CAN YOU REMOVE A FALSE REVIEW? Reposted by Kharis Macey, Author of Upon His Death Bed, 1st in the 12-Novel Serial of The Front House Jumbies 3 of Your Business Questions Answered By: Docstoc Originals Welcome to this week’s version of Small Business Experts: Q&A. We handpicked three questions YOU submitted and found industry experts to provide informative and insightful answers. Do you have a pressing business question? Here’s your chance to get free expert advice! Simply ask your question below. The best questions will be answered by industry experts in the next article. Question 1: What is more important for business growth, building and focusing on Facebook presence or focusing on the content of your company website? If you have both, shouldnt Facebook drive traffic to your company website? Answer 1: Facebook serves as one of the most visually appealing mediums within social media marketing. Building business growth requires consistent posting, sharing, liking, and “community” branding. In order to quantify successful return on investment (ROI) via social networking, your company/group/non-profit will need quality content that serves your specific marketing purposes. A substantial amount of social content should be linked from your website, while you still pepper your Facebook Newsfeed with alternate content (e.g. real-time and scheduled event updates, relevant images, educational document links, inspirational quotes, etc.). The basic idea of social reach for businesses is to direct loyal customers and potential consumers to your website for closing sales. Yes, social is great for building relationships, trust, and community, but every business’ main goal is to sell. The more focused and keyword-based content you create around your specific product or service on your website, the higher you will rank within search engine results. Recently, viral social media tactics on Facebook have boosted business recognition, like the “Target Teen” and “Movember” (mustache campaign). But for every “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” campaign there are dozens of failed social attempts. Viral social media can boost Facebook page clicks, but it’s the high-value of your content that will increase engagement and growth. This past month, Facebook realigned how it targets business page audiences and paid fan boosts. Facebook now caters to specific demographics. Using Facebook Insights, you can determine your primary “fans.” By being tactful and diligent, you can identify potential customers that will actually help grow your business. You may consistently post, but your content may fall on blank eyes without dedicated research. It’s best to optimize your website content and THEN wade through Facebook to find the perfect viewership with the best ROI. All social media marketing is learned by trial and error depending on what service you are offering. Here is one instance of a company completely removing Facebook from their marketing campaign. I suggest building a website that clearly defines your business goals with content-focused articles, blogs, customer reviews, how-to’s, supplemental videos, podcasts, and more. Using all of these available assets can help you build a solid Facebook campaign to garner business growth from all avenues. – Courtney Bresler – Social Media Manager Question 2: Should I close down a business that is not earning sufficient income to pay for the business loan? Answer 2: There are several factors to look at when deciding to close down a business. One key factor is cash flow. Based on your question, it would seem the business is not generating enough cash flow to pay for the business loan and perhaps other operating costs. I believe the decision would come down to knowing the short and long term financial outlook of the business (a forecast). How much cash is on hand, how much is expected to be received in the next 1, 3, 6 & 12 months, and what are the forecasted costs in those same time periods. It would be important to know how long the lack of cash flow can be sustained by the means you have been using thus far. Other factors should be considered such as whether it is possible to sufficiently grow cash inflows (sales) in the time frame you establish the business’ lack of cash flows can be sustained. Would a strong marketing effort help grow sales soon enough? If, for example, you were contributing cash to sustain the business, for how long can you continue doing that and would the business generate enough cash flows in that time frame? The first step should be to develop a detailed cash flow forecast which should in turn provide insight to your question. – Steven Passantino – Financial Professional Question 3: How do you get a false negative review removed from Google? Answer 3: There are few things more frustrating for the modern business owner than seeing false negative reviews show up on Google since negative feedback can seriously injure your bottom line. Moreover, even if a client is lying about experiences with your business, it can be difficult to get the review removed. Here are a few tips for removing a false negative review from Google. Study the Google Review Policy The purpose of review sites is to provide prospective customers with information to help them make buying decisions. As a result, sites like Google Places are unlikely to remove a review just because it presents your business in a negative light. However, in some cases, the content of a review violates the content policies laid out by the reviewer. You may be able to have a negative review removed from Google if it contains one or more of the following: - Conflict of interest. Reviewers are prohibited from commenting on competitor businesses. Additionally, employees should not write reviews of businesses where they work themselves. - Off-topic reviews. Reviews are meant to provide customers with useful information, and comments unrelated to the reviewer’s specific experiences with the business can often be removed. If you suspect that a reviewer is writing on behalf of someone else, alert Google so that the review can be taken down. - Profanity. Reviews should not contain profanity, offensive remarks, or any personal attacks on a business or its employees. If you believe a review is in violation, don’t hesitate to flag it for review. You can view the rest of Google’s review content guidelines online. Contact the Customer In some cases, you can persuade unhappy customers to remove reviews themselves simply by apologizing for their bad experiences. Rather than lobby Google for removal, consider posting a friendly, resolution-focused reply to the review in question. Even if the reviewer doesn’t opt to take down the comment, your kind words show you care and may encourage future clients to give you a chance. Consider Legal Action Although it may seem like a drastic step, there are times when sending a cease and desist letter is necessary to protect your company’s reputation. Let the customer in question know that you will file an official legal complaint if he or she continues posting false claims about your business. Just make sure you have good cause to pursue legal action, as people tend to regard businesses that harass their customers as bullies. Despite your best efforts, it’s not always possible to have a negative review removed from Google, even if you believe the content is fraudulent. To combat the occasional stinging review, invite satisfied clients to post positive feedback online. A few glowing recommendations can easily crowd out a couple of negative comments. - April Maguire and Mike Munter – Reputation Management content1.docstoc.s3.amazonaws/…/f4df1f84-5cb… LikeLike · · Share
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 00:24:04 +0000
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