Yelp: How to Get Good Reviews
06 Apr, 2015 |
Local businesses are often dependent on good reviews. Customers seek the opinion of others through word of mouth, social media and, of course, rating sites like Yelp. A single bad review can influence someone to avoid that business altogether, which is why it is important for businesses on Yelp to learn how to populate their page with excellent reviews.
This may seem difficult since reviews cannot be controlled or predicted. However, there are a few measures that can be taken to boost your chances of getting more feedback; and hopefully, it will be good.
1. Respond to every review.
When customers see that you genuinely value their honest opinions and acknowledge reviews regularly, they will feel more inclined to share their experiences. Thank them for their feedback and encourage them to come again. If it’s negative, let them know you will address that issue and then take care of it to the best of your ability. Don’t forget to vote for the reviews. They’re more likely to show if they are voted as useful and/or funny.
2. Move positive reviews out of the filter.
Yelp has a filtering system that hides reviews that they believe are spam or fake. Sometimes great reviews get stuck in the filter and you’ll want them to be seen by others. While you can’t forcibly move those reviews out, you can reach out to the Yelpers who left the review. Follow Yelpers who give you positive reviews and thank them for sharing. Then politely encourage them to be more active on Yelp by adding a profile picture, checking into more places, adding more friends, etc. When Yelp sees that the Yelper is a real person leaving an honest review and they intend to interact more on Yelp, they will likely pull the review out of the hidden filter to be seen by everyone.
3. Ask friends and family to review your business.
Reaching out to people you already know is an excellent way to ensure several positive reviews. If you’ve just created your Yelp page, make sure this is one of the first things you do so that the crucial, initial reviews are good.
4. Recommend Yelp to your customers.
There are several ways you can subtly suggest that customers pass on the good word about your business. If they complement you in person, recommend that they share their experience on your page. Put up a sign at your location to let people know that you’re on Yelp. You can also hyperlink your page into your email signature with a request to “Check us out on Yelp!”
Building an influential profile on Yelp takes time. By implementing these suggestions, you’ll be able to boost your page. But more than anything, make sure you are actively working to improve your business in any way you can. The good reviews will likely flow in as a result.
Finding the Collaboration Tool That’s Right for Your Workplace
02 Apr, 2015 |
Email can sometimes be so overwhelming.
With the extensive use of email for almost everything, online communication and collaboration have become essential for doing business successfully today. A variety of tools have emerged offering companies as small as two employees to corporations with thousands of employees the resources to effectively organize project and task management. These tools aim to get rid of notepad to-do lists, extensive job submission processes and even emails (where tasks can get buried in your inbox forever).
How do you choose which one will work best for your workplace?
We’ve compiled a list of five very different online project management tools along with an unbiased summary of each service. Take a look for yourself and see how you can start improving your team communication.
“Asana puts conversations & tasks together.” This service strives to eliminate email with a simple system that focuses on organizing teams, projects and tasks by breaking them down into a to-do list. You can’t edit any uploaded files, but you can have discussions underneath each task and share them with team members to view the progress. This works best for small companies or departments.
Customers of Asana include: Dropbox, CBS Interactive, Pinterest, Uber and Airbnb
“Basecamp helps you wrangle people with different roles, responsibilities, and objectives toward a common goal.” This tool specializes in connecting multiple departments through file sharing and live editing, like Google Docs. It is communication-focused with email-like messaging within the tool. It works best for mid-large sized companies or teams than span many different jobs.
Customers of Basecamp include: Twitter, Nike, Fox Sports, NASA and Etsy
Central Desktop
“Collaboration for marketers and agencies.” This cloud-based tool enables all communication and project management from start to finish. In fact, with its web conferencing, instant messaging, discussion forums and instant document editing, you don’t even need to work in a physical office. This works best for agencies or digital-based companies.
Customers of Central Desktop include: WD-40, CBS, MLB.com, Sesame Street and American Red Cross
“Connect the dots between your people, projects, and profits.” This tool offers advanced business and project management with a place to breakdown projects into tasks, organize all files, measure time and expenses, take care of billing and produce reports. Businesses can monitor multiple operations through Mavenlink. This works best for mid-large sized companies.
Customers of Mavenlink include: Solutions 8; Research, Inc.; APlus Interior Design & Remodeling and Legacy Health Strategies
“Trello is the free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone.” This streamlining tool is largely based off of Pinterest’s design. “Cards” (a lot like pins) represent individual tasks that you can organize by the task’s progressive state (like a Pinterest board) from start to finish. While there is no file editing in this app, you can upload as many files as you want, add comments and add multiple people to each card. This works best for departments or freelancers.
Customers of Trello include: Google, The New York Times, PayPal, Spotify and Kickstarter
