When you’re considering working with a new company for the first time, it pays to do your research. Getting a referral from someone who’s used their service may be the best way to find about a new company, but what if you don’t know anyone who’s used them? This is a common situation, and explains the popularity of the many review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and others. They create a database of reviews from thousands of people on thousands of companies, and put the results at your fingertips.
As these sites have grown, so has their importance to the companies being reviewed. Having many reviews gives a tangible quality to a business’ reputation. Good reviews may be the major driver of clientele for businesses like restaurants, barbers, or bookstores. Search engines like Google use the number and strength of reviews as a factor in determining the order businesses are ranked on search pages, and if you are bumped to the second search page you may never be found. For these and other reasons, on-line reviews have become the lifeblood of many small and medium sized businesses.
Each review site is a little different. Google used to use the total reviews from all sites to determine rankings; but because it now just uses the reviews from Google Places these reviews are particularly important. Sites like Yelp (one of our personal favorites) are free to use, and cover a wide range of companies. Angies List is a paid-subscription site, so you have to be a member to read or write reviews. Citysearch and Yahoo Local specialize in reviews about your immediate area. Sites like Car Talk or BBB cater to individual niches.
Another tidal wave of word-of-mouth referrals comes from social media like Facebook and Twitter. While these platforms don’t have the long-term staying power of the review sites, they have more immediacy and credibility. If you post “Anyone know a good dentist?” on your wall and one of your friends responds, you know you’ll take that recommendation seriously.
This month, we’d like to ask you to consider posting a review of your favorite business. Please pick TWO places you love (it would be great if one of them was Tom Dwyer Automotive, but please pick someone else as well) and tell the world about them, either through a review site or on social media. It’s quick, easy, and as you’ll quickly find out, lots of fun. Just click one of the links below to get started, and thank you!
(Click here for a video on “How to write a Google review in less tha 1 minute 30 seconds)
