Life, Local and the Pursuit of Advertising; My experience growing a local online guide.

I love the towns we operate in. They all have so much going on, lots of great people and a sense of civic pride that makes them fun to live in, and fun to visit. And I love our websites. As we’ve grown and are now in our 4th iteration of our websites, I have seen so much change. Yelp started the same month we did (no need to make fun, I know how the two tracks look ), but more than Yelp, it was the start of user reviews, user generated content and the truly social web. I hate the term Web 2.0 more and more, it really is a good term for it, however it has become such a buzzword that only people who missed what the last 3 years online were about are using it.

The internet provides such a great platform for people to share their thoughts and ideas. Photos videos, reviews - who ever thought we would care so much about what other people had to say, I mean the 90’s was all about “whatever” and “as if”. Well I guess now people are talking to their friends online rather than to the hand, which is probably a good thing. But the web today is all about different ways of sharing content. People keep creating new ways of sharing it, of creating it and of consuming it. Its really exciting.

Running a small business is really tough these days. I see it every day establishments go out of business, our customers tell us their woes and people are spending less when they go out. But you run into those people who are making the best of it, being happy and enjoying a positive outlook. I don’t even know what this post is about really, I’m just really excited about things today. Being as I am bipolar I will probably be miserable next week, but today I’m psyched.

We’re launching a bunch of great features over the next few weeks, alot of things are finally getting settled. And of course we’ve had 5 days in a row of sunshine. That never hurt anyone

There seems to be an interesting problem developing that most of the major SEO firms, organizations and analysts are missing - difficulty of inclusion. Its the term I’m giving to the amount of steps, and relative difficulty that it takes to get your business listed on major search engines and in local directories.

I’m going to outline some of the problems small businesses face, although not complete, but this is what I’m working on trying to fix every day.

• Local Business Databases - We have tried and used several different data providers. (ALL of the big ones) and unless you are using an extremely complicated importing script and combining every single database you can muster you are going to have an embarrasingly incomplete database. Yelp does a very good job including everything it can, but it still isn’t perfect. And thats just my problem as a publisher. There are hundreds of thousands of small businesses missing from all these databases, and that means they aren’t getting found online. At all. If I am opening a new business, or I have a business thats been around for years, I have to first make sure that I am being included in these data lists before I can even start to think about optimizing my listings. The folks at getlisted.org are doing a cool thing, but I’ve yet to come across anyone who is using it (and our company doesn’t get updates from getlisted and we have 900k businesses listed across our network - why is that ?) The small business world needs a uniquitous listing solution across all possible local listings - an openID for small businesses if you will.
• Learning - I am Joe the Plumber, I have a fleet of trucks, I have insurance on those trucks, I have 12 employees, I have workers compensation insurance, I have tools, I have angry customers, I have happy customers, My boiler just broke and my kids want new tricycles. I have a ridiculous amount of stuff going on in my life and I just found out when you search for plumbers in MyTown my competition gets 80% of the phone calls. WTF? What do I do now? I could spend a few hours scowering the internet and reading blogs about how to set up my LBC listing on Google and in Yahoo, and submit to GetListed. (there are alot of great resources out there) But if I don’t know these blogs, its gonna take me a couple hours just to find them, then its gonna take some time to find the article I need. It could take just a few minutes, but if I’m still using my hotmail account I probably don’t know what a blog even really is. And I have a long way to go if I don’t know what a blog is. Quick reality check for all you local search bloggers, the average small business owner still doesn’t have a website, heard about twitter on cnn, reads the local newspaper and is 47. Sure my generation has grown up with basic knowlege of the internet but if the internet is a foreign world to you, how are you going to succeed in it. You won’t make a very good French diplomat if you can’t speak French We need easier tools, and better knowledge bases for small business owners. Again, more ubiquity
• Depth vs Breadth - I want to be listed first in google, first in yahoo and on every local search directory that is applicable. In the yellow pages world, all I have to do is spend more money and buy the biggest add. Boom, more business than I can handle.  In the Google world, there is soo much more that needs to be done to succeed. You need quality relevant content, you need links, you need a good domain name, you need all of these other factors, many of which you can’t just buy. And thats just Google. There are whole lists compiled of what to do for each search engine. I can spend many days and go down the checklist for just one. There is so much to do.
• Options - If you give a person 12 options they’re more likely to pick none. There are too many places to advertise, there are too many places to start. First you have to pick one, and then you get going. There needs to be a uniquitous place to start, a local search center. Getlisted again is that idea, but they aren’t executing and how can they if noone esle is observing this problem (or atleast thinking about solving it).

Lastly, I as a consumer find it so frustrating when I can’t find the business I am looking for. I want their phone number, I want their menu, do they sell what I want and can I trust them? If i’m a restaurant in NYC I better be damn sure I’m monitoring my Yelp reviews and encouraging my patrons to “give me some love” But if I’m in Maine or North Carolina, where do I start? That problem exists and at some point we are going to have to solve it. Google is just going to scour the internet, or use a third party data set. Yelp just compiles data sets. But if the business I want isn’t in that data set, im screwed. We need local people to ensure data accuracy and completion. Otherwise businesses will fall through the cracks and that obviously hurts the business involved, but it also hurts us consumers. Because if the little shop that sells the computer bag I want is 2 miles away but It doesn’t come up in google for that term, and nothing else does, I’m not going to buy the bag I want - from anyone.

I’ve been extremly busy for the past few months, and I haven’t really had time to post here. I’m sorry to have neglected you for so long, but I’ll be back one of these days

Dear Small Business Owner,

We are going to service the heck out of you. We are helping you learn how to set up a facebook profile, we are promoting your events and we are allowing you to twitter directly from your account with us.

If you like service, knoweldgeable and friendly service, call us. We are here to help you.

Best,

- Jamie

Cranking out the old iTunes Library I came across this oldie but goodie. I used to listen to this song in my neighbors attic on a little tape player alarm clock thing.

Fee by Phish

Thats what they need. Love is all they need.

Show small businesses some love, show them your marketing will work for them and then show them some more love. There are so many hawkish businesses out there out to grab a dime (not steal, just take) without being grateful. We operate with the idea that our customers make our business run and that we should be thankful and grateful.

Times like these, everyone can use a hug. OK, maybe you don’t have to actually hug them, but let your clients know you are their for them.

An old one, but many might not know it:

“Delicious” by ZOX

Don’t tell me you don’t love electric violin…

I was in the gym today and Fox News was on. I’m a hating fan of Bill O’Reilly (the guys an idiot but hes so awesome). But Hannity came on next and I just cant stand him. He is so negative. He opened the nights news with an announcement that appeared like it was daily. “Today was day 35 of False Hope and No Change” REALLY? Can you not support the President of our country now!? After spending 8 years bashing anyone who critized Bush for “being unpatriotic.” I digress…

People are too Negative these days. It affects the way we work, the way we think and the way we interact with each other. Our moods are down, and they rub off on other people.  This article on LifeOptimizer.org (what a sick name) goes into the details of why you shouldn’t watch the news too often. This isn’t news to me, and it came out a few days ago, but it brought some thought to me today. I had a great day, I cleaned my inbox out, got my list done entirely before noon - it was great. I didn’t check the news or twitter all afternoon becuase I was so busy. And I’m psyched I didn’t.

The market tanked again today. Theres nothing I can do about it, so there is no reason to worry about it. Of course there are lots of reasons why I should, but they are all worrisome, depressing thoughts. Lets just call this a recession, realize it sucks and stop sh*tting on ourselves everytime bad news breaks.

Or maybe we could just ignore the news for a few days and relax. Gain some inner wa.

I find google maps local business search to be utterly useless. Time and again, I enter a local business term and I find nothing that is usefull to me. For example, this afternoon I wanted to cruise into Greenwich, CT and do some work in a nice locally owned coffee shop (ie NOT starbucks). A quick Google resulted in this:  http://bit.ly/19UmsA, the first 10 listings in google were totally useless to me, none of them even deserved a click. So I went with the Local Maps. Also useless; I had heard of a place I was trying to find and it wasn’t there.

Alas, I was forced to use Yelp. I like Yelp, its a great service but I never use it.  Here is the search results I got in yelp: http://bit.ly/Cyd5D. Great results, I found the business I was looking for and there were about a dozen additional businesses that were in Yelp’s data compared to Google’s. Here is another good example of why Marty Himmelstein doesn’t know what he is talking about when he says SEO doesn’t matter.  As good a job as Yelp has done with SEO, they should be showing up in this search term. Apparently Google didn’t think they content on Yelp directly related to my search was important enough. Great SEO would have placed the most relevant results in front of me on the top of the first page. Great SEO wouldn’t need me to type in a website directly becuase it would deliver them to me when I ask.

For all you local search businesses out there, keep going. Google isn’t doing local well and unless they decide to focus on it (please dont, please, please!) they aren’t going to. Matt Cutts, if you read this don’t get any ideas

The lesson from this is: SEO is absolutely priceless. And if you aren’t doing it, or you are harping against its value you will be riding a sinking ship into the horizon.

What are your experiences with Google Maps Local (as a consumer)?

There has been a lot of chatter about local business data recently in the local blogosphere. (Here and here ) I’m in the business of local business data and I agree it sucks. I spent this week at Search Marketing Expo attending sessions from some of the best in the business and the search engines themselves. And what I realized is that everyone is just trying to create a technology that will eliminate personal interaction and direct updates.

There is no one size fits all anwer to the local data question. How do local businesses represent themselves online. Well first you need to educate them on why they should be online. (here’s a good resource for education) If they know they need to be online chances are, they don’t know where to start. They don’t know where to start. Some have ideas, some have misgivings and some are misguided. One of the biggest problems I find is that there were people that came to them in 2003 and told them they were the next big thing. Small businesses paid up and never heard from these guys again. They are weary and rightfully so. Today there are about a hundred local search options out there, thousands if you incorporate all the offline media they could be buying.

The real query that hasn’t been indexed is how do you gain trust, build a really SOLID local business database and make money while doing this all. Not an easy question. Automation is nice, but you aren’t going to get a bar owner to self-service, not in 2009, maybe not in 2012 - maybe not for along time. The issue is time and ROI and trust. Small businesses don’t want to waste their money on advertising, but they know they need to advertise so they are willing to do that. What they really don’t want to waste is their time.

So if you are venturing into the local search space, you need to recognize one thing. These guys are busy and they are afraid to try new things. If there is one thing thats on our side though, its the fact that they can’t keep justifying increasing print rates with declining circulation and escalating printing costs. So they are going to have to try new things. Alot of companies charge for customer support, so why can’t you? Because you don’t have it.

No algorithm will ever replace handshakes and personal contacts. Walk your prospective clients through your product, educate them on why its valuable and you’ve got a client. Give them a self service portal that injects their business into a Live Nation infested noise fest, they’ll never take action.

Moral being, talk to your customers.  Be there for them. The web is strange enough for these old tymers don’t be a full voicemail box and an anonymous email. Be a person, don’t forget - they’re people too.