Benefits of getting testimonials:

• You might find a great tagline – a local branding expert received a testimonial from a client who dubbed him the “brand whisperer”. The tag stuck and now his is known as The Brand Whisperer.
• Helps build credibility – Social proof makes a difference: if you have a choice of two businesses, with no clear differentiator, and the first one has several glowing recommendations and the second one has none, chances are you will pick the first business.
• It’s good for your customer’s too – Don’t forget to remind your customers that giving a testimonial can help them increase their own visibility because you will post their testimonial on your website with a backlink to their site.

Rules for asking:

• Timing. Ask for endorsements during the first 30-60 days of you working together, or as soon as the project is complete.
• Keep it short. Remind them the testimonial doesn’t need to be long – one to two paragraphs are sufficient.
• Disclosure. Be sure to tell your customers you plan to use the testimonial on your website or other promotion material.

What to ask for:

It’s okay to give your customer specific guidance, in fact it makes the task of writing the testimonial easier. Help them out by asking your customer to:

• Talk about the quality of your work
• State how much they enjoy working with you
• If you do a variety of things, ask them to describe the benefits of a particular offering
• Talk about what they like best about your product/service
• Describe why they do business with you instead of your competitors

If your customer is comfortable using internet tools ask them to post your testimonial on either your LinkedIn page or your Google places page (be sure to give them the link); from there you can copy and paste it onto your website. If they are less techy then ask for a testimonial written on their letterhead.

Get into the habit of asking for testimonials; if you are uncomfortable doing this, practice asking for a recommendation in the mirror. If you want to ask via email write your request out and have a friend proof it for tone and style.

Remember the best way to get a testimonial is to give a testimonial! Be sure to check out my post on How to write a testimonial.

If you write the testimonial on a service provider’s LinkedIn profile, or a business owner’s Google Places listing, your name and business will be displayed online thereby increasing your online exposure. If they post your recommendation on their website ask them to give you a back-link to your website or blog (a great tactic for boosting your Google PageRank^®)

More good news – your testimonial doesn’t need to be long to get the job done – three to six sentences are enough. Follow my proven formula for writing recommendations and you will be amazed at how quickly you can crank out a sincere and valuable testimonial for your favorite businesses.

Introduction:

Feel free to start the testimonial with a sentence about yourself and why you hired them or purchased from them. For example, “I’ve been in the tree trimming and removal business for over 10 years and desperately needed a website. I hired another company do my first Web site, and they did a terrible job and charged me a fortune. Then I tried XYZ Company….”

Body:

To make the task of writing the testimonial easier, try answering two or more of these questions.

• Talk about the quality of their work
• State how much you enjoy working with them
• Describe the benefits of their product or service
• State what you like best about their product/service
• Describe why you do business with them instead of their competitors
• State how long you have known or worked with the company

Conclusion:

A great closing for the testimonial is to say who you would recommend them to and why. For example, “I highly recommend XYZ Company to other small business owners who need a new website because they really listen to your needs and always do what they say they are going to do.”

Get into the habit of giving testimonials to businesses you value. Remember, the more testimonials your give (especially on LinkedIn) the more you’ll receive in return, because people enjoy reciprocity.

Be sure to check out my post on How to get more testimonials.

How are your competitors perceived? Have you searched them on Twitter or read what is being said about them on Facebook? Are they conducting contests? Do they offer web-only discounts? Should they be? Should YOU??

Or perhaps you are looking for a fresh new idea. One of the best ways to get your creative juices flowing is to look at what your competitors are doing and try to improve upon their offerings. Doing will help you identify gaps in the marketplace.

By conducting regular competitor analysis (monthly or quarterly) you can compare and contrast the performance of your website and product offerings to the performance of your competitors, thereby helping you determine you strengths and weaknesses.

Here are the key elements I recommend including in your competitive intelligence report:

1. Website Data: Their Alexa Ranking and Google PageRank, Product offerings/pricing, Affiliate Programs, free content, etc.
2. Search Engine Data: Their ranking for YOUR targeted keywords
3. Social Media Data: Which channels are they active in, size of their community, blog usage, etc.

Not only can Strategic Online Solutions build an effective online competitor report for your business, but we’ll also help your interpret it  and identify strategic online solutions designed to grow your business.

Our Competitor Reports Include:

• Identification of your top competitors
• 10 point analysis of your competitors web presence
• 7 point analysis of your competitors search engine presence (including keywords!)
• 10 point analysis of your competitors social media presence
• Executive Summary
• Telephone consultation to review findings and brainstorm response strategies

By generating a plan to create positive publicity about yourself, your company, or your child, you can organically drive negative content to the less visible pages of Google. Follow these 7 Steps for eRep Redemption:

Step #1 – Research the problem. Take an inventory of all the sites where negative content is showing up.
Step #2 – Take an inventory of the “online assets” you control; your website, your blog, and your profile on social media sites (think Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and YouTube).
Step #3 – Write a fresh, positive biography for yourself, or have a professional do it for you, then create three versions of it: small (160 characters max), medium (about one paragraph) and large (one page) for use in any online situation.
Step #4 – Visit each of your current “assets” and post your shiny new bio to each.
Step #5 – Create profiles on any social media sites you are not currently a member and post your bio with photo on them.
Step #6 – Create new online assets including blogs, micro-sites, and sub-domain pages.
Step #7 – Create and submit press releases, white papers, syndicated articles, and videos to high-ranking sites

A word of caution: timing is important.

Strategically time the release of information for the highest impact. It is better to “drip” a consistent stream of content than to flood the web with everything in one day.

This handy flow-chart can help you visualize the process:

Do you have a question about eReputation Management? If you need guidance redeeming your virtual virtue please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email or give me a call at 817-919-3423.

It’s true and they are likely to remain there for a LONG time!

You can’t control what others say about you, nor can you control where or when they will talk about you. However, according to Mitch Joel in his book Six Pixels of Separation:

Here’s what you can control: You can control whether or not you take part. …. You can control whether you will be present and available when things go wrong. You can control how available you will be to fix whatever people say is broken!

Fortunately, the advent of real-time search enables you to intercept a potentially damaging review or frustrated customer “at the point of experience.” Online Reputation Management (ORM) starts with a good tracking system.

Here are seven elements you should be monitoring:

• Brand mentions
• Product names
• Your domain name(s)
• Your name and the names of your key personnel
• Your top competitors and their domain names
• Important Industry Keywords
• Your primary suppliers (VERY IMPORTANT!)

Here are two FREE and EASY ways to track the items above:
1) Set-up Google Alerts
2) Set-up Twitter keyword searches in Hootsuite

Do you have a question about Online Reputation Management? Please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email or give me a call at 817-919-3423.