5 Predictions About the Growing Power of Online Customer Reviews

We all do it – routinely sort through search results by customer star ratings and scroll through buyer feedback before making a final shopping decision.

It’s no secret the way consumers make decisions has dramatically changed from over the last decade. We stand in stores, use our smartphones to compare prices and product reviews. Family and friends instantly weigh in via social media. When we are ready to buy, an ever-growing list of online retailers deliver products directly to our homes, sometimes even on the same day.

With the advent of social media and constant updates, image sharing and online peer recommendations, it’s unsurprising that 61 percent of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision, according to recent surveys. After all, reviews provide a first stop for any potential customer to understand a product from a consumer point of view, delivering honest and impartial insight from peers.

With reviews already such an important part of the buying process, it’s easy to see how reliance on them will only increase in the future. According to Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report, online consumer reviews are already the second most trusted source of brand information and messaging, with 70 percent of global consumers indicating they trust online reviews, an increase of 15 percent in four years.

Some industry observers predict that retail will change more in the next five years than it has over the past century, and that the extinction of brick-and-mortar stores isn’t far off. While the shift may be a bit less dramatic than predictions claim, big changes are definitely inevitable. Retailers must act now to win in the long term.

For example, over the next few years, we can expect to see the anonymity of reviews fade away and instead become linked to shoppers’ real identities on Facebook, Twitter or other social integration. This will be beneficial for both retailers and consumers. It add a layer of credibility, rather than allowing chronic complainers to hide behind anonymous usernames,and provide an interactive connection through which merchants can engage with valuable customers.

So, how can merchants evolve moving forward to support the ever-growing demand for reviews and efficiently manage the process? The following are several predictions we think retailers will need to fully understand in order to be prepared for evolving consumer buying.

1) All reviews will eventually be linked to social networks. The era of anonymous reviews is quickly coming to a close. In the future, anonymous reviews will be obsolete. While it's pretty uncommon now, in the future consumers will only value reviews they can tell are from real, trustworthy shoppers. They'll be able to check on their validity by clicking through to the reviewer's social profiles.

2) Shoppers will turn to their friends’ reviews first. Because reviews will be easily visible on social networks, shoppers will first turn to their friends to read their reviews before checking reviews from complete strangers. Think about it: You know your friend, Sarah, is an avid photographer who knows a lot about cameras. You will check out her reviews before you visit the product page.

3) Reviews will be aggregated by reviewer. In other words, you'll be able to click on your friend Sarah’s profile and see that she's a 32-year-old mom, lives in Chicago and considers herself an amateur photographer. Then, you'll be able to see all of the reviews Sarah has written online, no matter the store, site or service.

4) Reviews will be personalized. Because both the reviewer and the review-reader's information will be available online, reviews of the future will be personally tailored to each reader. The same way Google Ads and Facebook ads are already delivered to us based on what Google and Facebook know about our preferences, reviews in the future will pop up based on a similar approach. Reviews from people with similar interests will show up.

5) All formats will become compatible. Currently, depending on where you are writing reviews, there are numerous formats and kinds of information required. For example, some websites allow for video reviews, while some only look for a star rating. In the future, websites will continue to ‘get smarter’ about extracting the most important information from any type of customer review, so shoppers can get a true "snapshot." This will become especially important as websites accumulate more and more reviews. Shoppers don’t want to sit and read through 2,000 reviews.

As the value of reviews becomes more prevalent, merchants must take a more active role in the review process. Right now, only about 13 percent of small-business owners actively invest in online reviews. That must change quickly to keep pace with consumer demand. Not only will merchants need to make a more concerted effort to solicit reviews, but also respond to both negative and positive reviews, perhaps even offering rewards to reviewers who offer valuable insight into their buying or product use experience.

As marketers and business owners, it is sometimes difficult to step out of the role as budget manager and chief efficiency officer. As a result, anything that looks like added time investment may automatically be deemed impossible, especially when so many managers are already overworked and overextended. However, moving forward, it’s critical for retailers to look at customer reviews from the perspective of the consumer. Keeping pace with expectations in providing customer reviews is going to be absolutely essential to survival in the modern e-commerce era.

Chances are that you rely heavily on reviews in making your own purchase decisions. Why wouldn’t you expect your customers to do the same?

Article curated from Entrepreneur

Grow Your Online Business Without Depending Exclusively on Google

 

We hear a lot of scary stories about businesses going (almost) bankrupt after losing Google traffic. Some publishers are also voicing concerns over their dependence on Google. But how easy is it to not depend on it?

When Google traffic starts coming, it often monopolizes your traffic sources. Search traffic converts better than any other type of traffic, thanks to intent. People search for exactly what they want to read or buy. It usually flows in on a continuous basis without you having to necessarily do anything to drive people in on a daily basis.


I've seen businesses that were forced to expand once Google traffic started coming. That put them into Google dependency mode. However, even if we put Google penalty arguments aside (you are not supposed to be hit unless you've done something wrong, right?), depending on one source of traffic is neither reliable nor wise overall.
Is there a way not to rely on Google traffic while still growing your business online? The answer is mostly "it depends" but one thing is clear. It's time that we all started to diversify our online efforts:

1. Discover more traffic sources. Google traffic used to be quite easy and fast to earn: It spoiled us. Achieving top positions in Google has been a major digital marketing objective for too long. Now it's time to get back to basics: You should never put all eggs into one basket.

These alternative traffic sources can vary depending on the niche. Yes, you need to get creative but opportunities are endless. Here are quite a few ways to build traffic (some of them can be applied to almost any industry such as becoming a case study or getting interviewed). There are lots of other ways.

Pinterest has proved to be one of the best-converting traffic sources especially in food, travel, home improvement, DIY and related industries. SlideShare is an efficient traffic source in the marketing and technology niches. Investing in Facebook advertising is really effective in most niches.

Here's one quick recipe from someone who has decided not to depend on Google traffic from day one. BizEpic.com is just 10 weeks old and it's now averaging around 400 visits/day. The average is rising steadily on month-to-month comparison basis. Google traffic only accounts for about six percent. The majority of traffic is coming from social media. Their tactics include:

• Focus on the "interestingness" of the topic and the headlines.
• They post often, about four to five posts a day and spread around the clock.
• They are growing followers on their Facebook fan page.
• Large, interesting images.
• A focus on social media promotion in Google Plus, LinkedIn groups, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, StumpleUpon, etc

Again, there's no recipe for every website looking to diversify traffic sources but the above experiment is a good example of a possible strategy that has been proven to work.


2. One word: Balance! Telling anyone to simply break up with Google would be poor advice. You can't just absolutely ignore it but you can balance and diversify. When it comes to SEO, I think this is how it has evolved:

Before: Trying to get referral traffic from Google within three months of a site’s launch. Now: Discover different channels and possibilities, build trust and brand while doing your fundamental SEO homework and waiting for search engine traffic to start coming naturally.

Investing in your in-house assets can help you grow diverse traffic sources:

• Develop high-quality content assets to attract backlinks, social media shares and traffic. Many types of traffic (word-of-mouth traffic, for example) are almost impossible unless you have great content to attract shares and re-shares.
• Invest in social media advertising. In some industries social media ads out-perform Google ads. Besides, social media advertising grows your following which means it helps in the long run as well. Experimenting with newer social media solutions such as Klout Perks is a smart idea. Invest in content promotion advertising, such as StumbleUpon promoted stories and Reddit ads, if you have good content to get picked up there. Social media dashboards such as Cyfe and Sendible make monitoring results much easier.
• Grow your own email list. Sending regular email newsletters can become your own independent source of traffic and conversions. Besides, it can also be used to boost your social media advertising efforts.

3. Value what you have. There's one advantage in Google traffic becoming harder to get and to keep. We are forced to value what we have. Ultimately, traffic is not such a huge issue. The important thing is how well it converts or, to put it more pro-actively, how much effort you put into converting it.

In this respect, I like this case study describing a penalized website and how the owner, thanks to the Google penalty, had to re-think its whole digital strategy to survive. This unfortunate setback taught me a valuable lesson. Relying so much on organic Google rankings was putting us entirely at the whims of a company that is beyond our control. Our only option was to focus on other areas, specifically, achieving higher conversion rates.
Additionally, we amped up loyalty marketing by implementing personalized follow-up calls and e-mails for all of our clients based on the ideal time for each one  to reorder. To sum up this last point, here are some things you may want to start doing:

• Build your micro-community and turn your customers into brand advocates. Developing relationships with customers is an art but one that has proved to be very rewarding!
• Invest in usability assessments and stop losing visitors! A long time ago I had a very good experience with usertesting.com
• Don't get fixated on only one type of conversions. Your paying customers are not the only people who matter! Collect leads and develop your relationships with anyone who has expressed interest in your site. If anyone ever shares your message or defends your reputation online, that is a priceless outcome!

Article curated from Entrepreneur

Foursquare kills check-in feature in app overhaul

Foursquare, the app known for letting users check into places, no longer lets users check into places -- yes, you read that right.

The New York City startup released a major revision to its app Wednesday that does not include the check-in feature. Instead, the revamped app is designed to help users discover new places to visit according to their individual tastes.

The new Foursquare gives users "personalized local search" results by learning their preferences. When searching for nearby places, results will be based on their tastes and the tastes of friends.

"If you love vintage clothing, it should tell you that there is a hidden gem nearby. If you’re in a new city, it should tell you that your friend Katy highly recommends this hole-in-the-wall restaurant downtown," Foursquare said in a blog.

Fittingly, Foursquare's logo is no longer a checkmark. Instead, the 5-year-old company now boasts a pink and white uppercase "F" stylized to look like both a map pin and a superhero emblem.

"We’ve always thought of Foursquare as giving you superpowers to explore your city, and our new logo reflects that vision," Foursquare said.

After launching in 2009, Foursquare was one of the most popular social networks, but after others added similar check-in features (notably Facebook in 2010), the startup struggled to remain relevant and lost many users.
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The company is hoping 2014 is its comeback year. Since December, it has raised $50 million, which has been used for the development of the revamped Foursquare app and Swarm, a new app launched in May. Swarm is a geo-location-based social network and has inherited many of the social aspects that have been stripped from the Foursquare app, including check-ins, mayorships and the feed showing what one's friends are up to.

So far, Swarm has experienced high user growth, Foursquare says. "It’s been pretty intense keeping up with the growth (Foursquare didn’t have that many users for a few years), and you guys have sent a ton of feedback," the company said, in a blog detailing some upcoming features for Swarm. 

Article curated from LA Times

Google to give more weight to encrypted websites in search results

Following reports of a Russian ring of hackers who stole more than a billion online logins and passwords from vulnerable websites, Google has announced that its search service will give higher priority to websites that use encrypted connections to keep their online visitors secure. 

Other factors, such as the quality of content on a website, still hold far more weight when it comes to search results, but going forward, Google said websites with Hyptertext Transfer Protocol Secure connections, or HTTPS, will get slight boosts in their rankings. 

HTTPS encrypts the link between a user's computer and a website's servers, making it harder for hackers to break into the connection and steal valuable information, such as a person's credit card information while they are on a shopping website.

Many major websites already use HTTPS connections, including Twitter, Facebook and almost every bank, but most other websites continue to use HTTP.

Google's announcement may prod more websites to adopt HTTPS connections, said Tom DeSot, chief information officer of Digital Defense, a cybersecurity company.

"Google pushing it is good because of the clout they have in the industry,” DeSot said. “The people that are in charge of search engine optimization, they will pay a lot of attention to this.”

The adoption of HTTPS is a win for Web surfers, but it could prove to be costly for website owners. DeSot said larger companies may have to significantly invest in new technologies so they can enable HTTPS on their websites and all websites will have to purchase annual certificates to enable this security layer.

“There is going to be a business cost to it,” he said. 

Article curated from LA Times

On Social Networks, Engagement Is Becoming The Metric That Matters

 

While previously the race among social networks was for users, now engagement is becoming an increasingly important metric.
Social media takes up a huge amount of time-spend, particularly on mobile, and major properties increasingly want to carve out a bigger slice of that total.

How much time users spend on each social network and how engaged and interactive they are with content there are increasingly important ways of evaluating the sites, both for the social networks themselves and for businesses and advertisers looking at where to devote time and resources.

In a recent report, BI Intelligence calculates an Engagement Index for top major social networks and compares their performance in terms of time-spend per-user on desktop and mobile. We also look at how the different top activities on social media — photo-sharing, status updates, etc. — are indexing in terms of activity, and which sites drive the highest volume in each category.

Article curated from Business Insider