Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

-Jeff Bezos, Founder/CEO Amazon

Guest post by {grow} community member Kathi Kruse

How important is it for your to look your best to a potential customer?  Today many companies are still ignoring what’s said about them online, both positive and negative.  Some want to put their heads in the sand and wait until the Internet “just blows over.”  Folks, your customer is online most of their day and night. They’re talking about you.  Pretending they aren’t is a risky proposition.

Your customer loves the consumer review site Yelp.  Why? It’s local and it’s easy to use.  They look forward to sharing their experiences because it allows them to invest in the community … and in turn get value from the experiences of others.

For many consumer businesses, online reviews are becoming a critical component of decision-making. Car shoppers, for example, are increasingly relying on Yelp and other ratings sites.  84% of people say that online reviews influence their buying decision (Nielsen). Reviewers can also gain influence. Many of these reviews and consumer experiences also reverberate through Twitter and Facebook.

Make no mistake, Yelp can make or break many businesses. For many B2C and service businesses, Yelp may be the most important marketing channel!

What’s the best way to make sure you’re getting some customer love on Yelp?

The key is to have a rock-solid internal process for capturing and maintaining a steady stream customers who are willing to write reviews.  Understandably, many of your frontline sales personnel may feel awkward about asking for a review, but you can put it in a way that makes the customer comfortable:  “Our business is based on referrals.  Would you take a moment to visit Yelp and refer us to your friends and family?”  This is a great start to your internal process but it’s only the beginning.

I’ve developed a proactive system of capturing reviews and maintaining a consistent stream of “referrals” from your customers. Here are six ways to get your Yelp groove on:

1.  Designate an Online Reputation go-to person who’ll take ownership of your implementation plan.  They will be responsible for getting grassroots participation from your staff, as well as monitor and respond to the community.

2. Signage. Create awareness with your customers and your staff.  Display “Love Us on Yelp!” signs throughout the store. Entryways,  sales offices, customer waiting area, customer service and the cashier area.   Give customers a card to take with them that reminds them you’re on Yelp.  Put memos on paychecks, repair orders and invoices to create awareness too!

3. Reach out to your Raving Fans. Every salesperson has them, especially those that’ve been with you a long time. These customers go out of their way to do business with you.  Ask them to share an honest review – don’t push for positive – just their honest opinion.

4.  Hold a monthly contest with the staff. Nothing motivates like a cash prize!  Example: if the store gets 20 reviews by the end of the month, you’ll draw a name and that person wins the cash.  Have the drawing open to all employees so you’ve got everyone motivated to achieve the same goal.

5. Recognize staff members who get 5-star reviews. A gift or a nice mention during the weekly sales or service meeting goes a long way.  When the other employees see it, they’ll be eager to be next.

6. Email marketing. Do a “Love Drip” campaign with a catchy subject line and a nice call to action.  Provide a link to your Yelp profile so it’s as effortless for your customer as possible.

Stellar online reputations do not happen without grassroots participation from your staff.  Leverage the power of your employees and institute an internal process to be proactive about your online reputation.  Get your groove on and let your customers feel it, baby!

How is Yelp affecting your business?  Any more ideas you can share?

Kathi Kruse specializes in automotive social media and online reputation coaching for the automotive industry.  Connect with her at her Kruse Control Blog and on Twitter: @kathikruse 

The ever-awesome Mitch Joel wrote a dizzying blog post forecasting that 2012 is The Year of More.

He points out that 2012 will be a year of technological and information abundance:

• Social sharing will intensify and choices will multiply
• The marketing stage — even for small businesses — will be more global
• The opportunity to target in a hyper-local way will create an unprecedented push of “deals”
• Devices are still multiplying, not consolidating
• Brands will be fighting hard to connect with us more directly and more personally
• Sorting through the information density today is difficult and becoming impossible.

Mitch is right of course (just don’t tell him that I said so).  But here is the grand irony. All of these trends fly directly in the face of what consumers really need right now.

We need LESS.

Consumers are paralyzed by choice and overwhelmed by information density. I just viewed a TV ad for something called Deal Chicken. I thought, does the world really need another freaking way to get coupons?  We can’t handle the number of deals we’re already getting!

Time-starved consumers just want to be told what to do. How do I save time? How do I save money? How can I have more fun? Just tell me.  I don’t need to sift through 1 billion results on Google.  I have far too much choice.  I just want to know.

Isn’t it ironic that companies like Facebook and Google are collecting so much information about us to presumably make our decision-making more streamlined and efficient?  Does anybody feel that their information flow is more streamlined today?

Mitch is right. 2012 will be the Year of More.  But that is in direct opposition to what consumers need.  There’s a business opportunity in there somewhere, isn’t there? How are you helping your customers sort through complexity?  How will you tell them what to do?

I’ve had a variety of sales jobs in my career and have dealt with some great people … and some world-class jerks. Not just difficult and demanding people, but unethical, bullying, liars at Fortune 100 companies.

One time, a powerful VP demanded that my company buy-back $1.2 million of our material due to a cosmetic issue that did not affect the performance of their end product. In fact, the defect would not even be visible to their consumer. It was a dicey situation. Yes, we were “out of specification,” but this was also going to be a painful financial hit for my company.  It was like being ticketed for going 56 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone.

In the end, we paid an $850,000 claim for the products that were made from the defective material.

I later found out this VP secretly sold the defective products to his customer any way, simply adding our claim payment to his bottom line (and annual bonus payment) through some accounting jujitsu.  My customer loved bragging about his cleverness to demonstrate the power he could wield over my company.

The dude was eventually fired for this type of behavior, but that did little to comfort me when I still had to work with him every day. And yet, I really had no choice but to take it or quit.  This guy was personally responsible for the acquisition of $1.5 billion of my company’s products — at that time, 10 percent of my employer’s total revenue!  I had a one-line job description: Don’t lose the account.

I knew that I would only be in the sales position for a few years at the most, so I decided to weather the storm and approach the challenge patiently and calmly, as long as my own ethics or any laws were not compromised.

I realized that the customer is NOT always right. But the customer is always the customer.  I was the one who had to adapt to survive and compete.

Fortunately, this is an extreme example but the point is, we can’t always demand that a customer — even a really bad one – change to conform to our needs and processes. Only we can change to adopt to the customer’s needs … or, if it gets too bad, quit.

Understanding this wisdom is difficult but a key to success in a fiercely competitive world.

This story came to mind because last week we had a debate on {grow} about the customer demands for rapid online service, even from hotels, restaurants, and other providers who are on the “value” end of the product line. This is an unfortunate development but they really only have one choice: Figure out how to adapt to the customer service needs AND maintain a low cost structure. They’re not going to be able to dictate customer expectations and still compete in the long term.

I’m currently working with a supplier that is imposing new processes that will take up more of my time and dramatically hurt my cash flow.  As a business partner, I want to cooperate and make the whole “system” better, but when I point out that their service levels are declining and the value of these new processes seems to be flowing in only in their direction, their response is defensive instead of responsive.  And you know … they might be right and I might be wrong.  I’m not perfect.  But I’m still the customer.

They may get away with it for awhile if the switching costs are high, but in general the information flow of the web has dis-intermediated many traditional competitive hurdles. It’s easier than ever to find new suppliers for most goods.

In the end, all of us who have to compete for a living know we have just one true source of competitive advantage –

LISTEN to our customers more intently than our competitors,

DISCOVER un-met and under-served needs, and

RESPOND more rapidly and effectively.

That’s it.  The customer is the customer. Adapt or die. Right?

If you can’t see this video frame, click here to view.

One of the biggest challenges for any social media change agent is getting a company to understand the power and potential of the channel to a point where they say “yes.”

I recently caught up with one of my favorite marketing intellects, David Rosen of Burson Marsteller in New York and he was told me about how he leveraged external news events to nurture client social media activities at an enterprise level.  This was so interesting and I decided to flip on the camera so I could share this conversation with the {grow} community.

The conversation with David also gets into getting beyond “yes” and turning social media into a channel that helps companies lower costs, contribute to R&D, and sell more products.

Please contribute your thoughts on this topic in the comment section!

I have finally had a little free time to plow through my stack of books and wanted to pass along five little tomes you will love and one that you won’t.

Marketing White Belt: Basics For the Digital Marketer

I love, love, love this book by braniac Christopher S. Penn. One of the themes you have seen consistently here on {grow} is an emphasis on marketing fundamentals. Social is just a channel. To succeed you need to know more than creating a Facebook page. This book fills a gaping need for solid marketing fundamentals. If you are just starting out and want to be a marketer, please read this book! Christopher is such a smart guy and a natural teacher. You’ll really enjoy White Belt.

The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social

By Jay Baer and Amber Naslund –  I actually read this book months ago and continue to refer to it and recommend it in my college classes. This is an old-fashioned business book. It’s not flowery examples wrapped around a solitary idea. NOW is a legitimate framework for social media success in an organization.  If I had one recommendation, it is that the book should have been longer to cover the rich subject matter.  For example, NOW begins with an emphasis on the importance of a company culture that enables social media.  This is spot-on thinking and they could have written an entire book on just that one subject … and I hope they do!

Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition

By Mike Stelzner –  The title is a bit precocious for the book’s actual subject matter … which is really the importance and mindset of content marketing.  But hey, content is king on the social web and this is the place to learn about that.  Stelzner, the founder of the wildly successful Social Media Examiner, should know.  He tells the story of how content — and the right mindset to use it — transformed his life.  Launch explores the ideas of content from every imaginable perspective.  It is the definitive handbook for creating and managing content for business success.

The Future of Commerce

Last year I got to meet Grégory Pouy, one of France’s leading business bloggers, and he let me know he was working on an eBook project.  I figured, oh we all need more social media eBooks, right?  Little could I imagine that he was developing an authoritative FREE reference on eCommerce, filled with great case studies and facts presented in a very entertaining way.  I have no idea why he’s not CHARGING for this but let’s not question it. I guarantee you will want to bookmark this resource and share it with your friends and clients!

Zero Moment of Truth

I got turned on to this eBook by a buddy at Coca-Cola who swears by it.  That got my attention!  This little book, written by Jim Lecinski, Google’s Managing Director of US Sales, provides an interesting perspective of Google’s view of real-time consumer marketing. Company puff piece?  Maybe, but this is an eye-popping multi-media experience filled with insights and relevant case studies.  And hey, it’s FREE!  Yes, ZMOT is informative, but I’d like you consider this book on another level — how is this a brilliant example of brand building through content marketing?

We Are All Weird

So I told you there would be a book in this line-up that was not so great and this is it – We Are All Weird by Seth Godin. I admire Seth of course but I have not been able to figure out his last two books.  In “Weird” there are just so many strange leaps of logic that I honestly wonder if Seth is testing us.  Is this an experiment to see if people will buy books from a famous person, even if they make no sense?

Here’s an example of the circular logic in the book. The book’s basic theme is that mass marketing and merchandising are dead.  However, he also says that the efficiency of mass marketing and merchandising is the very thing enabling the wealth to purchase expensive niche market goods.  Huh?  Doesn’t sound like it’s dead to me.

Godin also marvels at the disintermediation and market efficiency of the Internet that is now connecting obscure goods with niche buyers. Welcome to the 1990s, good sir.

It seems to me that Seth looked around New York City, wondered at the glorious panapoly of goods available in this metropolis and declared it a worldwide trend.  Mr. Godin, I would invite you to explore middle America where our commerce is generally governed by Wal-Mart and Taco Bell. Of course you will find weird people there, too.

These are a few from my reading list.  What books are making an impact on you these days?

Disclosures: I received free review copies of Launch, The Now Revolution, and We Are All Weird. The links to the books that are not free are affiliate links.  I consider Jay Baer a personal friend but would still rip his butt if he deserved it.

One of the best things about my job is that I get to meet executives from many different companies, both big and small.  I was having a discussion the other day with a digital marketing executive from a seriously huge brand (can’t politely name it) and he told me this story, which he said was OK to share with you …

His company, a famous consumer products company, became obsessed with assuring that their brands had more Facebook “Likes” than equivalent competitor products.  It actually became a marketing strategic goal and part of the annual performance objectives for brand managers.

The brand equity is roughly equivalent to something like “Mr. Clean” — successful, well-known, historic, but not exactly the center of daily conversation. A household given.

The company has two success metrics for this social media initiative:  1) Did the brand have more Likes than the leading competitor and 2) What was the “cost per Like?”  So internally, brand managers competed fiercely to have the lowest “Like acquisition cost.”

At first, I was amazed that a major brand would have such a seemingly strange view of marketing success but these are smart people so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried to figure out what the possible benefits of this approach might be. Here’s what I dreamed up:

• Perhaps they have research that shows there is important value in the appearance — “the social proof” — of having lots of Facebook Likes versus competitors.
• Maybe they are planning to create exceptional content that will reward those people who like the brand and turn them into fans. I don’t think this is the case, but it could be possible.
• Some studies have come out equating Facebook fans with a dollar value. I am skeptical about these generalizations but maybe they have some new market insight about this potential.
• By creating this internal competition, perhaps they are exploring best practices to garner fans.
• Maybe with this experiment, they are figuring out the most cost-effective way to link paid advertising and interaction on Facebook

On the surface, this battle of Facebook Likes seems arbitrary, but what do you think?  What is the possible value?  Are people getting caught up in this at your company?  Are you linking “Likes” to brand loyalty or sales?

I’ve spent some time this week attending a few online webinars and catching up on my blog reader and I noticed an interesting trend. The conversations, research, presentations, and case studies focused entirely on large corporations.

For example, I sat through a Forrester presentation on new social web marketing analytics and their ideas on measurement took resources that were way out of reach of the small business owner, meaning … most of us.

Look through the success stories in your blog reader. Nike. Ford. Coca-Cola. And of course the ever-present Zappos. Is anybody paying attention to the little guys?

We keep hearing about the great opportunity for small businesses to “take part in the conversation” but is that really true?  In the daily dogfight for consumer attention, are they being overwhelmed by the big brand mega-productions, online promotions and games?  Are small businesses going to be crowded out by the big chains and big marketing budgets?

No!  It’s time for the small business owner to rise up and embrace the social web!  Local businesses CAN have an advantage through social media for these three reasons:

Local angle — Social media’s greatest power is when it is used in a way that is targeted and local.  I could care less about a tweet from a mega-brand, but I would certainly be interested to get to know a local shop owner in a personal way.

Here’s an example.  I don’t follow Starbucks on Twitter and probably never will. However, I do follow Brian Myers, the owner of JaVerde Coffee here in Knoxville. We became friends over Twitter.  Although his shop is 15 miles from my home, I go out of my way to support his small business entirely because of our personal Twitter connection. That’s how business works!

Personal touch — One time Brian saw this tweet come through: “On my way to JaVerde Coffee but forgot my wallet!”  The shop owner replied, “Come on by, this one is on me.” He just won a customer for life.

Even though companies like McDonalds may fill a room with tweeters, I don’t think they  could ever match the connection and loyalty a local business owner can drive with its customers.  If Bank of America tweets every minute of the day for the rest of my life I am probably never going to connect with a real person.  And for a small business, that is everything.  It’s not just about coupons. It’s about caring.

The ROI advantage — Culturally, I think it is difficult for many large businesses to do anything more than check a box on social media because they expect all the results to be neatly assembled on an Excel spreadsheet or infographic. If you have a moment to spare, I encourage you to watch this three minute news story about a small bakery’s use of Facebook.  Here are some of the social media benefits described in the clip:

• Higher customer loyalty/number of visits
• Higher rate of spending
• Frequent customer connection
• A channel for customer service
• Emotional connection to the brand
• Source for new product ideas and customer polling

Now if a customer provides an idea for a great new pastry, how do you measure that?  I suppose you could create a pie chart.  Pie chart!  Get it?  Oh, never mind.

For a local business using an essentially free social media platform, this list of benefits is pretty impressive.  In fact, it’s revolutionary.

So while small businesses may not be getting the spotlight on the blogosphere, there is no question that, done right, there can be great opportunity in this critical segment of the economy.

What is your experience? Do you have any great case studies from your city you would like to share?

Why am I waving my fist in the air?  You will just have to click on the video to see!

I’m just not much of a video guy but hey, I’m trying!  Here’s a little story about a wide web of social connections coming together over a period of two years to create extraordinary new economic value for me, a university, a client, and several valued business partners.

Social networking for business — it WORKS!

What is your best social networking story? Would you share an experience in the comment section?

I’ve been researching and thinking about the psychology of the social web and our Internet relationships. There are many common psychological techniques you can use in your every day Internet marketing.  Here are a few ideas to ”psych” your visitors into spending more time on your website and your blog.

1) Social proof is king

In real life, “social proof” is the trappings of society that impart influence.  A person’s height, a fancy car, a diploma … all help determine influence, subconsciously.  Since we don’t have those physical clues in the online world, we look to “badges” like Twitter followers and Klout scores to provide a shortcut assessment.

With the density of information in today’s world, these badges are more important than ever.  In fact they may be even more important than your real knowledge, experience and accomplishments.  Strange but true. Think about your favorite blogger. I’ll bet you notice some of their badges like followers, AdAge rank, or tweets on a blog post, before you investigate their education or level of professional experience.

We make the same assessments about websites and blogs.  If you see a lot of tweets and comments, testimonies and awards, you assume something good is going on there.

Another way to accomplish this on a website is product reviews and ratings. Make sure ratings and reviews are clearly displayed on your site or product pages. Allow users to include information about themselves such as their gender, name, location and occupation. This makes the reviews even more compelling since it can create a connection to the demographics of your site visitors.

2) Give web tourists a reason to become residents

In the first few seconds you have a visitor on your site, are you giving them a reason to stay a little longer to learn about you?  This is commonly called a “call to action.” On my website, you can click to see free materials, download an eBook, watch videos, read case studies, listen to a podcast, read my blog … basically I give people lots of reasons to hang around by providing valuable material that would interest my target customer.

On my blog one of the most effective devices I have to help people stick around is the “Linked Within” app at the bottom of each post suggesting further reading.  This dramatically increases time on the site and increases page views on my blog by about 8 percent.

3) Put the most important action at the top

When you’re plotting out your call to actions, put your most important one first. The idea behind this is simple: what comes first is unconsciously regarded as the best.  I’ve been experimenting with this myself. One other consideration — if you’re stacking your calls to action down the right side of your page, keep in mind that the top right corner of your website is a blind spot. This is spooky but it really is true.

One time I was offering a free download at the upper right corner of my site. I was in a meeting with a web designer and was talking about the problem in front of a huge display screen of my website. I said “Without looking at the screen, can you tell me if I have a free download offer on my landing page?” Although we had been looking at the page all morning, he completely missed this element.  So, highlight your best offers first, but watch where you place them!

4) Provide instant gratification

When deciding to make a purchase, we are often influenced by how fast we can have the product.  Reduce or eliminate fields required to purchase or engage.  The other day I was required to register to comment on a blog. FAIL!

In a famous experiment participants were asked to choose between getting $5 now or $40 at a later date. MRI scans showed that when people thought about getting the money right away, the mid brain, or emotional center of the brain fired up. Even if you’re not selling something, use words like “instantly” or immediately in your content and headlines.

5) Illusion of scarcity

When something has a limited amount to it, its assumed value increases. We will want it even more. Make your product/offering limited by showing a limited stock quantity or limited time frame. This is a common tactic that most Internet marketers and offline/online retailers use. And it works. Because we feel good when we gain objects of value.

6) Build reciprocity 

Reciprocity is a big deal on the social web. I’m not sure it created influence, but adding up all these little low-impact “likes” and “tweets” can certainly create leverage over time. This is one of the oldest sales tricks in the book.  When you give something away on your web site, it triggers a sensation of indebtedness in your visitor’s mind. You can give away things like free product add-ons, guidebooks, content, downloads, free shipping etc.

Studies show visitors are twice as likely to complete a survey form after they were given access to free useful information.

7. Be sexy

Sex sells.  Always has.  Always will.  Even Zappos the online shoe store is using pictures of naked people in their ads.  This is a powerful human motivator but I haven’t quite mastered this on my website! I’m not sure sex is what comes to mind when you read my blog.  If it does, please let me know.  I’d like to hear about that!

8. Speak to your visitor by using the word ‘You’

Let’s compare this simple website copy:

“This new web service has many built-in features that allow for photos to be uploaded, organized, and stored. Photos can be searched for with only a few steps.”

“You can upload your photos quickly, organize them any way you want to, and then store them so that they are easy to share with your friends. You can find any photo with only a few steps.”

Write as if you’re talking to a person sitting right next to you. She is your prospective customer. She is your blog reader. And she is your friend. Don’t be afraid to use slang or community lingo to connect to their thought processes. Communicate about what she needs, not what you sell. There’s a difference.

9) Get your visitors to make a commitment

 Your goal is to drive people to take some action: buy, download, register, etc.  And to do that, you need to convert visitors from lurkers to engaged participants.  Even the simple act of writing, typing or signing something strengthens commitment to your website/company/brand. The more public the commitment, the stronger it will be.

Getting your visitors to commit to your website can be as easy as getting them to comment on your blog.  Polls and surveys work equally well too because they make your visitors interact with you.

10) Use images that demonstrate similarity and attractiveness

Use images of attractive people who are similar to your target market’s demographic profile. People are most influenced by people they deem to be both attractive and similar to them. The brain is unconsciously sizing up people you see and their attractiveness can rub off on your website itself, much like how an attractive person in a cellphone ad makes the cellphone look more enticing.

This doesn’t just apply to images. Most Internet marketers know that in order to appeal to a certain group of people, you need a human face that will be the focal point of their empathy and connection. Hence, the widespread use of marketing personas.

I hope you’ve benefited from these ideas.  If the article made you think, please consider sharing it with others and commenting below. Thanks!

My wife and I decided to celebrate for no particular reason at a favorite restaurant. When my wife went to the restroom, I checked-in on Foursquare to pass the time.  When I “checked in” to this location, I was surprised and delighted to see a review from one of my best friends pop up on my screen. What a coincidence.  He had been to the same restaurant within the same week. Here was his review:

“This restaurant has always been a family favorite but the service has really gone downhill. I’m convinced the management and staff don’t even care any more.”

Wow.

My friend is a very kind and patient man, so the service must have been absolutely horrible for him to leave a review like that!

My wife returned to the table and after 10 minutes we still didn’t have anybody take our drink order.  Normally, I would have been engaging in conversation and probably not even notice this delay but now my Spidey Senses seemed to be tingling and tuned to the service level.

It occurred to me that I was now EXPECTING poor service because of my friend’s review.  The review had the potential of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whether we had a good waiter or not, I was now closely watching for signs of problems.

“Don’t you think the service here is slow tonight?” I asked.  “I would really like to order a beer.”

“Well, maybe,” my wife responded. “But I’ve noticed that the waiter had a lot of tables getting their food at the same time, so I think this is probably normal.”

She had not received the same influential message that I had, and so had a totally different experience with the restaurant. She was looking forward to a nice meal at a bustling restaurant. I was looking forward to slow service.

This is how the power of online customer feedback can work for or against a business at any given moment.  I had not seen my friend or spoken to him about the restaurant. Yet his power of influence was now extending beyond space and time, to me and who knows how many others? This is a new kind of “conversation,” isn’t it?  Asynchronous, permanent, searchable … and powerful!

I think this also speaks to the role of social media as a rapid catalyst for change, service, and continuous improvement.

If the restaurant had been attentive to my friend in the first place, they never would have received that negative review. It’s possible that they don’t even know the review exists. And if they don’t address any core problems they’re experiencing, the reviews will continue to pile up to the point that they won’t know what hit them.

Social media is like a Darwinian catalyst. Businesses better adapt, adopt and become the “fittest” because the societal pressures through self-publishing and reviews like this is unprecedented and unrelenting.

With the emerging ubiquity of smart phones, the Internet surrounds us. If I had seen the review before I entered the restaurant, maybe I would have avoided it altogether.

How are you and your customers handling negative reviews?  How would you correct this situation if you were the restaurant I visited?