townsend.bunksite.com

Category: News

  • Search Influence’s 7th Anniversary: A Reflection and Q&A With Founders Will & Angie Scott

    Will & Angie Scott founded Search Influence in January 2006, and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate our seventh anniversary. This past year has been especially eventful for us, and to celebrate another successful year in the books, we had a joint holiday and anniversary party at New Orleans’ own Rock-n-Bowl. We bowled, we ate, we drank, we danced — we even hula hooped!In 2012, we began supporting and working with a local non-profit, Youth Rebuilding New Orleans. We are so honored to have the opportunity of working with YRNO and to assist in their efforts both online and off. Our team is planning a service day in 2013 to work with YRNO on rebuilding a home in the city.

    Many other Search Influence employees have also taken an interest in blogging, both here on our blog and elsewhere on the web. We are so proud that they are able to take the knowledge learned here, apply it to real life situations, add their personal twist and share with the industry.

    This year we were also lucky enough to continue our exponential growth. Lots of new faces joined our team in 2012, and we were able to find the perfect VP of Sales and Marketing in Kelly Benish.

    Other new faces include: Gabrielle Benedetto, Julie Simmons, Laura Manning, Maggie Johnson, Erika Karas, Rebekah Durel, Emily Kerner, Jennifer Stout, Patrick Sugrue, Will Monson, Allison Warmbir, David Fransen, Chelsea Bowling, Mattie Kenny, Tracy Stoller, Kasey Clark, Jason Grodsky, Melanie Bonhomme, Evan Rinehart, Caleb Albritton, Andre Eble, Justin Scott, Lauren Christy and Scott Holstein. We’ve continued that momentum into 2013 with our first new hire of the year, Joe Romito.

    The last couple of years have also brought major milestones for our company. Search Influence had humble beginnings, starting out of Will and Angie’s dining room and eventually moving into a small office on Jackson Avenue. But that wasn’t enough to hold our growing team. We expanded down the hall into a couple of other office spaces on Jackson Avenue and were lucky enough to finally move to our current location on Oak Street. This new location gave us the ability to work together as a team in a unified workspace, and provided enough room for us to continue to expand.

    In 2011, Search Influence was included on the Inc. 500 list for fastest growing companies in America, and was featured again in 2012. Although our growth is apparent to us (at least in number of employees), we were very excited to be recognized among the many other hard working and growing companies across the country.

    Of course, we wouldn’t be where we are today without the loyalty and trust of all of our amazing clients! We want to sincerely thank you for allowing us to be a part of your team and to help you grow your businesses online. We cherish each one of you: as an account manager, I can personally say that interacting with you on a daily basis keeps us on our toes, which we appreciate! You challenge us to be experts in our field and to continue to grow our ever-expanding knowledge base.

    With the anniversary drawing near, I also had the opportunity to interview Will Scott, CEO and Angie Scott, COO. Although they are very busy, they relished the opportunity to take some time and reflect on the growth and momentum this journey has produced so far, as well as what’s in store for the future.

    Thoughts on our 7th anniversary? How do you plan on celebrating?

    We had a really nice holiday party with the team on Friday the 4th. Aside from that, I think we’re going to celebrate by keeping on, keeping on. Even though we’re 7 years old, it feels like we just got started most days!

    What are you most proud of as a company? Any favorite feathers in our cap you’d like to share?

    Wow. That’s a hard one. I’m proud of so many things.

    Growth: zero to almost 50 (over 100 including contract) employees in 7 years. The great work we do: there are so many ways to measure — ranking, leads, fans and followers — that our clients have really seen the benefit to their business of our work. One of my favorites is the Audubon Institute — 50,000 Facebook likes added (over 75,000 total!) under our watch. Also: seeing team members grow. It blows me away when I hear some of things our team says. I’m like “Wow! I could have said that!”

    Where do you see the company at the 10 year mark? What is your top priority in the next few years leading up to the 10th anniversary?

    2013 is a product development year for Search Influence. We’re going to keep going on our current path, but we’re also looking at ways we can broaden our reach. So year 8 will be about building tools which will help us grow at a more rapid pace in years 9 and 10.

    What has been the most rewarding part of starting Search Influence?

    Knowing that our work helps thousands of small businesses succeed online. I used the Audubon example before, but there are many others, not as well known, who’ve seen incredible growth in revenue, reach and market share through search and social media.

    Additionally, seeing our team excel. The majority of our Account Management team are Google and Bing Ads Certified, and we have 3 Google Analytics Certified team members as well. We are among the most credentialed online marketing firms anywhere and it shows in our work.

    Beyond the credentials, our team is smart, learns fast and executes phenomenally. We are working in an area they don’t teach. On the job training, tinkering and testing is how we all learn and get better.

    What has been the most surprising thing?

    In May of 2010, we made a decision after nearly 4 years to end a relationship with a firm in India who staffed our production team. I was initially surprised at how easily we replicated those skills here. Then I was blown away by how much more efficient we were under one roof in our new Oak Street office.

    To what factors can you attribute SI’s rapid growth?

    Honestly, I wish it were more rapid most days. But, I can see how, compared to many New Orleans companies, it’s pretty darn quick.

    The #1 factor I attribute our growth to is that we built it to scale from day 1. It is one of our mantras to ask the question “How can we do this at scale”?

    What are your opinions on the booming NOLA startup scene?

    It’s great. Anything which attracts talent to New Orleans is a positive. The New Orleans startup scene is a little too focused on ideas and not enough on viable products and services, today, but I’m sure that with time it will mature.

    Our vision statement is “Search Influence helps customers successfully market online.” Do you think we’ve stayed true to this goal? Any key takeaways for the future?

    Search Influence has stayed true to its vision statement of “helping customers successfully market online” since the beginning, and will continue to do so into the future. We sell to direct customers that are competing phenomenally online, and to White Label clients whose customers are also doing very well.

    As I’ve said, it’s all about scale. The more we can focus on skills and growing our team, the more businesses we can serve.

    With countless happy clients, a top-notch team of dedicated employees, and big ambitions for what’s to come, Search Influence’s future looks bright. Our thanks to our CEO and COO Will & Angie Scott for joining us for this Q&A, and congratulations on seven exceptional years!

  • New Orleans T-Shirts & More: Two Local Businesses Lure Culture Bearers with Loyalty Marketing


    I am a New Orleans t-shirt and jeans kind of person, and our eclectic “come as you are” culture certainly lends itself to dressing comfortably while slurping oysters, swigging Abita beer, or bobbing your head to the stylings of Kermit Ruffins or the Hot 8 Brass Band.

    Two (of many) local retailers, Dirty Coast and Storyville, create New Orleans t-shirt designs that pay homage to the traditions of Southeastern Louisiana with colorful artwork and regional turns of phrase that would only be understood by someone who has heard or experienced them. While the unique designs can spark conversations and essentially sell themselves on an aesthetic level, retailers of these witty t-shirts draw locals and tourists alike in with promises of discounts and extra goodies through information shared on social media.

    I do not restrict myself to shopping at just one of these New Orleans t-shirt stores because both Dirty Coast and Storyville have fabulous shirt designs. Also, each store uses an approach to loyalty marketing that allows the business to communicate with consumers while driving brand affinity and getting to know what interests are important to customers. These are great strategies that any business with a presence on social media can use to find out what motivates their customers to care and to buy. Hey, I’m sold!

    Dirty Coast posts information on Twitter about contests they are hosting to win gift cards and gives a 10% discount for your check-in on FourSquare. They understand that the people that don their t-shirts are charitable folk, so Dirty Coast donates proceeds from the sale of certain shirt designs to benefit organizations like the LASPCA, the Gulf Restoration Network, and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. They even make good on the local concept of lagniappe (a French word meaning small gift or little something extra) by giving away great stickers, including the now iconic car bumper staple that reads “Be a New Orleanian, Wherever You Are.” When a company is able to associate consumers’ buying power with the preservation of valuable culture and the promotion of “a greater good,” they earn brand loyalty that is exponentially multiplied when t-shirt wearers post pics on their cool duds on Instagram. They’ve even gotten some attention from the entertainment industry: actor Steve Zahn reps a new one of their shirts in almost every episode of HBO’s most recent season of Treme.

    Storyville rewards their staunch fans with opportunities to try their own hand at the apparel design game. Contests are hosted where the winning shirt designs are created and sold, along with a cash prize for the winner. This is just one way the store can establish a fan base and set itself apart from the competition — online shirt retailer Threadless has made a whole business model out of it. Storyville’s physical locations in Baton Rouge and Austin, TX receive glowing reviews from Yelpers. They use social media to inform followers of deals going on in-store, and even alert their Twitter followers to newsworthy information that their adoring public will care about. Most recently, the topic of conversation was the beloved Saints cheer “Who dat” and information about how many are fighting to keep the battle cry of the New Orleans Saints in the public domain.

    The bottom line is that it’s worth it to make time to study businesses that capture your attention online and through social media. The incentives these New Orleans t-shirt stores offer (discounts, coupon codes, contests) draw the consumer in and don’t even involve printing up a flyer or physically attracting the masses to a storefront to get big results. New Orleanians are a proud bunch, and we’re happy to show off our culture with these clever accoutrements — props to these retailers for getting it so very right with both their designs and their marketing approaches.

  • 5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    • Ranking the 100 Most InDemand Employers Using LinkedIn Data [INFOGRAPHIC] – LinkedIn

    In pulling professional data from their 175 million users, LinkedIn creates an infographic to display which companies are most attractive to potential job candidates. Software and technology dominating the top 5 positions, with Google taking the lead and Apple placing second. Makes you wonder if job candidates are willing to stick it out in hopes for landing their dream job with the top dogs of tech!

    • 5 Important Post-Penguin Guest Post Prospecting Questions – Search Engine Journal

    With Google’s most recent algorithm update, many have noticed an impact in their SEO efforts and rankings. However, having a well optimized link building approach may include guest posting or blogging. As guest posting is still imperative in SEO, SEJ explains how finding niche blogs, relevant topics, and having quality content can help your SEO in a place of Penguin!

    • 5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Engagement – Social Media Examiner

    Promoting your brand or company on Facebook allows you to not only to engage with your demographic, but also reach potential customers. Check out Social Media Examiner as they explain the right time to post, best character count for posts, appropriate URL length, and the most engaging content to better interact with your fans!

    • Why the iPod Still Matters to Apple – Mashable

    Apple’s most recent launch of the iPhone 5 has all the Apple lovers flocking to the closest metaphorical orchard. Now the Mac bigwigs are the spotlight on one of its older products. On Wednesday night, Apple launched a new campaign featuring the redesigned iPod. With the iPod initiating the re-positioning of the brand over 11 years ago, Apple won’t be fading this product out anytime soon. Turn it up!

    • What’s The Best Time of Day To Send Emails? [Infographic] – Read Write Web

    Between newsletters, online marketing updates, and the countless emails we receive in a day how can we guarantee the recipient is actually reading our emails? This infographic illustrates when emails are opened the most, and shows at what times throughout the day people are engaging in their emails. Don’t stress if you forgot to send that email out at 5:15 PM — data shows it may be best to wait til tomorrow!

  • Search Influence Team Becomes Bing Ads Certified

    As of September 28th, the Search Influence account management team has 12 Bing Ads accredited members on staff in addition to the 12 team members who received Google AdWords certification last spring. We are constantly striving to improve our training and credentials so that we can provide the highest level of knowledge and most value for our clients. With both Bing and Google ad-certified professionals, we are the most accredited Online Ad team on the entire Gulf Coast. You can see the full list of accredited SI employees in Bing’s Find a Pro Directory. We’re very excited about our expanded knowledge in the Bing Ads program, and loved the interaction we received from Bing about our enthusiasm for the program! Talk about great customer service.

    Congratulations to our Accounts team for this very cool achievement!

  • Search Influence Joins Forces With Youth Rebuilding New Orleans [VIDEO]

    The whole Search Influence team was thrilled to host a meetup in honor of Mashable’s Social Good Summit at Oak Wine Bar last Monday. In addition to enjoying the delicious drink specials and appetizers by the talented chefs and mixologists, we spent a lot of time talking about social media, the digital global action movement, and how we can start leveraging the Internet for greater good. On that note, we’re proud to announce that Search Influence has adopted the local New Orleans non-profit Youth Rebuilding New Orleans.

    Like many non-profits that have applied for the Google Grants program, YRNO has had difficulty taking full advantage of the program due to lack of knowledge and resources to run campaigns — and we couldn’t be happier to step in to help. Above, you can see our CEO Will Scott giving a brief talk about YRNO and Search Influence’s involvement.

    To read more about our new collaboration with Youth Rebuilding New Orleans, check out our press release on PRWeb!

  • 5 For Friday – Links, Stories, & Posts For Your Weekend

    I’ll admit it: working in Internet marketing at times feels akin to how popular media has convinced me life in the Wild West was. Here, we navigate a largely unexplored frontier filled with vaguely known dangers, striving for the prospect of lucrative gain. Though there are a considerable amount fewer literal snakes and deaths by dysentery to deal with in SEO or online marketing, the analogy still kind of works.

    At Search Influence, we pride ourselves in clean, “White Hat” tactics to achieve our results, but not everyone is so scrupulous. Goodsell offers a few great ideas for dealing with malicious attacks against your site’s authority.

    • US Desktop Search Volume Declines — Blind Five Year Old

    AJ Kohn presents a compelling argument for developers and companies to place focus on developing mobile-accessible content. The chart provided, tied with Kohn’s commentary, gives evidence for the seemingly inevitable rise to prominence of mobile access. Personally, I’m skeptical about this drop in desktop search continuing, but I am wholly supportive of the idea of accessibility to not alienate potential clients visiting from a phone.

    • Will It Ever Be Acceptable to “Bing It”? — Marketing Pilgrim

    It’s no new topic, but many of us are guilty of using “google” as a verb, and mostly, per Google’s wishes, actually use the term accurately. However, could you, with a straight face and a firm conviction, ask someone to “Bing that for me”? Any time I’ve been served that statement, it’s come paired with a heaping bowl of irony, but who knows? Maybe the Hawaii Five-0 reboot has what it takes to topple Google’s dominance in the American mind, but a little bird just flew up and told me a secret: “NO. IT CAN’T. THE GUY FROM LOST WILL, AT BEST, EXERT MINIMAL INFLUENCE OVER YOUR SEARCH HABITS.”

    • GoDaddy Outage: Anonymous Attack Or IT Failure? — Information Week

    For once, I’ll give Garfield credit: this Monday was a dang mess. A number of our clients were affected by the GoDaddy outage on Monday, which proved to be stressful for all parties involved. The groans from our department were echoed out all over the Internet, and one guy claimed responsibility for the attack, but really, even I could’ve claimed responsibility. Here, Schwartz expresses a similar degree of skepticism as I hold for this supposed attack on GoDaddy.

    • ‘Social Voting’ Really Does Rock the Vote — ScienceNOW

    Sources say that the use of social media has compelled users to vote in political elections, armed with the knowledge that their acquaintances have also voted. While we’ve seen online marketing campaigns for mobilization of voters over the years, the use of this “social voting” here shows a marked increase in voter participation, and leads to thoughts of what forms of social media will pop up over the next two months before the presidential election.

  • New Influencer Faces — September 2012

    We are proud to announce we have 7 new employees that have joined the SI family!

    Baggs, Erika (JAA)

    Erika Baggs has recently been hired as a Junior Account Associate. A native to Arizona, Erika moved to New Orleans soon aftergraduating from Arizona State University where she studied journalism and public relations. During school Erika was able to intern with several companies, from aCommunications Associate for a murder mystery author to working with external communications for an energy provider.

    Chelsea Bowling has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. She attended Kenyon College in Ohio where she received her degree in International Studies. Chelsea spent a year in Shenzhen, China teaching kindergarten. After returning to the states, she served with AmeriCorps VISTA program.

    Durel, Rebekah (JAA)Rebekah Durel has been hired as a Junior Account Associate. New to New Orleans, Rebekah graduated from McNeese State University located in Lake Charles, but is originally from Texas. While completing her degree, she interned at a chemical plant and worked at L’auberge Du Lac Casino.

    Holstein, Scott (BDA)Scott Holstein has been hired as a Business Development Associate. A New Orleans native, Scott graduated from McNeese State University with a degree in Business Management and played baseball. Most recently he worked at The Roosevelt Hotel as the Sales & Marketing Coordinator.

    Kerner, Emily (JAA)Emily Kerner has been hired as a Junior Account Associate. As a Westbank native, she went to Louisiana State University where she received her bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications. Previously, Emily worked at an Advertising Agency in Baton Rouge.

    Scott, Justin (Web) Justin Scott has been hired as a Web Developer. A recent graduate of the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Justin received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. While completing his degree, he worked as a web developer for a Lafayette web design company.

    Tracy Stoller has been hired as an Internet Marketing Associate. She is originally from Theriot, Louisiana. Tracy moved toStoller, Tracy (IMA) Thibodaux where she graduated from Nicholls State University with a bachelor’s degree in English. After receiving her degree, she did some substitute teaching.

  • Will Scott Speaks on Google Places and Maps Optimization at Pubcon 2012

    Your Google Place page and Maps location are flagship representations of your business, and often the first information potential customers will see. Our CEO Will Scott will contribute to a panel on optimizing these crucial pages at Pubcon 2012, and you can get a preview of the action below! Will has previously spoken at several Pubcons, and he’s honored to be included in the lineup again — be sure to check out the video after the jump.

    Transcription (edited):

     

    Arnie: Hi. I’m Arnie Kuenn, President of Vertical Measures. We’re a search, social and content marketing agency in Phoenix, Arizona and I’d like to introduce you to Will Scott. He’s the President of Search Influence in New Orleans. How are you doing today, Will?

    Will: Doing great, Arnie. Thanks for having me.

    Arnie: Super. So, I look forward to seeing you in Vegas. I think I only get to see you about once, maybe twice a year at different conferences and almost always at Pubcon. This year, you’re presenting on a panel called “Google Places and Maps Optimization”. I know that with what everything Google’s doing this year, it’s a big, fast-moving topic, and I wonder if maybe you could tell our viewers a little bit about what you’re going to cover and we’ll go from there.

    Will: There’s going to be three of us on the panel. I’ve presented before a bunch of times with Mary Bowling. The third guy, whose name is escaping me right at this second, has done this panel that I’ve seen before at Pubcon. So, I think there’s going be some really good knowledge up on the panel.

    What I want to focus mostly on is how you can start to integrate some of the social updates and what you can do to get your reviewer’s to get their shining faces to show up on your Google Plus Places page.

    It’s funny, but recently in New Orleans, where Search Influence is located, we were contacted by a Google Places community manager. So, people don’t know this but Google Plus Places, they call themselves, are now deploying community managers the same way Yelp has been for the last couple of years.

    So, of course, this being New Orleans, we brought her over and gave her a couple of drinks and tried to ply her for information. But, hopefully, I’ll have more from her by the time we actually get out to Pubcon.

    Arnie: You had mentioned a tip that you might want to offer everybody who’s watching regarding their new Google Plus Places pages. That’s a tongue twister.

    Will: Say it three times fast. Well, there is one critical thing – and this is something that we have just learned by experience. The critical thing is to get your reviewers to sign up for Google Plus. Because if your reviewers sign up for Google Plus, rather than just having anonymous reviewers out there, their faces show up much like the Facebook face box that you see on people’s websites.

    Their faces will show up right there in your Google Plus Places page. The impact of having people’s faces there as opposed to just the little blue headed Google user can be pretty significant when you’re trying to get people to come into your business.

    Arnie: Yeah. I suppose Google has a way in their algorithm, or it will soon, to be able to track anyone who has registered through Google Plus to know if they’re an authority or not.

    Will: Yeah. You would think so. I mean, there’s a lot of discussion about the idea of author rank and whether or not Google knows that you’re an authoritative user. But I think as one starts interacting more and more with Google Plus, it’s going to have a big impact on the relative ranking of reviewers within that whole Google Plus local system.

    Of course, just today, there was another announcement of Google buying a TripAdvisor-like company. So, now it’s not just going to be restaurant reviews. It’s going to be places and venues. So, you can see that Google is throwing a pretty big stake in the ground on this one.

    Arnie: Yep, super. I actually have not seen that yet, today. But you know how it is. It all comes at you awfully fast.

    Will: It’s a Monday. If you leave the twitters for a minute, they go by too fast.

    Arnie: Right, exactly. Well, listen. That is all the time we have. I hope everybody tries to make it out to Las Vegas in October and the day suddenly escaped me. I think it’s the 15th through the 17th.

    But, anyway, you can go to pubcon.com, and you’ll find the schedule for Las Vegas and look for Will. He always gives a great session and I want to thank you for your time, Will. I really appreciate it and we’ll see you in just a couple of months from the time we’re recording this.

    Will: Arnie thanks so much for doing this with me. I really look forward to seeing you personally in Vegas.

    Arnie: All right, thanks Will.

    About Arnie Kuenn:
    Arnie Kuenn is the president of Vertical Measures, a search, social & content marketing company helping their clients get more traffic, more leads, and more business. Arnie has held executive positions in the world of new technologies and marketing for more than 20 years. He is a frequent speaker and author of content marketing book Accelerate! Moving Your Business Forward Through the Convergence of Search, Social & Content Marketing available on Amazon. You can find Arnie on Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn

    About PubCon:
    Pubcon is the premier search and social media conference and expo and Will be taking place in Las Vegas from October 16th -18th, 2012. Pubcon Las Vegas 2012, supported by the industry’s leading businesses, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors involved in social media, Internet marketing, search engines, and online advertising, Will offer a week-long look at the future of technology presented by many of the world’s top speakers. Check out conference updates on Twitter (@PubCon).

  • 5 for Fridays — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

    1. How to Get a Video to Rank on YouTube — SEOMoz

    With a little help, your video can rank higher for competitive terms on YouTube. The team at SEOmoz went to the whiteboard to give us all a lesson on uploading more effective content on the web’s biggest video resource. Use this advice to increase your views and improve your campaign.

    2. London 2012 – A Very Social Olympic Games — Media Bistro

    The 2012 games might be remembered as the first truly social Olympics. Facebook and Twitter have hosted an unprecedented amount of social interaction about the events, the athletes, and the coverage. This SEO.com infographic takes a look at why 2012 became the year of the Socialympics.

    3. Think Twice Before You Jump on the Guest Blogging Bandwagon — Blind 5-Year-Old

    Getting links is not as easy as it used to be before the Penguin update. This has convinced some SEOs to turn to guest blogging when they want more exposure. The author of this post thinks you should avoid the temptation to trade your original ideas for a link and a temporary spotlight. See if you agree with his take on guest blogging.

    4. Capturing Unrealized Revenue Through Keyword Order Analysis — Search Engine Watch

    The author of this post ran an experiment comparing the performance of primary keyword phrases and reordered secondary phrases. Starting with the hypothesis that targeting some reordered combinations could uncover unrealized profits, the testing revealed some interesting insights that could help search engine marketers expand their campaigns.

    5. Study: YP Delivers “Better Value” Than Google AdWords — Search Engine Land

    A recent study found that advertisers enjoy a significantly lower “cost per call” when using YP.com versus Google AdWords. The extensive survey covered 62 businesses in 20 different categories across 18 US cities. Is heavy competition driving up prices in Google AdWords, or is this study just bunk?

  • SI Around The Web — Mentions & Quotables!

    Search Influence has been getting a lot of love in the press lately, and we’re here to share the good news with you! Our CEO Will Scott lends his expertise to several publications, Olympic frenzy takes the Internet by storm and more, right after the jump!

    • A New Social Media Strategy for the Olympics, Future Sporting Events — Forbes

    The Olympics have been touted as the first “social media games,” and it’s inarguable that the feverish pitch of the competition has been mirrored in the frantic tweeting, sharing and pinning of thousands. But is the Olympics Committee itself doing as good of a job as it could be with their official efforts? Their attempts to place restrictions on nearly every aspect of the games has drawn heavy criticism. Will talks with Forbes about the IOC’s pitfalls, saying “The moment the IOC set restrictions that limited the voice of the athletes, they made the Olympics less relevant to the Millennials.” These restrictions mean stifling good speech as well as bad, and have hurt athletes’ ability to help the Olympic brand.

    • Marketers: No Brand Deserves Gold Digital Olympics — AdWeek

    Speaking of the Olympics, Will was also quoted in this article about the Olympic advertisers’ social media shortfalls. Given its ubiquity in modern-day communication, social media offers a longer-lasting and intense value from endorsements than with traditional forms of advertising, and athletes’ ability to do so is a crucial part of the process. Click through to AdWeek to see his thoughts!

    • Why Online Marketers Are Rethinking Their Yelp Strategy — Street Fight

    Finally, Will wrote this article for Street Fight about the changing face of Yelp and how changes to the system will make it easier, more useful and more profitable for consumers and businesses alike. The increasingly mobile online world, smart search apps such as Siri, and the importance of reviews in buying decisions (among other factors) all drive home the importance of actively managing your business’s online presence. Whether you’re a restaurant, retailer or service, get out there and own your name! Participating in deals and ad campaigns is a great way to get folks in the door, but don’t make the mistake of buying or soliciting reviews — it’s almost sure to backfire. The best way is the old-fashioned one: wow them with your quality and the positive reviews will roll in!