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Google has once again proved that it is very serious about its relationship with business owners. Google recently announced that they will now allow businesses that have claimed their Google Places listings to respond to reviews. According to Google:

Starting today, if you’re a verified Google Places business owner, you can publicly respond to reviews written by Google Maps users on the Place Page for your business . . . For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially negative experience into a raving supporter. A simple thank you or a personal message can further reinforce a positive experience. Ultimately, business owner responses give you the opportunity to learn what you do well, what you can do better, and show your customers that you’re listening.

Google has even provided business owners with a guide and some helpful hints on how to respond to reviewers. However, Google Places does not allow business owners to respond to all reviews that appear on Google Place Pages, just those that are written by Google users directly at Google.

Google is not the first local search site to allow customers to respond to customer reviews. Many yellow page Web sites as well as Yelp and TripAdvisor have allowed business owners to respond to reviews for quite some time.

Still this illustrates that Google wishes to build direct relationships and deepen engagements with small business owners through Google Places.

For more information about local search engine optimization, contact KEO Marketing.

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Local search has become an extremely hot topic for e-commerce in Phoenix, similar to the uprising of Twitter and Facebook in the world of search engine optimization. Whether it is a question asked on Facebook, a restaurant you find on your cell phone or a general search on Google, local search has become all encompassing. Here is some evidence:

• Last year was the first year that local online advertising spending was projected to pass national online advertising spending ($12.34 billion vs. $11.39 billion, respectively), according to eMarketer.
• National brands are now focusing more on the leads they generate at the local level than the overall branding message they promote at the corporate level.
• Location-sensitive advertising on mobile is the biggest thing since sliced bread and will only continue to increase as more and more consumers get on smartphones.
• Bing Maps is implementing augmented reality within its search function so that users can see firsthand what businesses look and feel like.

Local search has taken awhile to take its place in the online world and the world of e-commerce in Phoenix, but with all the activity and potential, the future of local search will the world a smaller place. In order to properly use local search, Internet marketers as well as tradition marketers must implement programs that target where local search usage is today. They must also prepare for the future of local search, in which local search may take on a whole new meaning in our society.

For more information about e-commerce in Phoenix and local search’s past, present and future, contact KEO Marketing.

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According to “The CMO Survey” from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association (AMA), social media marketing budgets are continuing to grow.

Marketers already planned on increasing their social media spend in August 2009, and they have continued to increase them since then. Survey respondents in February 2010 claimed they will devote nearly one-fifth of their marketing budgets to social media in the next 5 years.

B2B social media spending is nearly even with B2C spending. According to the Survey, B2C services were behind the game in August 2009, spending in that area has caught up and will remain in line with other channels for the next several years. B2B product marketers will remain behind the curve over the next 5 years.

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