by Chris Barnard | Sep 28, 2011 | Local Search
In the past week we’ve examined, or at least loosely discussed, how all of this social media, local search, and mobile marketing buzz affects our local Carlsbad small businesses.
SoLoMo digital marketing is here to stay, embrace it sooner rather than later to save money and capitalize on opportunity while competitors languish or make excuses.
In Part 1 of our Google buying Zagat examination – we use that term loosely – we chose to highlight how that Wall St. acquisition impacts Main St. small businesses right here in Carlsbad. (more…)
by Chris Barnard | Sep 22, 2011 | Digital Marketing
Small businesses across the world all share one common need to sustain growth; new customers.
Communicating with these potential and existing customers within their local community seems to still be in the dark ages.
At least the analog ages.
Or, more often than not most small businesses rely on existing customer word of mouth to generate new customer referrals.
Never mind wasting unbelievable amounts of money on local newspaper, Pennysaver ads, or 15 different yellow pages books that find their way immediately to the recycle bin. (more…)
by Chris Barnard | Sep 15, 2011 | Reviews and Citations
Not everybody can lay claim to waking up every day and making a successful living doing something they love.
If creating and sharing culinary creations is what your Carlsbad small business is all about, you already understand the tremendous value provided in nurturing and cultivating the online review.
From five-star foo foo joint to back alley eco-friendly food truck, people talk about their culinary experiences. (more…)
by Chris Barnard | Aug 26, 2011 | Digital Marketing
LinkedIn’s IPO went through the roof, Google rolled out their +1 social sharing functionality, Groupon was next up on the over-hyped stock watch, and the market as a whole is now exhibiting more volatility than a Philadelphia sporting event. 
And that’s just in the past couple of months or so.
“Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel…”
Is Bud Fox still #winning?
Charlie Sheen imdb references aside, even the most clueless Carlsbad businesses out there can glean some beneficial info from all of this social search, daily deals, and professional networking media buzz.
How does your business possibly keep up with all of this and try to use this information to your advantage?
By paying attention and by having your ear tuned-in to your customers.
Don’t Just Hear, Listen
If you don’t take an active role in the communication habits of your local customers, you can’t possibly know how to best reach them with important product info and beneficial local savings opportunities.
You need to find out their likes, dislikes, favorite ways to communicate, who they most often communicate with, where they go to do their communicating, and how your Carlsbad small business can get in on the conversation.
To make it really easy, you can just ask each customer how they’d feel about receiving discounts or product updates through their Facebook page. You can also ask your customers how your Twitter account can provide more helpful content and less inane BS.
And you can also direct local customers to your very own online review portal where they can easily and instantly beam positive digital word of mouth across your business’s social stratosphere.
You can even have local customers check-in on your Facebook Places or Foursquare profile to capture some additional discount or savings opportunities.
Talk straight to them, they’ll know if you’re not. 
The important point to remember here is that all of this communication is going on around your Carlsbad business, and it’s high time you throw a hat in the ring.
Sure there are pitfalls, like having someone leave a negative review or a competitor glomming onto your identity and squatting in your digital environment. But those things WILL happen, and they will happen regardless of your digital marketing IQ.
Customer word of mouth is probably your primary new customer recruitment source. That word of mouth has been increasingly going social, local, digital, mobile, and viral.
Digital word of mouth is the new Anacott Steel…and your customers love it!
Will your Carlsbad small business learn to love it, elicit it, capture it, and syndicate it to be socially searched and shared in your local online environment?
Snide remarks and scathing comments are always welcome, why is your business still straddling the fence with all this social media, local search, and digital marketing mumbo jumbo? 
To your immediate left you’ll find the status quo – is that good enough?
To the right is increased online practice visibility, amplified (digital) word of mouth, and improved search engine rankings for your website.
…And a thousand other tangible benefits we’ve repeated – and will continue to do so – ad nauseam.
In which direction is your Carlsbad small business planting its digital footprint?
Disclaimer: This post was originally published on July 25, we are re-posting now due to recent website issues.
by Chris Barnard | Aug 15, 2011 | Reviews and Citations
When local business owners discuss online reputation management, fear is often the overwhelming emotion communicated.
Fear about what our customers might say online about our business, fear masses of people will see a negative review and immediately launch a county-wide boycott of our services, or maybe just fear that we’re going to be found out – maybe we’ve been faking it with hopes of making it all this time.
Whatever our fear is about eliciting, collecting, and broadcasting digital word of mouth about our local businesses, one thing is certain; that fear can be paralyzing.
Our hopes with this post is to examine the fear we experience as local business owners, with regards to protecting and benefitting from our online reputation.
In this age of digital social connectivity it is of the utmost importance for us as local business owners to actively engage our customers. We need to welcome feedback, ask for assistance, and reward loyalty.
We need to be part of the conversation or we are missing a grand opportunity to capture the hearts and minds of our local communities.
Fear (noun) – a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.
Why Fear?
When it comes to our local online reputation, a lot of Carlsbad businesses are totally clueless on what the ‘Internet’ says about them. A lot of business owners dismiss the ‘Internet’ as a waste of money, or think they deal in the real world with people actually walking through their doors.
What these woefully unprepared business owners don’t realize is this; although people are definitely walking through the door, they’re also talking to each other online about your business. And the more business owners ignore the online aspect of their business – even if they sell nothing online per se – the fewer customers they’ll see.
Customers today really have the upper hand, they wield the power – and that’s the way it should be in free enterprise system!
What do we want, the corporations telling us what’s cool, what’s hot, what’s not…? (Don’t worry they’ll continue to do so)
We need not fear a customer broadcasting their innermost consumer experience to the masses. We need to welcome the digital social chatter, but that’s not all.
Fear should not be the underlying reason for us as business owners to not openly and effectively communicate with our customers. If bad word of mouth is what we fear, and that fear is preventing us from participating in the conversation, we’re not only doing ourselves a disservice, we’re also being unfair to our local community.
We’re also probably losing money and customers due to the factors responsible for triggering such frightening thoughts.
The people have a right to know what their consumer experience will be like when they choose your business, and whether you fear it or not they will go talk about it online.
To fear the online review is like fearing our own mortality…we can’t get away from it, and it will happen.
Now do we want to be able to put our socks on each day or would we rather remain a shut-in and stew on the inevitable.
You see, if we did that we’d miss out on life!
And if we continue to fear the online review, our local Carlsbad businesses will wither away and die.
Our customers will chat away on Facebook, yip on Yelp, or proselytize on Angieslist. We no longer have a choice, the paradigm has shifted.
How is your local Carlsbad business dealing with this shift toward digital word of mouth?
Disclaimer: This post was originally published on July 18, we are re-posting now due to recent website issues.
