Google Places Best Ever Ratings: Do They Matter?
Have you heard of the “Best Ever” medal for businesses on Google Places? Surely you must have, since it was introduced almost 8 months ago. It’s a great concept, really. In case you didn’t know, you have 10 “Best Ever” medals to award to your most beloved places, from your [...]
The YouTube Channel Upgrade
Have you checked your YouTube account lately? Surprise! Your channel got an upgrade. Since our Direct Online Marketing™ YouTube has a new look too, I’ve been exploring the changes. If you haven’t had a chance to compare the new look to the old, not to worry! I’ve already detailed the updates [...]
Want to Hang Yourself? Twitter Says, “Go for It!”
About a month ago, we were alerted to a tweet by one of our clients of a man who threatened to kill himself. While we were all fairly sure he was someone who tweeted something rashly and was not actually suicidal, I didn’t want to take the chance, sitting around [...]
Facebook Reviews Link Going Away on Halloween
When I logged into our facebook page today, I saw a message saying facebook recommendations reviews were going away: “That was quick,” I thought to myself. Facebook forced recommendations in the upper right hand corner of business pages only back in July. I was guessing they just received a lot [...]
The 1 Place Google Places Still Shows Outside Reviews
If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile or have spoken to me ever, you probably know one thing about me: I’m obsessed (cursed?) with the Pirates. If you know a second thing, it’s how strongly I feel all businesses need to understand how their online reputation can either help [...]
Google Places Goes It Alone (with Reviews) – UPDATED
If you weren’t paying attention last week you missed that Google Places has dropped 3rd party review ratings and stars from its pages. That meant for many companies going from a dozen reviews to 0-1 or from hundreds to a handful. Which makes this a big deal. But what exactly [...]
Facebook Recommendations: What You Need to Know
The US has long been wise to be fearful of and prevent business monopolies whenever feasible. With competition comes awesomeness. Google+ comes out (regardless of my feelings about it) and facebook speeds up a few announcements of its own like its Skype partnership for video chatting and today’s release of [...]
Google’s +1 for AdWords Ads Misses the Point
We’ve had clients asking us about our thoughts regarding Google’s recent roll-out of its +1 button, so I thought I’d share my thoughts here. This post will focus mostly on +1 for AdWords; you can bug Paul if you’d like to get his thoughts on Google +1 for SEO. Update: [...]
Interview with Cars.com on Dealer Ratings: Part 2
On Wednesday, we posted the first half of an interview with Nick Hummer of Cars.com about how their new dealer ratings & review system is coming along. Here for your reading pleasure is the second half of our discussion. JS: One of the things I thought was interesting is that [...]
Interview with Cars.com on New Dealer Review System: Part 1
As we mentioned before, Cars.com switched over to a new dealers review and rating system this past March, which is currently in an opt-in stage. We wanted to get an update on how things were going so far, so we reached out to Nick Hummer, their product manager who’s leading [...]
Bing Giving More Prominence to Local Review Site Ratings
I really wasn’t looking to do a second post today, but saw something on a bing search that caught my eye: they’re now putting logos for various review sites along with a more prominent rating grade on the sides. Take a look here (click to enlarge): And it’s not just [...]
Social Media Week, Upcoming Appearances & Facebook Deals
I have a few more gigs coming up in the next couple weeks, so I wanted to pass along some details. As a thank you for reading through this mostly self-promotional post, I’m adding info about facebook Deals at the end, which you will want to read if your organization [...]
How to Protect Your Online Reputation – Ohio State University
As mentioned previously, on Saturday I presented “How to Protect Your Online Reputation” at THE Ohio State University’s Digital Media in a Social World. They’re sending over the raw footage that we’ll be chopping up. In the meantime, if you have 45 minutes or just want to skip through to [...]
Free Google AdWords Audit
