If You Are a Local Biz: Take Advantage of Online Reviews

I admit it that as a social media consultant my ears perk up when people are talking about social media – and this means I eavesdrop on conversations.

One such conversation concerned a young woman at a local restaurant asking a customer to go online and write a review for the restaurant.

The woman said that the restaurant had lots of good reviews on City Search.com and Yelp.com. Then she explained that there were no good pictures because the restaurant had previously paid no attention to the reviews on these two sites.

Now she was going on the two sites to improve the restaurant’s pictures. And she pointed out that, especially for a restaurant, good photos are really important.

Al Gelato – a favorite local restaurant of mine – does an outstanding job of using photographs on its Facebook Page. (See these photos at www.facebook.com/algelato/photos )

Then some of these same photos are used on laminated table cards with a tagline about how many positive reviews the restaurant has on Yelp. (See these reviews at www.yelp.com/biz/al-gelato-los-angeles )

This on-table promoting is a great way to integrate online and offline marketing. And in my experience very few local restaurants are utilizing this opportunity.

This advice works for other local businesses besides restaurants — even businesses for which you might not immediately think of photos. For example, if you own a cleaners, why not post a photo of a smiling employee handing a customer her dry cleaning? Or, if you own a shoe repair store, post a photo of you handing a customer his repaired shoes.

Use your imagination for good photos to encourage your prospective customers or clients to patronize your local biz.

(c) 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the WBENC certified online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

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