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How Safe Is Your Google My Business From Hijackers?

Whether you are a Fortune 500 company or a small business, your online reputation is at risk if you have not verified Google My Business. In this Clairiti Clips video, Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon discuss a presentation by @joyannhawkinds to @DFWSEM about local SEO and Google My Business. If you own a brick and mortars business, it’s imperative that you set up and verify Google My Business for your locations. A nefarious spammer may already be siphoning off your business traffic.

Transcript

Brad: Well good afternoon everyone. It’s Brad and Robert again with our Clairiti Clip of the week. We’re out enjoying the Texas weather one more time in downtown Dallas, if you hear some noise going around behind us. We’re out enjoying the weather. We’ve been talking a lot about what’s happening online in your social and stuff; but you recently went to a DFWSEM where they talked more about what you’re doing online with your website, your Google, how your search results kind of illustrate what you’re doing. And one of the key things that we always try to talk about is that first impression. We talk about first impressions in general, like what’s your first impression when you go meet someone; how you’re dressed; all that stuff. It’s critical now online, that you’re spending time thinking about the first impression you’re leaving with your potential clients or future customers. And some of that stuff you learned a little bit the other day about at DFWSEM.

Robert: So, if you’re a bricks and mortar business. If you have a physical location, the first impression of your business is going to be in Google search when somebody looks for you. And it’s up in that right hand corner. It’s called Google My Business. Now we’re showing you here A1 Affordable Garage Door Openers. We know them and we know they do it right. But we were all really lucky to hear from Joy Hawkinds out of Toronto, who’s one of the top experts in this part of the world on Google My Business. And here’s what she has to say.

Joy: So a lot of businesses either don’t know about it or don’t pay attention to it. And when usually they find out it’s too late. So a lot things we hear about with reviews, for example, is someone will research Bob’s Plumbing and all of a sudden see a bunch of negative reviews on Google that the business owner wasn’t even aware of. If they had verified their listing through Google My Business, Google would actually alert them every time they get a new review; so they would actually be aware of what people are saying online about their business. Also make sure that people get driving directions to your office if they’re after it. And that obviously the things that they’re seeing about your business are what you’d want them to see. It’s always a good idea to have lots of positive reviews, lots of pictures; not leave it to the users to decide what’s out there.

Brad: So one of the second points you heard, too, when you went to this DFWSEM seminar was something about verification. What does that mean, Google verification?

Robert: Well as she just explained, that’s important to go claim your Google My Business or a competitor or somebody up to no good can hijack your Google My Business.

Brad: So, let’s put that in perspective. Let’s say you have Robert Brick and Mortar A and I’m Brad Brick and Mortar B; and you haven’t verified your business; I could go verify it and basically take that business?

Robert: Not only that, she’s going to explain how spammers can go in and change the phone number to their number so that anybody looking for you is going to them. And then they might call you up and try to sell leads back to you.

Brad: Wow.

Robert: Here she is.

Joy: So, unfortunately Google Maps, because it’s become cloud-sourced, users can submit edits to Google Maps and they can do things maliciously, unfortunately. So a lot of times the spammers out there actually know more about how Google works than the legitimate businesses do. So we see a lot of fake listings that get created. If you’ve a plumber that wants to rank everywhere around Dallas, they will create 15 different listings; one for every zip code, even though they’re not listed there, and try to out rank the real businesses that are in the area. That’s common abuse. And then also to take it to an even further extreme, we’ve also seen businesses actually hijack listings for real businesses that are ignoring their listings; by either changing the phone number on it or actually updating the website on the listing to go to their website instead of the actual business.

Brad: So we’ve been talking about this Google My Business, this verification process, the other night from DFWSEM. What’s the take home message that you heard and what’s important for a person out there who owns a small business or a brick and mortar, to think about when they’re looking at all this stuff.

Robert: As soon as you finish watching this video, go claim your Google My Business, and we’re going to let Joy close this out with the big take away and her advice. And that’s the Clairiti Clip of the week.

Joy: If you haven’t done so, I would go to google.com/business and make sure that your business is verified; and then also do a couple brand searches on Google to make sure you know what actually comes up when people are searching your brand. And check to make sure, you know, driving directions on Google Maps are accurate and routing people to the right place.

GET INTO SHAPE FOR HEAVY SOCIAL MEDIA LIFTING

by Brad Besancon

Brad and Robert discuss how building a social media audience is a lot like building muscle at the gym…you got to work at it. Plus they take a look at how Amazon coach Chris Green uses Facebook Live to connect with his Facebook Group.

Transcript

Brad: Well, hello everyone. Its Brad and Robert in the backyard on a beautiful Texas afternoon. It’s got to be mid 60’s here, it’s beautiful, it’s gorgeous.

Robert: Clear blue skies.

Brad: The only better place to be right now would probably be the Masters.

Robert: Oh definitely.

Brad: Definitely. But we are here in the backyard bringing you the Clairiti Clip of the week. And we wanted to talk a little bit about; you know we talk a lot about social media and what you need to be doing in social media. But one of the things people forget to think about is; prepare yourself for the effort its going to take to be successful in social media. Most people don’t understand the amount of work; including clients and people who have a staff. They really don’t appreciate the work that goes into it. And the best analogy to come up was think about that, when you first get back to the gym or you’re starting and exercise program and you’re running and those first few days, maybe even a week, you’re really sore and tight. You hurt, you’re tired, you don’t, the last thing you want to do is go do something else the next day when you’re sore. Keep doing it. Keep working. Keep trying new things. And one of the unique things that’s out there now, and has been out for a while, but people are really starting, you’re starting to see a lot more now, is the Facebook live. You know Periscope Meerkat on Twitter. But one of the things that’s really unique is that it brings live video right into your followers.

Robert: Anywhere, anytime, So how do you see us using this for clients.

Brad: Well, its amazing what you can do with it; and for example, we have some attorneys, we have a mortgage company, we even have a large university system, that could even answer student questions right there live. What do I need to prepare for to get admitted? What do my grades need to be? From an attorney standpoint you could give basic information; there’s some laws on what he could and could not say, but he could answer basic questions. From a mortgage standpoint you could go the gamut, man. What do you need to prepare for? The paperwork you need, your credit score needs, down payments. You could do that all live. Product questions, customer service questions. No longer do you have to worry about working an email system if you don’t want to, you can go directly to your fans, right there live on video feature.

Robert: Right.

Brad: And you recently saw one of your buddies, who’s your Amazon coach do it, and he had some really unique approach to it.

Robert: So, Chris Green yesterday; I look at his Facebook; and he is on live, he’s doing a two hour road trip. He’s got calls coming in on the speakerphone in the car.

Brad: Don’t text and drive.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad; Just Facebook Live.

Robert: Yeah. And he’s answering people’s questions, sharing information, he didn’t waste two hours. And Chris tells me that he just put up an alert a few minutes before.

Brad: Yeah, just a few minutes before.

Robert: And boom, he had more than 150 people watching and following him. Now the key there is Chris has already got an audience. So the big thing is, audience building.

Brad: Yeah, work through the soreness, keep building the audience first. Then you’re probably ready to go for some of these new features that are out there in social media. Keep working folks, have a great weekend and go out and enjoy the wonderful weather. Have a good one.

Does Your Company’s Social Media Suffer From Silo Mentality?

by Brad Besancon

Ever see those silver silos looming across the landscape of agricultural communities? Farmers use them to store grain. Unfortunately, many organizations suffer a silo mentality when it comes to online media. They store online communication efforts in departmental silos that put up barriers to communication and pollination of ideas.

Being natives of rural Texas, both of us believe online marketing is a lot like farming. You decide what crop your market likes. You plant the seeds. You fertilize it. And finally you gather a bountiful harvest that captivates your customers and prospects.

That can’t happen in online marketing if silos block collaboration.

In this Clairiti Clip, we explain how silos are only good for storing grain and why your company needs to tear down its internal information silos.

Transcript

Robert: Hi I’m Robert Riggs and this is Brad Besancon back with a Clairiti Clip of the week. We’re standing in front of grain silo’s which are a major part of rural Texas, and why are we here?

Brad: Well we always talk to our clients and hear out there from our clients and potential clients; when they start to go through their business plans or what they’ve been doing in social website; even on their content when they’re thinking about all of these problems. They’ve silo’d each one of their pieces of business. So you have a group over here working on social media, you have a group over here that maintains the website, you have a group over here that generates content. Some in marketing, some aren’t; and they’ve just segmented their business and not pulled it all together to work together.

Robert: So we’ve seen companies and organizations where the people doing Twitter were in literally a separate building.

Brad: A separate building.

Robert: And no communication. So talk about how that intercommunication is so important in getting it right.

Brad: Well you have to be working together so that you can maintain that message that you’re trying to portray. You can have different segments within the categories of your company. For example, the client we worked with that had separate entities in separate buildings; one was a recruiting part of the business, one was interaction with students and one was student activities. You can still all work together though and communicate. Learn how to share each other’s content or posts when it works together so that you’re all communicating the right messaging and driving that engagement out there. Not just for social, but for website, too.

Robert: Well and don’t build walls because people all become really turf conscious. Marketing can’t talk to PR in communications. And in the world of online that’s going to hurt you.

Brad: Well and the other thing that we see, too, is that everybody thinks they have their own message, right? ‘Well, I’m Student Recruiting, I have a different message than you do as Marketing’ or whatever. Or ‘you’re just trying to talk to these type of people.’ That’s not true, you’re all trying to talk to each other. What you’ll find is when you silo yourself like that, people will segment themselves out there in your social media audience or online audience as well. They’re not going to follow you in every thing, right? If you’re not giving them different content.

Robert: All right, so the lesson here today is that online marketing is a little bit like agriculture in that you’re harvesting crops, but don’t put them in a silo, otherwise you’re likely to fail.

Brad: Absolutely.

Robert: That’s the Clairiti Clip of the week. Thanks.

Why Social Media is Crucial to Google Rankings

by Brad Besancon

To get rankings for your products or services in Google search, it’s now imperative to engage your clients, customers, and prospects in social channels.

Google wants to know who you are, if can you be trusted, and what people are saying about you.

We harp on the necessity to build a social media strategy and game plan that helps to drive people to your website.

Bill Hartzer, one of the foremost search engine marketing experts in the world, explains how the world of Google search is now focused on social conversations.

Bill spoke with us following his presentation to DFWSEM of which he is a founding member.

Is your business part of the conversation? If not, that expensive website of yours will likely fail to produce paying clients and customers.

Transcript

Brad: Well, hello everyone. I’m Brad and this is Robert and we’re here again with this week’s Clairiti clip. One of the things we always talk about with our clients is the fact of how all of your online marketing plans, things need to work together, your social media, your website, your blog, the content on your website, your SEO, all these things, as you hear about all these in the industry.

One of the things we always talk about is how are they working together and is your social – are you just kind of playing around with it? Are you just putting stuff up? Is there an objective to it? Does it drive people back to your website? What’s on your website when they get there? Is it content-driven? Is it video – all these things have to work together.

What was good last night, you got to spend some time with Bill Hartzer at DFSEM and he had some real insights as to kind of all this stuff working together. What did you hear last night?

Robert: Well, first off, Bill is acknowledged throughout our industry as an SEO genius. He has been doing this since 1994. So when Bill speaks about what Google is doing …

Brad: People listen.

Robert: So for those business owners who are sitting out there that think that social media is just something that your teenage daughter in high school does and anybody …

Brad: Or a millennial could just do.

Robert: Yes, yeah. Well, listen, what Bill pointed out is now if you want your products or services to be found in search with Google, then you better be having conversations online and you better be smart about it. Here’s what Bill had to say.

Bill: If you post something such as a blog post or offer a new product and then you go on to your Facebook and people really like that product and they’re asking questions and they’re liking it and they’re sharing it and making comments, that shows to Google that OK, this is actually a product or a page that they should rank well in the search engines because – in the search engine results because of the fact that people like it and real people like it.

So we’re looking for that engagement, so that factor of – that it used to be that we could just go and create a webpage and create a website and just be done with it. That’s not the way it works anymore unfortunately. We really have to be using social media and promotions and getting real people to interact with our brand and our website and our posts that – to show the search engines that it – that everything is real.

Why Social Media is NOT Child’s Play

by Brad Besancon

Video Transcription

Robert: Hi. I’m Robert Riggs. This is Brad Besancon back with a Clairiti Clip of the Week. Now you wanted to be at a playground. Why are we here?

Brad: Well, I think one of the things that we hear a lot out there in the industry and we hear from clients is they’re just kind of playing around online. They’re playing around with social. They’re playing around on their website. They’re putting out a blog but they really don’t have a strategy or anything written down or any kind of clue really when it comes down to it about what they need to be doing.

Robert: Well, we talk about listen, think, speak and you don’t know the language of your audience and they’re all out there talking. You don’t know your language unless you go through that kind of process.

Brad: Yeah. I mean the point is, is that you’re setting the table for the passion of your fans. You’re setting the table with your content, with the blogs, with what you’re doing in social, with the video like we’re doing here.

You’re setting the table to bring people in to the conversation. If you don’t have an idea about what that passion is or what that audience speak is or what you need to be doing, then you’re just out there playing around.

Robert: So this past week, we had a prospective client look at Brad about this past experience with the Dallas Cowboys and say, “Why the heck would the Dallas Cowboys need social media?”

Brad: Yeah, it threw me off a little bit because it’s kind of a – I never had that question and the bottom line is everyone needs social if you think about it, in different formats, right? You don’t have to be at all places and everything to everybody.

But you do need social because it’s the only place you can have a two-way conversation. Online is where it is. You bring people into the site. You could potentially drive them to a call-to-action. You have a conversation with them on social media out there one-on-one. Again, you’re setting the table to get that passion and to elevate that brand because as we always tell our clients is either you control the brand or someone will.

Robert: Exactly. You ever have that awkward moment in an office when you think there are a couple of people over in a corner and you’ve heard your name. You think they’re talking about you. You’re not part of the conversation. You know how uneasy that makes you feel? That’s happening every day to …

Brad: Every day.

Robert: … by thousands of people talking to them. They’re not there. They’re not interacting. And don’t you think you ought to be there? Because your competitors or even critics in them, they will define you if you have not defined yourself.

Brad: Absolutely, absolutely.

Robert: Cardinal rule of politics.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. We’re seeing that play out on social media.

Robert: All right. Clairiti Clip of the Week.

Brad: I’m going to go do some slides.

Robert: Yeah. Work on those …

Brad: I’m going to work on my landing.

Robert: Thanks guys. See you next week.

Brad: Have a good one.

[End of transcript]

What Is Your Social Media ROI?

by Brad Besancon

Video Transcription

Robert: Hi. I’m Robert Riggs and this is Brad Besancon back for a Clairiti minute.

Hi. I’m Robert Riggs and this is Brad Besancon here for a Clairiti clip. OK. Would you go to a social cocktail hour and shove your business card under the nose or into the hand of a perfect stranger?

Brad: No.

Robert: No. Why wouldn’t you? Why don’t you do that?

Brad: It’s just not the right spot and it would be kind of awkward. What’s that all about?

Robert: Uh-huh. OK. But every day we see people do this in social media. Like sell, sell, sell. They’re just rude.

Brad: Yeah, they’re just putting out posts. You know, one of the things that we talk about is it’s social media. Be social. It’s not just about information and events and some of our clients’ research or data or whatever. It’s being social. It’s, “Hey, I’m Brad. What’s your name?” And being – it’s creating conversations.

Robert: Yeah. OK. So Brad, what’s the ROI on that?

Brad: Well, that’s the other piece that people get their feathers ruffled about is, well, I’m not getting any business off of this and I’m spending time or you guys want me to come in here and show me how to do all this stuff and the ROI is the actual interaction and conversation one on one that you can have with your audience. In no other place can you do that. You can’t do it on a website blog. You’re just putting out information.

Robert: I’m out of television. You sure can’t do it on TV.

Brad: You can’t do it on TV. You can’t do it in a print ad, can’t do it on a display ad or any of that kind of stuff. But you can have a one-on-one conversation in a message or on a Twitter feed or on a Facebook post or in some fashion, you know, Pinterest, Instagram. You can create these conversations in communities and that’s being social.

Robert: So what’s the value of that? That you’ve got someone you’re having a one-on-one conversation with.

Brad: Absolutely.

Robert: A prospect that you can start bringing through the sales funnel and you can’t really put a number on that and interestingly, people don’t put those numbers on TV spots. It’s about …

Brad: No, and it’s no different than what’s the value of if I come to you and say, “Hey Robert. What doctor do you go see?” Well, I go see Dr. Smith down the road. There’s no value on that either. But because you’re given good quality service at Dr. Smith’s clinic, you feel like hey, I should send Brad there because it’s good. The same thing can happen in social.

You can build that reputation up by having those conversations, by being relevant – oh, I hate that word being relevant because what’s relevant to Robert isn’t relevant to me. But by being social and keying in on what really works with your audience and the audience speak and you’re doing the same thing and you’re doing it with – out there in space.

Robert: ROI, back on that. If you have a website in this day and age with all the changes with the search engine algorithms, you’re referring traffic. The stuff that’s bringing you traffic is social.

Brad: Yes, we hope it is.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: Right? If you’re doing it the right way, that’s the whole piece that you’re looking for. So when you’re out there looking at social media, don’t forget the first word. Be social.

Robert: That’s the Clairiti clip. Thanks.

Brad: Thanks guys.

Robert: That’s good.

Are you serving 1 bland flavor in Social Media?

by Brad Besancon

Video Transcription

Brad: Hello everybody! It’s Brad and Robert again with our Clairiti clip and I want to start off first by just asking Robert what’s your least favorite dessert.

Robert: Pumpkin pie.

Brad: Pumpkin pie. I don’t like it either. Probably a lot of you out there do. So the point about the pumpkin pie is that you don’t necessarily like it no matter how it’s presented.

Robert: Yeah. Whipped cream, dress it up, I still don’t like it.

Brad: So we could put on a fine piece of china at a beautiful dinner. You could dress it up, make it look pretty. They always say food is in the presentation as much as it is in the taste. But it’s not.

And the whole point is your audience has many tastes and you have to be sure you’re looking at each one of those tastes to be sure that you’re targeting and pulling on those heartstrings of your particular audience and driving that passion to social media.

We hear from clients all the time and for prospects we’re talking to and everything and industry people. It’s like, “Well, my social doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work. I don’t see any business off social. How do I get business off of social? We’re doing a lot of posts. We’re putting up this. We’re putting up that.” In fact one person even said – we said, “What’s your objective in social media?” and they said …

Robert: To get the word out and I said, “About what?”

Brad: Exactly.

Robert: You know, they’ve got one recipe and one flavor.

Brad: And that’s it. If you don’t like it, then you just go on down the road. We hear again and again and again, “Well, we’re posting up a lot of stuff. We’re putting up information. We got events and we do really good stuff around events and we’re doing this. We’re just not seeing anything coming about it.” We’re back to the plate of pumpkin pie. It doesn’t matter how great you present the pumpkin pie if no one in your audience likes pumpkin pie.

Robert: Right.

Brad: They’re still not going to walk over to the table and eat the pumpkin pie. So you have to think about that when you’re doing social media.

Robert: You’ve got to understand your audience. We practice something called “audience speak”. Are you speaking their language or are you giving the recipe that they enjoy the taste of? And there are a lot of different tastes and then you’ve got to be seeing what’s working off this menu. Just like a restaurant. What sells in here? What doesn’t?

Brad: Yeah. I mean you got to look at the analytics behind it and say, “Hey. When we did this, it worked. Let’s try some more of that.”

Robert: Yes.

Brad: When we put this on the menu, we sold a lot or we got high engagements or there was a lot of likes or a lot of shares or people really bought into that if you will. You have to do the same thing in social and one of the things that you have to remember is we’re close to Valentine’s Day.

So one of the things you have to remember is don’t forget to pull the heartstrings of your audience and be sure that you’re driving that heartbeat. I will eat that one on any kind of plate. You guys enjoy the Clairiti clip. That’s Brad.

Robert: And I’m Robert and I don’t like pumpkin pie. Thanks.

[End of transcript]

The Secret Recipe for Eating Your Social Media

by Brad Besancon

Thanksgiving is coming up and many of us will be gathered with family and friends to celebrate and gather around the tables of America.

And of course, we’ll all have to “socialize” our experience across all of our social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

But just how should brands and businesses think about their social media and how can they “dine” with their fans and followers?

Here’s a few thoughts on eating your social media.

Facebook

The best way to enjoy your meal with Facebook is to understand that this platform is all about “setting the table.”

What are you going to serve? Do you have a special you want to feature?

For example, Monday is Mexican food night, while later in the week you serve “Fried Up Fridays.”

This platform is all about the food (subject) you’re presenting and how your followers partake of your meal.

Your brand or business is creating the meal and you’re inviting your followers and fans to come sit at your table and dig-in.

Hopefully you’re serving tasty dishes!

Twitter

If Facebook is your table setting, then Twitter is all about what’s happening in the kitchen.

What’s happening now in the preparation of the meal? Is Grandma cooking her special enchiladas or is dad smoking his famous brisket?

Brands need to grasp the concept of live happenings surrounding their business as well as associated conversations within their audience.

For example, while grandma is preparing her enchiladas pictures and tweets should be going out to your followers showing them “live” preparation of the meal they’re seeking.

Secondly, be sure to listen and know what other conversations are occurring within your audience that relate to your “meal preparation.”

Twitter = “In the Kitchen Preparation”

Instagram

While the table is being set on Facebook, and the meal prep highlighted on Twitter, don’t forget about deliver mouth watering photos to your fans/audience on Instagram.

This is the platform for visual activity of your brand.

Let’s stick with our “Dinner” scenario.

This platform is the spot for photos of those delicious, oozing cheese enchiladas and the brisket perched on the grill as the smoke surrounds it with flavor.

It’s the place to highlight your brand’s voice (AudienceSpeak) through visual teasing of your followers.

Get the picture?

Pun intended.

Pinterest

Time to wrap up our evening of dining through social media.

This may be the easiest of platforms to explain using our dinnertime analogy.

Care to make a guess as to how Pinterest fits?

You got it, the recipe!

This is how grandma makes those enchiladas and dad’s special sauce for the brisket.

The in’s and outs, the mechanics, and the step by step of the making of the meal.

So what about a brand or business?

This is where you share, re-pin, and support your followers.

Give them the “how to’s” and become a source of information that they can use in the “meal prep.”

Best ingredients, what’s the smoker heat setting, and the best wood to use.

Become a source of good recipes and your brand will see it’s cooking amplified through this platform.

To Recap

Facebook: Set the table.

Twitter: Live from the kitchen.

Instagram: Mouth watering photos of the dinner.

Pinterest: Share the recipes.