Inside the minds of Yelpers

Published on July 29, 2010 by Chad Swaney. View Comments

Chad SwaneyThis is a guest blog post from Chad Swaney.  Chad is social technologies researcher who is passionate about helping people and communities share information and build knowledge. He is currently an instructional designer for a major national retail chain and is completing a doctoral dissertation on how people use twitter to learn to do their jobs better. Chad is an active user on Yelp and as a Yelp 2010 Elite member he provides an interesting perspective for those businesses on Yelp who want to understand how a consumer thinks and best way to connect with them:

In my experience, no social media site strikes as much fear in the hearts of business owners as Yelp, and it’s easy to understand why. It can be stressful to know that so much of your business’s online reputation is out of your direct control. Just remember, people have been telling their friends about their experiences for hundreds of years–what’s great about Yelp is that it offers you the chance to listen in on those conversations and use that information to make your business better.

Inside the minds of Yelpers Yelp Logo1

I have seen Yelp from both sides, both as an active Yelper, and as someone who is deeply involved with the Yelp strategy for a large national retailer. The key to a successful Yelp strategy is to understand what is important to the Yelp community. When it comes down to it, it really isn’t that hard to stay in Yelpers’ good graces.

Here are three basic things that tend to be important to the Yelp community. If you keep these in mind, your business will be on the way to a successful Yelp presence and a 4+ star rating.

Good Product

Yelpers are sticklers for quality. Offering a good quality product at a reasonable price is always going to be a win in a Yelp reviewer’s eyes. Yelpers are also pretty understanding if something goes wrong, as long as you make it right quickly and seamlessly.

Good Service

Service with a great attitude is important to Yelpers, too. If you make a personal connection with your customers, they are going to feel a lot more invested in your business, and are going to have great things to say about you.

Responsiveness

I know, you have put a lot of your personal energy and time into your business, but if someone posts something about your business that maybe isn’t too flattering, be careful how you  respond. Take a few deep breaths. Writing a sarcastic or caustic response to a Yelper will likely only make them even more angry, and won’t help anything. Remember, Yelp is a very self-regulated community. Most Yelpers can tell when the person who is writing a review is off base, a jerk, or worse. If you stoop to their level, you will only make your business look more out of touch. Yelp offers some great advice for dealing with negative reviews on their website.

If you look at Yelp as an opportunity to get an open, unfettered glimpse into your customer’s mind, and find ways to make your business even better, it won’t seem quite so scary.

Is My Business Brand The Same As My Personal Brand?

Published on July 20, 2010 by Jay Feitlinger. View Comments

Business BrandAs founder of iClick Solutions I have been thinking about my business brand.  How or should I differentiate between my personal and business online personas? Do I keep my business profiles professional and use my personal accounts for more controversial topics so I don’t risk damaging my agency brand identity?  Not that I am that risky or anything.

All these questions made me realize that it is time to go through a formal branding exercise for both my business and personal brand.  Understanding your brand is critical when trying to create the strategy on how best to connect with customers.

I started the process with the understanding that your brand is what people say it is and not what you say it is! Check out BrandTags as a great way to see this in action. When it comes to your brand, you can and should give it personality to try and help shape your brand.  Figuring out that personality can be an interesting exercise.

How iClick Solutions works with clients and how we deliver results are the main drivers behind our brand.  We are honored with each and every client that hires us and that respect comes out in our recommendations. We have earned trust by taking the time to ask relevant questions, and present great ideas on how to solve the problem at hand.  We explain how best to connect with customers.

There is no man behind the curtain with iClick Solutions and that is what our clients like most!  We take the time to educate both our current and prospective clients on what online possibilities make the most sense for meeting both the objectives of their business and their customers’ needs.  This all comes out in our personality and is shaping what our brand is.  Yes, we know there is work to be done and that will be discussed in a later post as we started that process this week.

With my personal branding, that experience also started this week with a photo shoot.  I have a few upcoming speaking opportunities and have been requested to supply a bio and photo.  I was surprised at how few personal pictures I had and wanted to thank Michael Barber for his introduction to a local photographer Tyson Crosbie.

I met with Tyson this week to create my personal avatar and you can see the soft edits on Flickr.  Tyson has such a unique way in how he captures your true essence through photography.  I asked Tyson during our photo shoot for his opinion if people should be consistent with their image across all their online profiles or use a different profile based on the platform.

I agree with Tyson’s perspective and rather that butchering I wanted to quote him, “The most powerful thing about an avatar online is it’s ability to become language and speak far beyond what is in the square.  It becomes a symbol that can contain abstractions of who you are, it can contain a first impression all the way through the memory of all you’ve said or done under that flag. In it’s continued and consistent use it becomes a representation of you that if unique is immediately recognizable. The fascinating thing about an avatar is that it is more than just a photo of you.”

Jay Feitlinger Soft Edits

So this week we started both the business and personal branding exercise.  I thought it would be an interesting experience to rely on my community of friends and business partners to see what image you think best represents my personal brand.  Definitely check out the Flickr photo gallery and after signing into Flickr please comment under each image.  I have thick skin so comment away.  Once the final image is selected I will update Facebook, Twitter and my other social profiles so I create a consistent theme.

So what is your opinion on this branding topic, especially those that own a small business?  If you agree with this post, how do you differentiate your personal brand from your business brand? If you don’t agree, I would love to read your viewpoint.  Either way comment below and let’s learn from each other.

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Mobile is the future: Facebook Mobile Usage Surpasses 150 Millions Users

Published on July 15, 2010 by Jay Feitlinger. View Comments

Facebook MobileWhile speaking at the MobileBeat conference, Erick Tseng of Facebook announced that the company had surpassed 150 million users on mobile devices.

Erick joined Facebook in May 2010 as the company’s Head of Mobile Products. Previously, he had worked at Google for nearly 4 years, where he helped launch and grow Android, Google’s open source mobile operating system, as the group’s Lead Product Manager.

You can watch the interview below:

You could walk by a Starbucks, he said, learn its exact location, get a coupon for it, and notice that two of your Facebook friends are in the store at that moment. The tools to make this happen are coming soon, and that could boost Facebook’s already-huge mobile audience of 150 million users. This mobile growth (just in February Facebook announced 100 million users) proves how mobile is going to be the future with customer connection and learning how to leverage mobile in your marketing plans is key to success.

Mobile Marketing is quickly becoming a preferred channel to help build customer bases and foster loyalty.  Simply stated, mobile marketing is communicating with your customers through their cell phones. As you go through your day, notice that wherever you are – someone is looking at their phone. At work, in line at Fry’s supermarket; on the light rail, even unfortunately when driving their car someone is looking at their phone. Take advantage of people’s interest and curiosity by presenting your business through your phone either through SMS, mobile search ads, mobile website, even a mobile App.

Are you prepared for leveraging mobile with your customers?  Is mobile part of your online marketing plan?

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I’m A ChunkSpelunker who wants both email and social media

Published on July 14, 2010 by Jay Feitlinger. View Comments

Ben and Jerry's EmailBen & Jerry‘s sent an email to their email newsletter subscribers (or called by Ben & Jerry’s as a ChunkSpelunker) last week that they will be turning off email marketing campaigns and focusing their efforts on social media. From a tweet yesterday, US fans will still receive emails and only UK is affected.  Regardless the buzz around this this has been enough that it raises the question is focusing on 1 strategy in lieu of another effective? I congratulate Ben & Jerry’s on this bold focus as social media is awesome if leveraged correctly; however, abandoning email seems like a risky decision.  Thank goodness they are not getting rid of some of their amazing flavors, such as my favorite Mint Chocolate Cookie.

Based on what an amazing company Ben & Jerry’s is and how innovative they are, I am sure the decision by Ben & Jerry’s was made based on both customer feedback and email marketing expense; however, when used together email and social media can be extremely effective.  As reported by ExactTarget, 58% of online consumers begin the day with email, followed by checking a search engine or portal site (20%), and Facebook (11%).

If I was Ben & Jerry’s (and wouldn’t that be nice except for being quite heavier) I would focus more on how to make my email newsletter’s more relevant to a user and not abandon it.  Email is not going away anytime soon so this decision seems a little too aggressive. Email can prove to be a great way to connect with customers and to find out what they like.  Sure, social media is awesome at helping connect with customers but not for everyone.  Shouldn’t a business connect with customers in the way that works best for them?

With all the noise on social media sites could Ben & Jerry’s and other large brands that are going to follow them miss out on potential opportunity if they don’t leverage other communication strategies?  If I received an email from the Scottsdale Ben & Jerry’s inviting me in to try out the latest flavor they would have a much better chance of converting me than posting that on Facebook.  Reason being is that I will not check their Facebook page every day and based on Facebook news feed optimization formula (as shown below) if I less frequently visit the Ben & Jerry’s Facebook page my affinity score would be low; therefore, missing out on updates, specials, flavors, etc.

Facebook News Feed Formula Optimization

However, if I received a custom email I would see the opportunity and seriously consider it.  Being where YOUR customers are is key to improving the “connection process.”

What are your thoughts on Ben & Jerry’s decision?  Do you support it?  Oh, what’s your favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor?

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Twitter RT Guide – What is a Twitter Retweet and 5 Ways To Get More Retweets

Published on July 12, 2010 by Jay Feitlinger. View Comments

Twitter RT Guide What is a Twitter Retweet and 5 Ways To Get More Retweets Twitter Please RetweetTwitter Retweet (or RT) is a type of message posted (or in proper Twitter terminology tweeted) on micro blogging sevice, Twitter, that shares information previously tweeted by another user. The person posting the Retweet is a Retweeter.

Retweeting is an effective way of sharing information you like on Twitter.  When you come across interesting content, such as a link, video, photo, etc. shared by one of the people (or tweeps) you follow, do not forget to RT it for your followers. This will add value to your followers, as well as give recognition to the original person who tweeted the content.  A major benefit to retweeting is my network of contacts will often vary from your contacts enough that the act of Retweeting what you say has extended value to a greater group of people.  This is the power behind Twitter – helping people find other interesting people to learn from.

If your content is retweeted it will have much better chance of reaching new and interesting people for you to connect with so it is important you take an extra second and think about what you tweet and ask yourself if people would find it interesting.  If boring content, such as Guy Kawasaki (big Twitter celeb) favorite don’t tweet “my cat rolled over” tip, not only will it not get retweeted good chance you could lose followers.  If you have a large follower count as Guy does losing some people is not a big deal but for smaller businesses or those newer to Twitter ideally you avoid reducing Twitter followers (as that is an important element of Twitter reach).

To Retweet content you want to share with your Twitter followers there are 2 ways to do this:

  1. Click the Retweet link below a tweet you want to share.  To find the retweet link roll over with your mouse a tweet you want to share and on the right corner of the tweet a retweet link will show up.  Click on that retweet link and a retweet to your followers link will show up.  Click yes and the retweet will now show in your profile and your followers timeline. Retweets in Timelines are distinguished by the retweet icon next to the author’s picture.  This is shown below: Twitter RT Guide What is a Twitter Retweet and 5 Ways To Get More Retweets Twitter Auto RT Example
  2. You can manually Retweet a post you want to share on Twitter.com or one of many Twitter tools such as TweetDeck which is awesome and works on desktop, iPhone or iPad. The proper way to Retweet a tweet is to type RT @username “of person you are retweeting” and their exact tweet without changing any content.  If you have an opinion on why you are sharing the tweet and there are characters left within the 140 Twitter character limit go ahead and do that before RT, such as:  Fav #3 RT @iClickSolutions WordPress SEO made easy w/ 5 awesome WordPress SEO plugins that help increase search traffic http://bit.ly/aSjUxr.  This is shown below: Twitter RT Guide What is a Twitter Retweet and 5 Ways To Get More Retweets Twitter RT Example

My preference is the 2nd manual option as you are able to add (if space is available) why you are sharing the content and better control how the tweet shows up. Now that you understand how to retweet, do you ever wonder why some tweets get retweeted more often than others?

Here are 5 Ways To Get More People To Retweet (RT) Your Tweets:

  1. Incorporate Pictures & Links -Your topic doesn’t have to be check out my new cat (please don’t do that) but pictures do tell an amazing story so if you are at a restaurant and the food looks great snap a picture and tweet it out with a tool such as TwitPic.  Much more interesting to see what you want to share especially if it is hot news.  Remember in January 2009 when the US Airways flight went into the Hudson River.  Janis Krums picture of the Hudson plane crash was the image used in all major media and definitely helped increase followers.  People seem to be more inclined to RT your tweet if there is a link included. You can only say so much with a tweet that contains 140 characters. So having a link to a web site or a blog, where someone can find more detailed information that they are interested in works well.
  2. Include words “You” or “Your” and Reference Other Twitter Users – People who read your tweets will have more interest in them if the tweet is about them. If the tweet targets the reader then they will be more likely to RT your tweet if they thing the information is valuable.  Make sure you double check the person you are referencing Twitter username so you spell it correctly.  If you posted a tweet such as @iClickSolutions blog post on Google Places was helpful, since we monitor what people say about our business through TweetDeck we would definitely RT that kind of post which would include your Twitter username.
  3. Leave Enough Extra Characters – Just because there is a 140 character limit does not mean you need to max it out.  And if you do it makes it very hard to properly RT your tweet.  To give yourself the best possible chance of retweet, you need to make sure you leave enough extra free characters. The number of characters to leave is unique to each person based on how long your Twitter username is.  To calculate your unique number follow this formula: your Twitter username + five characters.  I have seen a trend where people who manually RT like to add context such as via or by before a RT such as RT via @iClickSolutions which adds a few characters.  To play it safe you might want to use this formula:  Length of your Twitter username + eight characters.  Best way to understand this is to find a tweet you like and RT it. If its a tweet with too many characters (132 or more characters) than good chance important content, such as a link, could get cut off.
  4. Numbered List – Use a numbered list or use specific numbers such as 10 Email Marketing Tips That Every Marketer Should Follow or 5 Ways to Create Blog Topic Ideas as these do get RT’d more often as people really do love lists.
  5. Install a Twitter button on your blog—Placing a TweetMeme button on your blog makes it easy for your readers to instantly share your content on Twitter with only a single click. Make sure the button is placed so readers can easily see it.

So there you have it.  You now know what a Twitter Retweet is and how best to post content on Twitter to increase your chances of getting retweeted.  Hopefully you liked this post that you are going to retweet it using the TweetMeme button above.

Share below any other tips you have on how best to write engaging content that others will want to retweet and what success you have found with Twitter.

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