Developing a structured approach to consolidating, growing and evaluating your businesses online review profile is a smart move for businesses. This session presented to the Human Brochure 101 group provided simple tips for structuring and supporting a best practice online reviews program.

1. Online Reviews:
Human Brochure 101

3. www.threesides.com.au
www.Facebook.com/threesides
www.Twitter.com/threesides
www.slideshare.net/threesides

4. We help these businesses with their online marketing:
Old Bus Depot Markets
National Parks NSW - Whales
Retail 360
Campus Living Villages
Yass Valley Tourism
Sovereign Hill
DDCS family Lawyers
Trev’s café Dickson
(and more…)

5. Learning Outcomes
1. Develop channels to support and
encourage open online feedback and
reviews
2.Understand the digital do’s and don'ts of
feedback.

6. Word of mouth or reviews?
Word of mouth = unstructured chatter or
discussion
Reviews = structured and directed feedback,
opinion or insight

7. This is really people based advertising
The basics you need to continue here:
1. A Good product
2. Something worth talking about
3. A willingness to be involved
4. Your best customer service smile
5. A little bit of time and a lot of patience.

8. Earning consumer trust
is the holy grail of a
successful marketing
campaign

9. 84% of global respondents (across
58 countries) said
Word-of-mouth recommendations
from friends and family, are still the
most influential and the most
trustworthy. – Nielsen Sep 2013
Nielsen Global Survey of Trust in Advertising 2013 - http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2013/under-the-
influence-consumer-trust-in-advertising.html

10. 68% of people indicated that
they trust consumer opinions
posted online, which ranked third
in 2013, (up 7 percentage points
from 2007). – Nielsen Sep 2013
Nielsen Global Survey of Trust in Advertising 2013 - http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2013/under-the-
influence-consumer-trust-in-advertising.html

11. Reviews influence…
1. Potential buyers
2. The friends and family of past buyers
3. Search engines
4. Your brand
5. Other businesses opinion

12. DIGITAL TACTICS

13. Digital
Tactics
WEBSITE &
Content
LOCAL
Listings +
Content
Distribution
LINKS
connections
SEARCH
SEO/SEM
SALES &
Distribution
DIRECT
marketing
SOCIAL
Media
REVIEW
Sites
ONLINE
MARKETING
PLAN+ TACTICS
Digital
Footprint
Target
market
Plan + Tactics
Budget
Reporting

14. DEVELOPING
YOUR
REVIEWS PLAN

15. SUCCESS

16. 1. Find it
2. Claim
and
update it
3.
Respond
to it
4. Track it
5. Ask for
it
6.
Incentivise
and
reward it
7.
Evaluate it
7 Steps to ‘Online Review Success’
ConsolidateGrow
Start

17. Our case study

18. 1. FIND IT

19. Find where people talk
Google Tools
1. Search -
http://www.google.com.au/blogsearch
2. Analytics -
http://www.google.com.au/analytics/
3. Webmaster Tools (backlinks) -
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home
4. Google Alerts -
http://www.google.com.au/alerts

20. Search in the known hangouts
1. Trip advisor (Tourism / Hospitality)
2. Facebook places
3. Urban Spoon / Yelp
4. Riot Act
5. Directory sites – True Local / Start Local
6. Industry review sites (Restaurants)

21. Dig a bit further
7. Blogs
8. # Tags in Instagram and Twitter
9. Specialised Industry publications
(eg. Wedding Guides)

22. Google blog search

23. Monitor the web with Google Alerts
www.google.com/alerts

24. 2. CLAIM AND
UPDATE IT

25. Google Maps
https://www.google.com/local/business/add

26. Google +
https://plus.google.com/107732474173647565425/a
bout

27. http://www.google.com.au/business/placesforbusiness

31. Facebook Place (or Page)

32. Urban Spoon

33. https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Owners

34. Claim it (Steps)
1.Find the sites
2.Find the ‘claim button’
3.Register your details
4.Add the correct business details
and photos

35. 3. RESPOND TO IT

36. Should you
respond to every
review you get?
Respond to everything?

37. 1. All ‘static reviews’ should be responded to
2. Respond quickly to customer posts – good or bad
3. Be factual and stay calm – Maybe do it tomorrow?
4. Accept you can’t keep everyone happy
5. Take major issues offline or into private space
6. Ask them to contact you to follow up further
7. Say thankyou and encourage positivity
Review Response ‘Do’’s

38. 1. Negativity
2. Getting angry – being an A#*hole
3. Starting Arguments
4. Disclosing personal information of customers
5. Upselling
6. Slow responses
7. Talking about yourself
8. Inconsistency
9. Fake answers
Review Response ‘Don’ts’

39. Type of issue Response
Straight Problems –issue with your
product or service and person has laid
out exactly what went wrong.
Respond directly and quickly
Constructive Criticism - when the
comment comes with a suggestion
attached.
Respond and take on board
Merited Attack –Essentially, you or your
company did something wrong, and
someone is angry.
Respond , follow up, move offline if
necessary
Trolling/Spam –no valid reason for
being angry at you
Ignore, block, ban, report
Adapted from http://mashable.com/2010/02/21/deal-with-negative-feedback/
Negative response options

40. You choose how you respond
http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g255057-d287857-
Reviews-Capital_Executive_Apartment_Hotel_Canberra-
Canberra_Greater_Canberra_Australian_Capital.html

42. AVOID ONLINE ASTROTURFING
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

43. Online reviews ACCC Guide for Business
http://www.accc.gov.au/publications/online-reviews-a-guide-for-business-review-
platforms

44. 4. TRACK IT

45. Track it
1. List the sites in a spreadsheet
- track number of reviews
- score
- sentiment
2. Add to your browser favourites
3. Activate email alerts from sites
4. Periodically check in on sites (eg. 1 hr per month)

48. 5. ASK FOR IT

49. Ask for feedback
Pick your channel:
1. In person at the Point of Sale
2. At the register / in the store (flyer, sign)
3. Post purchase email
4. On social media
5. On your website (contact page /reviews
page)
6. Feedback Survey
(Be mindful of Soliciting feedback T+C’s and
ask for permission to selectively republish)

50. Website and email
http://www.lanternapartments.com.au/thredbo-info/reviews/

52. 6. INCENTIVISE AND
REWARD IT

53. Incentive guidelines
Incentives should only be offered in exchange for
reviews of your business if:
1. Incentives are offered equally to consumers likely to
be complimentary and consumers likely to be
critical, and positive and negative reviews are
treated the same
2. The reviewer is expressly told that the incentive is
available whether the review is positive or negative
3. The incentive is prominently disclosed to users who
rely on affected reviews

54. What’s your price?
What is your
feedback
worth?

55. Incentives and rewards
1. Delayed incentive (competition)
2. Repeat purchase (complete feedback for 10%
off your next visit)
3. Free return offer (complete feedback and get
something next time)
4. Pass it on offer
5. Value add at point of sale (what are your after
dinner mints?)

56. Flint competition

57. 7. EVALUATE IT

58. Get a handle on the numbers
1. Track feedback via channels (old vs
new)
2. Qualitative and Quantitative
3. Track sentiment - is it changing
4. Track Referral traffic - analytics
5. Track rankings

59. Online evaluation and tracking
http://analytics.google.com

61. Our case study

62. 1. Find it
2. Claim
and
update it
3.
Respond
to it
4. Track
it
5. Ask
for it
6.
Incentivi
se and
reward it
7.
Evaluate
it
7 Steps to ‘Online Review Success’
ConsolidateGrow

64. Stay In Touch
www. http://tourism.act.gov.au/
www.actdigitalenterprise.com.au
www.threesides.com.au
www.facebook.com/threesides
www.twitter.com/threesides
www.linkedin.com/company/threesides
www.slideshare.net/threesides
www.pinterest.com/threesidespins