LookupPage Blog | Professional Web Presence and Visibility

Best Selling Toy Needs Online Reputation Management

With the holiday season approaching fast, a best selling toy is facing a serious online reputation problem. A San Francisco based consumer lab named GoodGuide tested the Go Go Hamster, a furry hamster toy manufactured in China by Zhu Zhu and reached troubling results. The findings that GoodGuide reached was that one of the models of the toy contained a high level of Antimony on the toy's nose and hair, which may be linked to cancer, lung and heart problems.

The Go Go Hamster, a small hamster toy that squeaks and runs across the floor became a hit this holiday season partly because of its low price in a difficult economic period. It had already been marked as one of this season’s hottest toys. A speaker for Character Options the distributor of the toy in the UK said only a week ago that the company is expecting to sell north of 600,000 hamsters before the end of the year. The toy that became a hit partly because of its low retail price of £10 was picked up by speculators who assumed the toy would sell out and would fetch a higher price on eBay or Amazon.

Russ Hornsby, chief executive of the firm Cepia, said in a statement "We want to assure everyone already enjoying Mr. Squiggles or other Zhu Zhu Pets, and those planning to purchase Mr Squiggles or another Zhu Zhu Pet this holiday season, that the toy is 100% safe and in compliance with all US and European toy safety standards.” This statement on behalf of Zhu Zhu is a good start but the fact is that the Google Resume for the term Go Go Hamster is currently very negative

What can a business do if it is finds itself in an online reputation crisis?

Zhu Zhu would be smart to address the concerns of its customers in the most direct way possible. It would be of sound strategy to occupy themselves with the people who have already entrusted their children’s health with the company. By addressing the customer, the company is not only showing that it stands behind its product but also that it is thinking long-term and not only about short term sales for this coming holiday season. The company should follow what Comcast and Domino’s Pizza have done in the past and establish a twitter account so that people could contact the company directly and receive answers for their question. This would show the company is tackling the issue heads on and is not trying to bury the story.

 

What Is Retweet To Share Tweets (Twitter’s New Feature) ?

Twitter is testing out a new way for all of us to retweet the content we like. In the video at the bottom of the post, Chris Voss reviews the new feature that will soon be available to all Twitter users.

The new retweet button tracks who has retweeted your content and allows you to see it within the original tweet. It also saves you time by  presenting any tweets mentioning your name at the top of the screen as they occur so you no longer have to refresh the page or click on @yourname.

LookupPage was invited along for the beta testing of the new Retweet buttons and here are our reactions:

1. While we agree that the button completes the task of re-tweeting extremely fast, we wish we still had control over the message itself. Up until now, we could shrink the original message and insert something of our own into the retweet whether it is our opinion or summary. The new feature only allows for   a retweet of the entire message as is.

2. It is fair to assume people are going to be happy with the ability to hide someone else’s retweets. This is similar to an option that has long been around in Facebook If someone retweets a lot and you want a break from seeing them in your timeline, a single click will hide that person’s retweets all together.

Twitter is an excellent tool that helps quite a bit with establishing an online brand and generating business leads. LookupPage Blog has recently explored quite a few  aspects of twitter use that you are welcome to read:

What is Twitter and why following LookupPage on Twitter is a good idea

Twitter for business – Does it work ? 

NFL is wrong for going after twiitter use

Online Branding Tips: Get Designated Twitter Followers Using WeFollow

Marketing professionals do not often agree whole-heartedly with each other. One thing they would most certainly see eye to eye on is the importance of finding and targeting an engaged audience. Because the internet is practically endless in size, it is often difficult to find the exact audience that is interested in  what you have to say or the goods and services you wish to market on the web.

Twitter has become immensely popular in the past year and more businesse are using Twitter as a tool for improving their online presence as well as a networking mechanism. In order for a business to gain an engaged audience both in Twitter and in other social networks across the web, it needs to position itself within specific categories. Doing so would result in increased interaction with prospective clientele.

WeFollow is the invention of Digg founder Kevin Rose. It is a user directory for Twitter that allows each person or business listed in it to list themselves on the directory under five categories of interests and to include a location in the listing as well. Here at LookupPage, we are listed in WeFollow under the categories of Personal Branding, SEO, Google, Reputation and SEO expert. We feel that these categories represent some of the things we do extremely well online.    

WeFollow is very user friendly when it comes to tracking potential new followers, similarly to the way Digg lists the most popular stories in descending order, WeFollow lists each category separately with the most popular users for each topic in descending order, where the popularity of each user is determined based on the relevancy of his followers to the category (read more here). If you are already signed into your twitter account, adding new people to the list of whom you follow is easy as pie. 

Weekly Tips to Establish an Online Presence – Commenting

We often discuss how Google and other search engines aim to provide several kinds of results for each query it receives. The algorithm is more complex than what we are describing here but for the most part, it is safe to say that Google will try to find text, videos, images and presentations that are most relevant for every query and rank these results within the Google CV for this term. This is precisely the reason that brands and professionals who are engaged in personal branding and SEO strive to come up with alternating content in order to improve their online visibility.

Because of the fact that blogs are generating more traffic than ever before, search engines are competing to index blog posts quickly and efficiently. The outcome is that blog posts show up on blog search and web search often within minutes. Comments and conversations in those blog posts receive the same treatment from Google.

There are many advantages to commenting on a blog post. It creates an initial interaction between the writer of the post and the reader and at the same time, it is visible to other readers. If someone makes a valuable comment than he or she has essentially contributed valuable content to the post.

A professional who seeks to improve her online presence could benefit greatly from responding to a blog post dealing with an issue that she proficient in. People who are interested in the blog post will see her response and her web presence could grow as they might decide to add her to the list of who they follow on Twitter or look her up online. Most blogs currently allow comments to include a web link so if her response is impressive she may be able to get people to visit her site directly from the blog.  

Choosing which blog to post a comment in is important as well. Blogs that have been around for a while and have new posts on a regular basis, get indexed by search engine bots more frequently, thus increasing the chances of  indexation of both the comment the professional has made on the blog and the link to her website. 

 

 

Steps Comcast Should Take to Help its Online Reputation

Online reputation is somewhat of a buzz term these days as almost everyone is aware of its importance, but not everyone takes action to build and protect their brand reputation. The endless flow of online content (mainly due to sites like Youtube and Twitter) increases the chances of a celebrity or a brand to be effected by a bad review, an embarrassing video or any other negative press. A great example of the effect an individual can make on a brand using social media is Comcast.

A simple query on Google for the term “Comcast” yields several different types of results. As we have discussed in this blog before, Google prefers to offer varied results that include images, articles, videos and presentationsthat have to do with the search term. The number one video result conveniently positioned on the first page of Google is a YouTube video entitled “A Comcast Technician Sleeping on my Couch”.

It surprises us that Comcast who have made headlines recently when they discussed how Twitter has reformed the way they interact with customers, is either unaware of their negative online reputation or they are simply not doing anything to improve their Google CV. To make matters worse, a search for Comcast on Youtube is even more negative than a regular Google search. This is a major issue for Comcast because Youttube is an aggregator of public opinion. It uses video instead of 140 character tweets, but it is quite similar to Twitter yet Comcast is ignoring it.

What should Comcast do to improve their Google video search results?

Comcast needs to create similar presence on Youtube to the one they have on Twitter. If they opened up a channel on Youtube and started responding to some of the negative videos, they would be creating positive content that actually ranks on search engines and improves their online reputation. Other content such as funny ads Comcast created for television could also be used on this channel. Creating a channel on Youtube is free (although its maintenance isn’t), this is purely a strategy decision Comcast needs to make.

 

 

 

The NFL is Wrong for Going after Twitter Use

 The National Football league recently made headlines when it forbade the use of Twitter by journalists in the press box and by players during games. The NFL is making an effort to protect the organizations that have paid millions in order to have exclusive rights to report play-by-play accounts of each game. Threatening professional athletes with fines and suspensions for staying away from their jobs is understandable, asking journalists to not report what is going on in front of their eyes is unintelligent. 

Movie studios and record companies have tried to restrain technology in order to maintain their current business model and have failed miserably; it is unclear why the NFL feels that they would be successful where so many have failed before. In a recent blog post, we discussed why twitter is an effective tool for business. We feel that twitter is an excellent medium to engage an audience that is already interested and to interact further with this audience. Because Twitter has grown so much recently, it has become a great tool for building an online presence. If the NFL feels that people are less likely to listen to the game on the radio or buy season tickets just because there are play-by-play tweets online, they are simply mistaken. Twitter is providing the NFL (or almost any business for that matter) a great service.

The LookupPage Twitter account allows us to inform our audience in real time what we are dealing with. Professionals and businesses that are interested in online branding and visibility follow us because they know we provide relevant content ourselves and when we run across relevant content someone else came up with, we publish that as well while giving credit to the author. This is a great way to remain up-to-date, give people what they want and make sure they will stick with you. Try to restrain the flow of information now and you may find yourself losing business.

Domino's Pizza Still Needs Online Reputation Management

Six months have passed since the disturbing videos of employees at a Domino’s Pizza store in North Carolina surfaced on Youtube and other various video sharing sites . The videos show two employees breaking just about every health code violation possible while providing narration for the camera. The video, seen below, was viewed over a million times on Youtube before being taken off the website.

Disgusting Dominos People @ Yahoo! Video

Dominos Pizza reacted quickly by creating a channel on Youtube where the president Patrick Doyle addressed Dominos clients regarding this embarrassing issue. The company had also opened a new Twitter account especially for responding to comments made on this topic. Here is the response video:

This is a classic case of online crisis management, although Domino’s reacted quickly, they could have done a better job in executing their strategy. Coming up with a response video of Domino’s president especially for the web was a smart decision, as it made sense to address the actions of these employees on the very same medium the videos originated from.

The video was shot at a Domino’s store and it featured Patrick Doyle, Dominos president wearing a buttoned shirt with a Dominos logo on it. The fact that Doyle is clearly reading the statement and not looking into the camera, gives the video a “staged “ feel to it and  almost defeats the purpose of having him in the store to begin with. After all, Domino’s way of re assuring us is showing the president of the company is on location, and is heading the efforts to regain customer trust.

Another aspect of strategy in online reputation management that was overlooked in this case is analyzing how the story would be searched on Google a year later. The original employee video was called “disgusting Dominos people”. Dominos wanted the response video to come up on Google when people searched for the mischievous video, so they named it “Disgusting Dominos people – Domino’s Responds”. The trouble with that is six months down the line when searching for “Disgusting Dominos people” – the image of Domino’s president Patrick Doyle comes up. This is something that Domino’s could have easily avoided, placing a screen shot of the Domino’s logo in the beginning of the response video.

 

 

Twitter For Business – Does It Work?

When Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch was asked about the effects twitter has on his business he replied:

(1) “I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.”

We want to congratulate John for this answer. He is essentially hitting the nail on the head. It is simple enough to follow people and businesses you respect on Twitter, and if you run a legit operation most of them would follow you right back. Being able to address Twitterville with valid questions and receiving the opinions of respected professionals as a response, constitutes a great resource for feedback. All that is expected of you in return, is to follow basic courtesy rules and to get involved when being asked for your opinion as the interaction is reciprocal.

When it comes to traffic, Twitter takes the ordinary website and blog to the next level; people who introduce valuable content often get recognition by gaining more followers. The reason for that is once people realize that they have been exposed to valuable content, they do not want to risk missing the next great article.  

When a solid following has been built on Twitter, the business that is being followed could engage in self-promotion for marketing purposes. It is vital to do so carefully, so that followers would still find value in the content they are being provided and would not be deterred from remaining a follower.

When people feel that they gained important knowledge from one person’s tweets they go on and redistribute that information and that is called a Retweet. More often than not, the person who introduced the content to begin with gets the credit and gains additional followers. 

Many businesses would attest that although conversions cannot always be linked directly a specific tweet, the microblog is capable of significantly adding to the growth of a brand. Twitter makes the connection between customers and the business less formal, much faster and a lot of fun.

And let’s not forget the SEO value of a twitter account. Twitter enables you to add a link to business website, the more popular your twitter page is, the larger the amount of incoming links it will generate. This will enhance the search engine importance of your twitter page as well as your business website.

Here at LookupPage, we tweet quite a bit. We use Twitter to share content that we find valuable on issues such as online branding, web visibility and online reputation management. We also highlight our own blog posts on Twitter.Become a follower of LookupPage on Twitter now! 

Celebrity Twitter Of The Month – Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most influential women in the world. She is an Oscar nominated actress, magazine publisher and most of all she is known for her immensely successful self titled talk show which has become the highest rated television show of its kind in history. 

It may seem strange that a talk show host who is on the air for an hour a day, 5 times a week still wants to interact on a regular basis with her Twitter followers, but it actually makes sense. Oprah’s use of Twitter is not a replacement for the messages of self-improvement and advocacy of literature that she engages in on television but an addition to it. 

Because of the tremendous growth in popularity of the micro blog, other celebrities and talk show hosts have started using Twitter as well. Creating this interaction and involvement with the audience is smart marketing of a brand. The fact that Oprah has a daily TV show and puts out a magazine, does not allow her the informal direct contact she has with her followers on twitter. 

Using Twitter, Oprah was able to reach out to her audience and remind them she has nothing to do with Acai Berry diets that email marketers have been linking her name to as of late. She also Tweets about her daily activities, some of which are clearly promoting the sales of her magazine and the viewership of her show.

Oprah is such a popular entertainer that people are following her on twitter for the small personal comments she makes. If it so happens that she engages in self-promotion in some of those tweets it must be ok with her followers, otherwise it would be impossible to explain how she is being followed on Twitter by more than 2.3 million people. 

LookupPage is on Twitter as well. We tweet on issues regarding online branding, reputation management and social media, follow us today! 

“Retweet” Search Up Significantly In 2009

It has been reported earlier this year that Twitter is growing at a rate of 1,382%.

With more businesses and professionals using Twitter than ever before, search for the term “Retweet” has grown immensely.

What does it mean to retweet? To quote Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group, within the Twitter community a "Retweet" is a social gesture indicating endorsement of an idea. It also displays the power of word of mouth. We are more likely to pay attention to recommendations or ideas generated by our friends and colleagues than to information presented to us by strangers. A retweet coming from someone you know is more likely to get your attention.

How do you get people to retweet your stuff?

The absolute best way is to come up with content that will impress your reader. In late August, we wrote a case study about the lacking online reputation management of KFC restaurants. This blog post generated thousands of views in the following days. It also has been retweeted as late as two weeks after its publication.

Another way to increase the probability of a retweet is to engage in endorsing ideas that people who follow you post on Twitter by retweeting them. This is a form of “what goes around – comes around”. By paying respects to content they have put up online you could create a reciprocal relationship in which they promote your tweets.

You can follow LookupPage on Twitter and see for yourself 

Establishing Web Presence for SMBs

It seems that discussing the importance of establishing a web presence for a small or medium sized business currently would be redundant. Online presence for small companies is often more important than it is for large ones. The internet has made the world a smaller place. Many companies depend solely on their online presence in order to reach their prospective clients. 

Although the costs that businesses endure in order to create elaborate web sites are still high, when it comes to run of the mill online presence; the type that allows a company to show up when its name is searched on Google, the amount of time and effort that businesses need to put in has dropped dramatically. Online directories and social networks make it very simple for a business to create an online presence and improve the Google CV of a new business rapidly.

A good example is Twitter. If you have a Twitter account and have Googled yourself recently, you are aware of how much credit Twitter is getting from the biggest search engine out there. Businesses of all sizes have figured out that a business twitter account is very likely to rank on the first page results. 

In addition, Twitter can help your business to communicate better with your potential clients. Take for example the food truck service in major cities such as New York. Such services have become very popular in recent years since their overhead expenses are low and allow them to offer great prices on food. In order to establish and maintain their relationship with their customers they use Twitter perpetually. These trucks are on the go; they offer incentives such as coupon codes that would motivate their clients to connect with them online and use the web to inform their customers in regards to their physical location and current specials. One truck gives out a password online on a daily basis and customers who use the password when they order their food get a free dessert. 

Another way for a business to establish a web presence and open an additional line of communication with its customers is Facebook. We are learning that adults ages 35-44 are the fastest growing age group on the popular social network. This essentially means that any company that is using Facebook to target its customers is visible to more age groups than before. 

Creating a fan page on Facebook, enables a business to import an RSS feed from its blog, improve market research by being on the receiving end on highly valuable feedback from its clients and create a buzz for product launches and special promotions. 

Reputation Management Tips: Monitor Twitter Streams

Watching trends on Twitter has become even more important recently, as more businesses and individuals have turned to the popular microblog to tell the world about their daily activities and recommend content. For the people who are wondering exactly what the advantages of monitoring streams we offer the following:

1.No matter if you are tweeting for your friends, your business, or your employer you can use monitoring of Twitter streams to figure out what kind of content is being passed around or retweeted the most. This will help in defining the type of content you will come up with when trying to increase your following.

2.The saying “what goes around – comes around “is incredibly true with Twitter; If you decide to retweet someone else’s content that action may be reciprocated more quickly than you might anticipate. Even more importantly, the fact that a business cares enough about your tweets in order to re publish them to his or her group of followers indicates that professionally you have things in common and that may lead to business collaborations down the road.

3.If your business has a blog, it is vital for you to be up to speed with current trends and major stories in your field. That is the only way your blog will continue to be relevant. By monitoring key terms on twitter, one can have an initial indication on breaking stories and the reactions to those stories.

To monitor your stream or the LookupPage stream simply click the bottom right “RSS feed” link on your Twitter page.