of the dashboard. This will be the year when we see technology firms and interactive marketers realize that simply creating all of these channels isn’t enough to justify the cost that many businesses are investing. 

Marketers will need to start justifying social marketing activities with real metrics and real business cases.  Those who hold the purse strings for budgets will want to see real results. 

That said this will be the year that listening platforms and analytic tools merge to create custom dashboards which will allow you, at a glance, to see important metrics like how many fans you now have, how many followers or retweets, your keyword performance, email data, average rating at review sites, website mentions, and conversion metrics from your web site (if you even have one in 2010~ another trend I’ll discuss at a later date is the idea that some businesses are opting to lean on social channels rather than ALSO having a web site…interesting trend to watch).

I predict that by the start of 2011 most of us will have an easy to use dashboard and probably even a scalable widget to see all of our important metrics in once place which will allow us to easily monitor and optimize….at least this is what I’m hoping for.

Until a full service (without the extremely costly fees) is available to us (Google are you listening?) make sure you take the time to understand how and when to access all the multiple marketing touch points and get yourself into a regular routine of checking those reports.  Set some time aside one day of every week and evaluate.  You should be able to pull the most important information from all locations in less than an hour if you get yourself into a regular routine of checking

Here’s to 2010 and to making data sexy!

Oh and in case you are wondering…about Moms and iPhones, check out this very telling study which clearly indicates that Moms are just as technically savvy as their male counterparts.

Some recent sites out there worth reviewing:

Moms Like Me.com

Mom 2 Mom

My Black Friday Deals

The Black Friday site

If you’d rather watch some shopping tips

Article from Mashable with all of the sites and deals