Do a good job and get good reviews. Simple, right?
Local Online Reviews for Entertainers
We’ve been doing it for quite a while. Online Reviews. You’ve heard the saying, “Everyone’s a critic.” Now with the internet, that statement is very true. With the push of a button, you can complain, rave, or meh any experience with somewhat impunity. You can Yelp, star, thumbs up (or down) and either make someone’s day, or burst their bubble.
Then there was the woman in Fort Worth who took it upon herself to maliciously defame a local photographer to the point of being party to a 6+ figure judgement in favor of the photographer. I guess the idea of impunity in your online reviews is not exactly true.
While most entertainers won’t be facing such harsh reactions, it is good to know what should be done with reviews, good and bad. Also, understanding how reviews can affect your site rankings will assist you in executing your online marketing strategy.
First, let’s take a look at the bad online review. Sometimes people will think that a 3 out of 5 stars is a bad review. Our egos may look at that as such, but remember that many online, anonymous reviews are quite subjective. And with that subjectivity, a 3 star review could be good. This type of reviewer probably never gives 5 stars. Additionally, without verbiage, it is sometimes difficult to judge if this an accurate assessment of the product or service.
If you get a bad review, you must respond. You have to have a disconnected, non-personal type of response. It should address specific issues brought up in a written review, but not make excuses. Mostly, you want to assure the reader of your response that you are aware of the issue and are or have taken steps to re-mediate the problem. There are more tips, tricks and details for this aspect, but those require a little more specific detail and not exactly the intent of this article.
Next, let’s look at positive or good online reviews. Like the bad review, you want to address any specifics of the review but generally express appreciation for the review, that you were able to provide a good experience, and the hope that they will want to “do it again.” It has been discovered that responding to reviews (not to mention GETTING reviews) appears to be one of the factors Google considers when placing local businesses on the maps that appear in search. For this reason alone you will want to make every effort to respond in particular to Google reviews, but also to others including but not limited to Facebook, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Thumbtack, Gig whatever and more.
This is not the end-all strategy for reviews. There are some companies that create complete departments just to watch social media for mentions about service and satisfaction. Next time you fly Southwest, tweet about a GREAT experience and you MIGHT get a little demonstration of appreciation. Just saying….
If you have questions about ranking, online reviews, and online marketing strategies, you can always contact me at Total Online Marketing, www.totalmagic.com/.
