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Why Customer Service and Facebook Are a Brilliant Match

Last Updated: July 21, 2016

Local SEO isn’t the only way to spread the good word about your business. Offering friendly, helpful customer service is a super-easy way to keep customers happy and strengthen word-of-mouth. After all, customers are much more likely to do repeat business with a company that provides superior customer service.
So why not take this one step further and make your customer service efforts public? When you receive customer comments on social media, particularly Facebook, you can respond right there on the same platform. This way, you’re not just providing a customer with a prompt response—you’re also showing prospective customers visiting your page just how attentive and professional you really are. If you do it correctly, it’s a win-win.
In her recent article on Search Engine Watch, “Five Reasons Why You Should Invest in Social Customer Service,” Rebecca Sentance explores how you can benefit from using social media to interact with customers. Many of her examples focus on Twitter and the big brands that use it; however, we can easily adapt these examples to fit small, local businesses that primarily use Facebook.

Five Reasons to Use Social Media for Customer Service

So, what are Sentance’s five reasons for using social media for customer service?

Convenience: People are spending a lot of time on social media daily. It makes sense to meet them where they already are.
Attention: People want to be heard. When they don’t hear back from a company, they react negatively and often disparage said company on social media. On the other hand, when they do hear back promptly, they’re much more likely to view that company favorably.
First impressions: Frankly, responding on social media makes you look good. It shows accountability and personality.
Retention: Studies show consumers are willing to switch brand loyalties and even pay more if they think they’ll receive better customer service. Keeping customers happy—and doing so publicly—will help you attract and retain customers.
Feedback: Social media, especially Facebook, is a great tool for getting customer feedback. You can survey your audience to hear their thoughts on your current product offerings or what kinds of new services they’d be interested in. Basically, you can use social media as low-cost market research to help you improve your business.

Of course, when angry customers take to social media to air their grievances, things can get ugly. However, this is likely to happen regardless of how active you are on Facebook or Twitter. Cooler heads always prevail in these situations. As long as you respond professionally and respectfully, you’ll come out on top.
Want more details? We strongly recommend reading Sentance’s full article over on Search Engine Watch. It’s a deeply insightful read.

Why Social Media for Small Businesses Is Essential

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

For businesses large and small, social media isn’t optional anymore. It’s essential. Does your business have a social media presence? If not, then you’re missing out on a staggering number of benefits—benefits your competitors are probably enjoying as you read this.
So, what are the benefits of social media for small businesses? How can you make the most of them? Keep reading to find out.

Social Media Fosters Connection

One of the biggest reasons for social media’s rise has to do with how easily and quickly it connects people. In your case, social media will enable you to connect with your target customers (and vice versa). By sharing, commenting, and generally interacting with current and potential customers, you’ll strengthen your relationship with them.
In fact, social media platforms like Facebook have become another channel customers are using to directly contact businesses. Whether it’s through public wall posts or private messages, customers may rely on social media to inquire about your products or services, send you valuable feedback, or to even ask for a price quote. Contacting you via social media is even easier than sending an e-mail (never mind making a telephone call), so the frequency of this method of contact is expected to rise.
As Lauren Friedman explains,

Your customers are on Facebook throughout the day—especially those that work with the internet, so it’s only natural they would much rather stay on the same website rather than switch or pick up the phone to call you. Many of them use Facebook Messenger now like text message, chatting with their friends and family throughout the day.

However, if you aren’t on Facebook, then that’s one fewer way customers are able to contact you. And don’t you want to make it as easy as possible for customers to get in touch with you?

Social Media Makes You Feel Real to Customers

When you’re active and engaged on social media, you’ll also be showing off your personality and the real people behind your company. This will build a relationship between you and your customers. They’ll begin to see you as a group of living, breathing individuals. Eventually, this will lead to more business. As Internet entrepreneur Evan Carmichael says, “People buy from people, not companies.”
At the same time, a professional social media presence will also give you the appearance of a cohesive, legitimate company. Prospective customers will see your regular updates and posts on Facebook or Twitter and feel you’re genuinely invested in your business.

How to Make Social Media More Effective

Social media for small businesses doesn’t have to be complicated. It may feel like a daunting project at first, but once you get into the swing of things, you’ll barely even think about it. Heck, you might even enjoy it!
Here’s how to make your social media presence as effective as possible:

Be active. Don’t just create a Facebook page and forget about it. Regular activity is key.
Share status updates, photos, helpful articles and videos, and any other content that will give your audience a peak behind the curtain. Make yourself and your team seem as real as possible.
Regularly check your message inbox, as well as your page, and reply to anyone who has reached out to you about doing business with your company. You can’t reap the benefits of a direct line of contact if you aren’t there to respond!

How Prospect Genius Can Help

Feel like there’s not enough time in your day? Can’t figure out how to get started? Fear not! Prospect Genius is here to help.
Our selection of social media packages offers assistance at all levels. Whether you’re just starting out or you want a more advanced, fleshed-out campaign, we’ve got you covered. Here’s what we offer:

SocialStart: For clients who are just getting started on social media, we’ll create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Then, we’ll write several blog posts for you that we’ll share on your accounts so you have a handful of posts right out of the gate.
SocialStream: For clients who are established on social media and want to share content regularly, we write a set number (determined by you) of blog posts each month and share them on your accounts.
SocialBuzz: For clients who want to be engaged on social media but don’t have the time to share updates on their own, we create and share weekly status updates on your behalf.
Paid Facebook Advertising: For advanced clients looking to expand their reach, increase visibility, and drive more traffic to their website, we create and manage targeted Facebook ad campaigns.

No matter where your business falls on the social media spectrum, Prospect Genius has a solution for you.
Social media for small businesses is critical, but that doesn’t mean you should lose sleep over it. Have fun with it! Sharing details about your company and interacting with your customers can be rewarding and even eye opening.
If you’re having trouble keeping up with Facebook or Twitter, simply give us a call and we’ll see how we can help. There’s no excuse for abandoning your social media presence!

Common Social Media Pitfalls to Be Aware Of

Last Updated: January 27, 2016

Today, in 2016, the importance of social media for local businesses has been well established. We all know it’s a vital way for businesses to connect and engage with potential customers nearby. Ask any online advertiser, and they’ll tell you the same thing.
However, digital marketing strategist and author Roger Rogerson raises an incisive point:

“Everyone is telling you to use social media – but who’s telling you to be careful?”

In his recent article, “The Hidden Social Media Dangers for All Businesses,” Rogerson describes an exhaustive list of scenarios that could get a business into trouble on social media. From disgruntled former employees posting irate messages on your wall to an employee accidentally sharing top-secret company news, he proves there are countless social media pitfalls your company must watch out for.

Other scenarios include:

Dissatisfied customers publicly complaining about your business.
Poorly worded posts being misconstrued and causing backlash.
Competitors slandering your company and spreading rumors.
The local media getting wind of something (such as an erroneous post or a bad customer experience) through social media and escalating the story.
Employee(s) exhibiting unprofessional behavior.
Nasty Internet trolls calling you out publicly or even harassing you.

Unfortunately, the list goes on.
Rogerson’s article is not meant to intimidate or scare business owners away from engaging on social media, though. It’s simply a warning about the various social media pitfalls that can damage a company’s entire web presence.
What you should take away from this article is that your company’s social media accounts must be handled by an employee you trust and respect. This will minimize the damage that can be done internally. You should also take time to develop a company-wide policy for dealing with negative customers, competitors, and other individuals who attempt to provoke you or do you harm. This way, you’ll have a go-to response tactic in place so you can react as quickly as possible. Of course, every situation is unique, but it’s a good idea to at least have a guideline.
Check out Rogerson’s article over on Search Engine Watch for the complete details.

Take a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Prospect Genius

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

When you hear us talk about SEO and lead generation, do you feel like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher go, “Wah wah-wah wah wah”? If you’re not someone who specializes in online advertising, it’s perfectly understandable to feel confused—and, frankly, a little bored—about what it is we do. However, it’s important to know a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes so you can appreciate exactly how our services are benefiting your web presence.
Here’s what you need to know.

We Amplify Your Existing Presence

There’s a good chance that you had already set up a Google My Business or Facebook account before joining our program. If that’s the case, you may be misled into thinking that any leads coming from Google or Facebook are a result of your existing presence instead of our work. It’s a logical assumption, but it’s incorrect.
Instead, local search optimization functions as a multifaceted machine, with a series of gears, levers, and wheels all working together to create the final output. The phone call or e-mail inquiry that came from your Google listing is actually a product of the search optimization machine. Your company information ranked well in Google’s local search results, thus leading the customer to contact you thanks to all of the behind-the-scenes work we did.
For proof, take a look at two examples of clients whose Google traffic skyrocketed after signing up with Prospect Genius.
Company A:

Company B:

As you can see, after signing up with us, these two clients saw huge increases in their views and clicks. That’s due to all the work we’re doing for your campaign. But what does that work entail, exactly?

We Build the Machine

Prospect Genius’s job is to design and build the local search optimization machine that powers your campaign. That means making sure each individual part works perfectly in addition to fitting all of those parts together seamlessly.

Here are the four main parts:

Google listing
On-page SEO
Citations
Inbound links and social signals

Google Listing

Local search rankings improve when your Google listing is thoroughly optimized and populated with lots of customer reviews. That’s why Prospect Genius optimizes every client’s listing and provides a handful of tools to help you increase your number of reviews.

On-Page SEO

To appeal to Google’s search algorithms, all of your website’s pages must be optimized. You must have valuable content that’s targeted at specific search terms and is generally informative. All of our LeadTrax™ sites are written and designed for on-page SEO to further boost your company’s rankings.

Citations

Citations refer to all of the instances in which your business name appears alongside your contact information (e.g. address and phone number), and they must be consistently accurate. Citations most often come from online directories and Internet yellow pages, but they may also occur in newspapers, magazines, local blogs, and social media posts. Many of Prospect Genius’s packages add your business info to numerous directories, ensuring accuracy across the board and driving up your citation score.

Inbound Links and Social Signals

Inbound links are links that exist on another website and link to a page on your website. They indicate that your page contains valuable information. Along the same lines, social signals are data points that tell Google how appealing your website is on a human level. If lots of people are sharing links to your website on social media, and your company’s social media account has lots of “Likes” or followers, then those valuable social signals will boost your local search ranking. That’s why Prospect Genius sets you up with Facebook and Twitter accounts (if you don’t already have them) and promotes you on social media.

It’s All About Synergy

Did you make it to the end of this post without your eyes glazing over? Good! Hopefully, you now have a much deeper understanding of what drives your campaign and keeps it successful.
With your cooperation, we’re able to create a uniform front to fortify your company’s online presence. We achieve substantial, organic results by creating a well-oiled machine that runs flawlessly. While your Google listing is significant, you can’t give all of the credit to a single cog.
As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions you may have.
Photo credit: Linda Buquet, localsearchforum.com

Google Now Displays Tweets in Search Results

Last Updated: May 22, 2015

Earlier this year, Google announced that it had reached a deal with Twitter to display tweets in its search results. On May 19, the experts at Search Engine Land noticed that Google was finally executing its plan, as tweets began appearing prominently in a “new and more graphical way” on mobile search results. Desktop searches have not yet been affected, but Google promises that the change will extend to desktop in the near future.

Having conducted several test search queries, Search Engine Land observes that tweets sometimes appear right at the top of the search results page (primarily when the query contains a hashtag), and other times tweets appear in the middle of the page. And, of course, there are times when tweets don’t appear at all.
Search Engine Land surmises that the appearance of tweets largely depends on whether the query is connected to a trending topic: “Presumably, you’re more likely to see tweets in Google when a hashtag, topic, person or organization appears to be trending or is newsworthy.”
For instance, if you were to google, “#NBAPlayoffs,” which are going on right now, you would probably see lots of tweets about the most recent game or a popular player. But if you googled something like, “spatula,” you would just get the normal results.
This update is just the latest in a string of developments that have highlighted the increasing importance of social signals in Google’s algorithms. It’s still too early to tell how this update will impact local search, but it’s safe to say that businesses should start tweeting a lot more.

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Google Now Displays Tweets in Search Results

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