Local Businesses - Blog or Not?

Mike Manual at Media Guerrilla wrote an interesting and provocative post today in which he advocates Yahoo! Local and Google Local over blogging for small businesses. This is surprising coming from a blogger.

I disagree with Mike and suspect that he does not really understand what a blog can do for a small business, or perhaps the profile of his typical client is quite different from mine.

Mike advocates encouraging your customers to share their experiences with your business in local search engines like Yahoo! Local or Google Local. There is no doubt that a bunch of positive reviews about your business on a local search engine will help. Nothing is as powerful as word-of-mouth advertising. Does the number of reviews at local.google.com affect your Google rankings? I don't know. Getting clients to actually spend the time and energy to write and post a review is a problem.

And you're going to have to take the bad with the good. You don't have control over what gets published about you on Yahoo! Local or Google Local, but you do have control of the testimonials you publish on your website and your blog, and you can respond.

Influential People Read the Blogosphere

The mainstream media folks read and monitor the blogosphere. A single thoughtful blog post on a controversial subject can result in a whole lot of exposure in the mainstream media. I don't think you can say that about local search engine listings.

Free Exposure

While the local search engine reviews do give you some exposure, a blog is your best option for having your own words heard.

If you are a consultant who has amassed years of experience in your field, no one can showcase that better that you. A local search engine listing is no match for a blog in this regard. A blog allows your potential clients to gain an appreciation for the bredth and depth of your experience and knowledge. The idea situation is to educate your potential customers to the point where they realize that they need help and you are very qualified to give it.

What can you do about those negative reviews on the local search engine? Not much. A negative review (in the form of a comment) on your blog gives you a chance to respond. I recently told one client that he should pray for a negative comment because it would present him with a golden opportunity to show the world how he responds.

Humanize and Build Trust

Your business is built upon relationships. Your clients don't do business with your company, they do business with you. A blog is a wonderful tool for allowing people to see you as a three-dimensional person instead of just a cold business. Granted, a good testimonial on Yahoo! Local can do that too but the blog wins hands-down in this department too.

Conversation

Surfing Google Local is probably not a great way to hear what other experts in your field are talking about. A blog however allows you to engage them in conversation and learn from each other. And remember, Markets are Conversations and we can learn from them.

I think Mike is seeing a blog as a big time sink. It can be, but DL Byron to Click-N-Seal from zero sales to 100,000 unit/yr with nothing more than a daily blog post. (Actually, I think he recently said that his posts are about twice weekly.) I think this is far less effort than it would take to coax a couple of decent reviews per week out of your customer base.

Comments

[Mike Manuel]

Jim Turner (Bloggers for Hire) and I went around on this earlier, a distinction is admittedly absent in my post which has to do with small businesses with a local, micro market appeal and those with larger, macro market potential.

Like Jim, it looks like you're thinking about small business in the macro context, me in the micro one.

Also, I'll challenge one point here, it's this one:

"Getting clients to actually spend the time and energy to write and post a review is a problem."

Getting them to read a blog is too. For most small businesses, I don't see what could possibly be more important (from a marketing perspective) then getting your customer to talk about your company?

[Dave]

Mike, I agree with you about the importance of getting your customers to talk about your company. I'm saying that the amount of effort YOU must spend to get them to actually go to Yahoo Local or Google Local and actually write thoughtful positive reviews on a semi-regular basis is probably actually a lot more than it takes for you to write a couple of blog posts per week.

And if they are going to talk about you, why not create a medium in which you can participate in that conversation? Dialog is much more engaging.

[Mike Manuel]

Yeah, Dave, I hear you, I just think what you're saying is a hard sell when you put it in the context of the local locksmith or the dog groomer or the dry cleaner (i.e., businesses with a micro market appeal).

Customers trust other customers, more than the business owners frankly, so I stick by my opinion that ratings and reviews via the local services are more influential and valuable for a business than any amount of blog posts that can be produced.

[Dave]

First, I agree that a recommendation from someone I know and trust is very powerful and persuasive. But while a testimonial from a stranger is beneficial, it is less compeling.

Perhaps it's because most of my clients are consultants, or perhaps there is a difference between your locale and mine (I am in Phoenix, Arizona). In this day and age of advertising overload, owners of small businesses understand that to grow their busineses they must connect with their current and potential customers and do so in a very personal and engaging way.

I think that this is even more important for owners of near-commodity businesses like a locksmith or dry cleaner. They need to generate the perception of a difference and it's tough to do that any other way than person-to-person or through a blog.

And finally, the fact that we are having this conversation right here on my blog illustrates my point: Your customers as well as mine get to read an intelligent discussion of the pros and cons of the topic. Our potential customers reading this will gain a far better appreciation for the depth of our knowledge and expertise than they ever would from reading a testimonial.

[Greg Newell]

This is an extremely relevant topic to a lot of my clients. I totally agree with the notion of where the clients market exists. You don't see too many plumber's blogs! Not that it wouldn't help. But heck, most of my clients in this category don't even know what a blog is and are just starting to get a feel for what they can do with a website.

As far as getting testimonials, frame the google local page in the clients website and have the user go there and enter the information! This takes all the hastle out of trying to find the page on Google Local. The web page is not public. It is linked in an email and the client sends the request to those he knows will give a good review.

Great post you guys!