You’ve Got a Rep to Protect – Cold, Hard Facts about Review Resources – Part 2

In the previous article we looked at how different review services can both help and hurt your Riverside, CA area business. With today’s ever-changing internet marketplace, everyone has the opportunity to let others know about their business experiences. As a business owner in the Riverside, CA. area, accepting this reality can benefit your business, helping in both the short and long-term success of your business.

As we have seen there are so many resources available on the Internet for potential customers to both use and abuse, so is important to understand a little bit about these review resources and how they can both benefit and hurt your business.

In the previous article we looked at Google, collective review sites in the Better Business Bureau as common customer resources used to review your Riverside, CA area business; in this article we will finish up by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook and the utilization of your website.

Facebook

Pushing over 2 billion monthly users Facebook has become an entity of itself. Because of this strength Facebook now focuses marketing, search engine access and reviews internally; meaning you need login access to view hardly anything more than a cover photo and a name.

As this internal entity, Facebook gambles on the expectation that their Facebook community for the Riverside, CA area will look to them for information about local businesses. Facebook has poured a large amount of resources into the business community over the last 12 months creating places for you to list services, products, reviews, geographical information and more with the hopes that someone might search for your type of business through them rather than Google or any other resource.

BEWARE: There isn’t really a huge beware here, Facebook is one of the few resources that recognize that their sole form of income is happy Riverside, CA area business owners. For this reason, if someone leaves a bogus review, the account holder has the ability to not only delete it but block that person from ever posting again.

The only drawback this author can see is that it is a closed community just like Angie’s list, Home Advisor and Yelp; someone cannot Google your review scores for Facebook. They would have to be on Facebook and go to your page to find them.

Your Website

At the end the day, your website for your Riverside, CA area is the only true and honest resource that is available on the Internet; providing that your honest about how it utilized. When a testimonial or review system is set up on your own website, reviews are sent through the website to your email for review; then:

• If it’s a bogus review… Don’t post it.

• If it’s an upset customer you can deal with it.

• If it’s a good review you can post it.

• If it’s an honest, bad review… Ethically you should still post it; but that’s up to you.

Ultimately you would want customers to go to your website for this information anyway. The more people that you have on your website, the more exposure that your site will have for search engine recognition as well as providing them with additional information about the products and services that you offer.

BEWARE: This is where I remind you that review sites will automatically populate an account for you whether you know about it or not. Once you publish your business information online, website or no, yelp, Facebook, Google, Manta, Mercantile and others will auto populate a page where people can potentially go in and leave a review. If you don’t know about these sites or have not claimed these pre-populated accounts, people could be leaving you bad reviews that people will see if they search for the name of your company.

Trust your locally owned and operated sign company

Small and home-based businesses need a competitive edge with a competitive price in order to help get their message out. Precision Sign and Graphics serving Riverside CA. and surrounding areas is ready, willing and able to put our experience to work for you. For years we have provided marketing minded graphics that are not only attractive but will help grab the attention of your potential customers as well. To back that up, we provide a wide range of services from banners and business cards to vehicle wraps and window treatments to help get your message out even more.

 

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