Reviews allow consumers to feel able to trust a business, they are a useful tool for influencing consumers’ decisions.  Companies with numerous negative reviews are limiting the potential for new customers without even knowing it. Consumers & Online Reviews 94% of consumers are more likely to use a business that has positive reviews. 92% of consumers are less likely to use a business that has negative reviews. 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommen

How Important are Google Reviews? Google reviews are crucial for small local businesses.  The larger companies, i.e., Starbucks, Wendy’s, Target, etc. have the luxury of not worrying about reviews.  People aren’t researching Starbucks to see if they want to get their morning coffee there. Smaller Local Businesses do not have the benefit of being an international brand, thus online reviews and word-of-mouth are important for building your business. 93% of US consumers searched

Reputation Management is the “influencing and controlling of an individual’s or group’s reputation.”  Originally more of a public relations effort, with the growth of the Internet and Social Media, search results are now part of a reputation management strategy. Additionally, Online Reputation Management (ORM) focuses on monitoring and managing online search results, customer reviews and review sites, and Social Media. A positive reputation comes from online reviews from cust

Social Selling: Using Social Media to interact directly with sales prospects by providing value through thoughtful content and question answering, until the prospect is ready to buy. (Hubspot) Social Selling removes intrusive direct sales from the equation, no more cold calls or sales pressure, especially when the prospect doesn’t want to be sold to or interrupted.  It uses Social Media to interact and engage with prospects on their terms. Social Media is often misunderstood

Do you have a Yelp profile? Do you have Yelp reviews? Do you get constant calls and emails from Yelp Sales Reps offering help to “boost your visibility” on Yelp? If you have wondered if it’s worth it or not, you need to judge for yourself. What is Yelp Yelp is a business directory service and crowd-sourced review form designed to help local businesses by publishing crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. (Wikipedia) Allowing consumers to view reviews and make purchasing decis