by Chris Barnard | Mar 26, 2019 | Facebook
Facebook Reviews Are Now Recommendations
Back in August of 2018 Facebook announced several changes rolling out to business pages, with the reviews to recommendations change being one of the most discussed.
Facebook Business Pages have always been able to feature ratings and reviews from your customers, and people could always leave you a review.
So what’s changed?
Those reviews are now recommendations.
Reviews don’t exist in a 1-5 number rating anymore, now it’s more of a richer, personal experience.
Although the numerical star rating system is still displayed on your Facebook Page, that’s only for reviews & ratings you accrued before the change to Recommendations. (more…)
by Chris Barnard | Mar 7, 2019 | Google+
Google+ Is Done
Back in October of 2018 Google announced it was “sunsetting“ Google+ – their failed experiment of a social media platform – for consumers.
Despite how local businesses used Google+ or didn’t, the bottom line is that if you ever used it, whether personal or as your business, you’ll want to be aware of some things.
What Was Google Plus?
Google+ was Google’s failed attempt at a social media platform to rival Facebook.
It was originally the social component of what was then named Google+ Local and has since split from the Google+ package into the standalone Google My Business.
Confused again?
Good, then you’re getting Google. Don’t worry, the history lesson doesn’t matter. (more…)
by Chris Barnard | Sep 4, 2018 | Facebook
Facebook Marketing for Local Businesses
Facebook is one of – if not the – most popular social media platforms used by businesses of all sizes, local, regional, national, & interplanetary.
NASA, Elon Musk, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, & the USAF all have Facebook pages.
And so does the local car wash, your favorite burger joint, and most local businesses.
Your Facebook Business Page helps you promote and share exactly what it is about your business that has your customers happy to visit, return, review, & refer.
Despite recent updates to the News Feed, Facebook remains an essential marketing avenue & citation for every local business.
According to the Pew Research Center,
Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users (74%) access Facebook on a daily basis.
Facebook isn’t going anywhere, and your business needs to make it an integral part of your digital marketing stack.
So let’s start at the beginning, call it OCD or whatever, but I think that there’s no reason to waste time & money posting great content, promoting an event, or advertising if your Facebook page isn’t optimized in the first place.
Use this resource to make sure you’ve categorized your Facebook Business Page correctly, and taken care to optimize every factor possible so you can maximize your return on investment. (more…)
by Chris Barnard | Jun 19, 2018 | Facebook
Facebook’s News Feed Has Changed…Again
What do the recent News Feed updates mean for local businesses on Facebook?
Same shit, different day.
Really, and not really, depending on the quality & relevance of your Facebook content at present.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has announced changes to its News Feed, and it probably won’t be the last.
But there’s no need for local business owners on Facebook to panic. Adapt yes, panic no.
In the past few months since the announcement by Facebook of its News Feed updates, we’ve noticed little change in member business page engagement metrics – likes, reactions, comments, & shares.
More on that later.
Let’s first explore what changes to the Facebook News Feed business owners can expect to notice, why Facebook is doing it, and what you can do about it in order to continue using Facebook to achieve customer referral, review, retention & reactivation goals. (more…)
by Chris Barnard | Jun 23, 2014 | Google+, Local Search
Your Carlsbad Google+ Local Page Is Now Managed Via Google My Business
Google+ Local, Google Places, Google Maps…why can’t Carlsbad business owners simply have one unified dashboard to manage their presence across all of Google?
According to Google…Now you can!
Image courtesy of Blu-ray.com
Google is now in the process of updating all Google+ (and Google+ Local) pages to what will now don the moniker of “Google My Business.” This updated interface will act as a unified dashboard from which to manage your business page(s) and listing(s).
Let’s hope this one sticks, is bug free, easier to manager for business owners, and helps clean up the spammy listings polluting the local search ecosystem.
Remember, you can have both a Google+ Business page AND a Google+ Local page… (more…)
by Chris Barnard | May 11, 2014 | Twitter
Aside from the new advertising methods recently rolled out to the masses, Twitter can genuinely produce new customers for Carlsbad businesses consistently communicating beneficial info via the world’s most popular microblogging platform.
There’s Lead Generation Cards, Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets, & Website Cards. All advertising products Twitter offers to businesses interested in sniffing out some new customer acquisition via social media.
Think about it, your customers and local prospective customers probably spend more time on Twitter (and Facebook) than they do reading the newspaper, browsing your website, reading your direct mail piece, or thumbing through the Pennysaver.
New Customers From Twitter?
Yeah, that’s right – Twitter.
We’ll get into Twitter advertising choices for Carlsbad businesses looking to up their social PPC street cred in another post, for now we’ll just take a quick look at the fundamentals of using Twitter.
One of the biggest issues most businesses face is how to build their followers. (more…)