Google recently rolled out their latest service called Google hotpot which has the ability to either harm or benefit your business.
Potential customers will use Google Hotpot to connect with their friends and family to find out the right places to go near to them by simply searching for a local based service.
Users will log on, locate themselves and then use social based recommendations to find a solution to their need. People will then naturally give their rating or opinion of your service.
So where does this leave you? How can you lever it? How can you protect yourself ?
Well first things first, if Twitter didn’t make you improve on customer service then google hotpot certainly should.
The web has changed and there is ever more ‘power to the people’ then before.
Make sure to keep your customers happy or run the risk of having more negative exposure than ever before.
There are a few simple ways of using google Hotpot to benefit your business to not only gain more publicity but also as a mechanism to engage with your customers.
Publish
Publish your business first. That way you can control whats up there from the outset and you can use this space to upload quality photographs, sneaky marketing materials and special offers about you and your company.
Promote
One of the major benefits of the using sites like Google hotpot or any social based web 2.0 site is the ability to generate multi rankings in the search engines. Google Hotpot wont be any different and you can guarantee that not before long, keyword optimized listings will rank well in the search engines giving you more free exposure to your brand and you can start taking traffic from your competitors in one foul swoop.
Make sure to get a “Recommended on Google” sticker for your window or create some internal promotional materials to publicize your listing. Pinching some of Google’s authority isn’t going to do you any harm after all…
Connect
Make sure to find local people already using the service that you can connect with. They will soon look you up if you do, and if you have done your listing properly they will give you positive ratings (in return for some incentive of course).Use their ‘Add Friends Feature’ to get started.
Lead
Don’t wait for them to write a review, encourage them to do so. Simply run a special special discount offer for anyone that writes a review about your brand. Maybe put something on the receipt, the menu or your business card that contains a clear and simple call to action to go and rate your listing.
Listen
Don’t get angry if people do write a negative comment. Look at this as a blessing and improve on whats been said. Offer the user a free gift to amend the situation and encourage them then to write a more positive review about you.
Optimize
The results do not display alphabetically, create a listing, then create a second one for another business. Compare the rankings and tweak accordingly to make sure you can get to pole position. We are running tests on this as we speak and will publish our findings as soon as we have solid data to gain an opinion from.
All in all it’s yet another great tool from google that you can use to save money and increase marketing channels.
Click here to visit Google Hotpot
