I recently made a presentation on Social Media Marketing and Web2.0 at which I spoke, in part, of the need to claim your space and monitor your feedback on social network based business review sites like Yelp.com.

The question was asked, “Can an online reviewer be sued for libel?” I suggested that, while I’m not a lawyer and to seek legal advice as prudent or necessary, factual, non-malicious feedback should be okay. As it turns out, maybe/maybe not because what is and isn’t considered malicious is in the eye of the beholder (or negatively reviewed business owner, as the case may be).

See…

• The San Francisco Chronicle’s article: S.F. Yelp user faces lawsuit over review
• Grokdotcom’s blog post and reader comments on the case at: Yelp Reviewer Lands in Court
• and follow the Official Yelp Blog as they add their take on the event and its implications

My view? I love the whole online review scene both as a resource to find great businesses and to steer me clear of those who might practice their trade in a less than ethical manner. But I also recognize that there are malicious customers out there who are going to extract their pound of flesh regardless of the business owner’s efforts to satisfy them.

Read the above then leave a comment of your own either supporting the business owner or the reviewer or make the case for both…

What’s the question?

Would you recommend this product (or service) to a friend (or colleague)?

I came across this gem in a pile of articles (Business 2.0, September 2005, The Only Question That Matters) that have been gathering dust waiting to be filed on my desk. This question is derived from consultant Fred Reichheld‘s work in the area of customer satisfaction. He found that rather than asking tons of questions of customers it was better to ask just one question, “Would you recommend X to Y?” Reichheld calls this the ‘net promoter‘ approach. (Mr. Reichheld captured this technique in his 2006 book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth)

Really, what else matters? Have you satisfied your customers to such an extent that they will recommend, even evangelize, your product to their circle of friends, peers and colleagues? I’m sure that you, like me, have found yourself adequately satisfied with a vendor’s products or services but not thrilled, not impressed. You felt lukewarm and lukewarm doesn’t garner enthusiastic raves to those we come in contact with.

“My bank’s okay but they’re just a typical bank, no better or worse than any other bank I’ve dealt with…”

“The car’s okay, nothing special. Gas mileage is decent. Dealer is okay. Hasn’t ripped me off; as far as I know…”

“What computer do I recommend? Well, I have Brand X and it’s alright but I’m thinking of changing to Brand Z next time I buy…”

Are the above what your customers are saying about your products, your services? Or are they saying things like:

“You’ve got to get Y, it’s a great product but, what’s more important, when I had a problem their support group bent over backwards to take care of me!”

If you’d rather have this response than the others then start asking your customers, “Would you recommend my products to your friends?” And if they won’t or if their response is lukewarm, find out the reason(s) and fix the things that are preventing your customers from being your best salespeople. Chances are, if they won’t recommend you to a colleague, they probably won’t be a source of repeat business themselves. So not only do you lose all the business they might influence to try you but their business as well.

Don’t be caught off guard by negative reports about you, your company or the products and services you offer. Likewise, don’t fail to take advantage of the positive buzz that the online community generates on your behalf.

Failure to track and react to the negative as soon as it appears limits your opportunities to control the damage while not tracking and leveraging the latter can be a waste of golden opportunities. It’s one thing when we say something nice about ourselves, it’s exponentially more powerful when it’s said by an unbiased 3rd party.

The web presents us with a wonderful array of tracking tools and services. Google Alert is one such service that will track whatever topics you specify for you. They offer a limited free service as well as more robust personal and professional paid offerings. Do-it-yourselfers can achieve the same results by merely searching on their name or product names at Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN Search and whatever other search engines you feel are relevant. Don’t forget to search news services, blogs and social book marking sites.

A few resources to use in tracking your reputation online:

• News :: Google News
• Blogs :: Google Blog Search, Technorati
• Social bookmarking :: Digg, del.icio.us

Don’t be the last to know when someone says something bad, or good, about you on the web. Be proactive, not reactive in managing your and your company’s reputation.

A friend of my recently blogged about using News Alerts to feed your customers content they can use and establish your expertise while you’re at it. A nice little one, two punch I’d say.

The biggest diamond I found in his post was this comment…

No matter what business you are in, if you want to know more about “optimizing” your web site, pay attention to what Jerry Rouleau is doing. He does it by optimizing what he provides his customers.

Yeah, let’s quit talking about optimizing our websites and put the focus where it absolutely needs to be — on our customers.

Kind of Relevant Note: I unsubscribed today to one of the many internet marketing ‘rags’ I follow simply because all I ever got were thinly disguised infomercials that ended with a link to buy whatever their particular blog post or ezine was pitching. Hey, throw me a bone of content once in a while. Give me something to chew on while you’re patting me down for my wallet. Don’t just show me a picture of the bone and promise me “…and there’s a great big steak attached to it too!”

I was recently emailed an offer to sign up for an expensive ($1,000; 3 month time investment) info product creation program – I won’t mention the name because I have it on good authority that it’s actually a pretty good program.

However, the sloppiness they display in promoting the program, in particular their use of testimonials, left me wondering about the quality and value of the program itself and ultimately dissuaded me from signing up.

Now I know that most people just accept the Wizard at face value and don’t look behind the curtain but I do – it’s my anal side. I noticed that all of the testimonials listed on their long-copy sales letter-type website had URLs listed so instead of reading the testimonials or listening to the audio version, I went instead to the endorser’s web site to see what kind of products they were promoting and get a sense of the success of these folks.

I was a little disturbed to find that…

• One site hadn’t been updated in a couple of years and provided a link to several blog format sites, which hadn’t been updated in from months to years. No products that I could discern amongst the cobwebs.
• The next testimonialist’s site was offering enrollment in several teleclasses. Unfortunately you’d need the old time machine to attend as the most recent session was held last Fall (2006) although you can still register through their online store hookup.In investigating further, I was even less impressed with these…
• A coaching site had a link to a testimonials page that was misleading at best as it offered public domain type quotes supporting coaching in general but with no connection to the services offered by that site’s owner. Odd because their ‘About’ page states, “Hundreds of [company name] clients have learned to succeed even in the most turbulent times.” Don’t mean to be catty but don’t you think a few of the hundreds might be satisfied enough to endorse the services they received? The site itself was pretty polished with pretty good content …
• Another offered his book as “recently published” but an Amazon search revealed a publication date of 2000. He also listed several personal testimonials; none with attribution, not even of the ‘Jed C. in Beverly Hills’ type. No other products and the site looked a bit down-in-the-mouth.
• Ironically, the next endorser listed their upcoming “The Product Factory” inspired course as coming in 2006 so it’s a little overdue, I’d say. Oh, and the ‘free’ product they had for immediate download linked to an expired page.
• The last Testimonial site I looked at did a hard sell for enrolling in their self-improvement program but when I went to enroll, I received an account not found error. Double Yikes!

Even when I looked outside the testimonial sites by googling the program’s name I found sloppiness. One of the top ranking affiliate sites was promoting the program under different terms and with a different price than the master site even though when you click to enroll you get taken to the master site – with its different price and terms. Hmmm.  Maybe the price and conditions changed and the program creators neglected to get the word out or the affiliate was negligent but it’s still sloppy.

While the program may be 1st class and the participants raving fans – even those who don’t “…explode their business…” as its creators claim – why would I invest my time and money in a program that I don’t trust. And I don’t trust them based upon information that they supplied me. It’s like calling a reference for a roofing contractor who tells me that “apart from the leaks, the roof is just fine.” How dumb is that? I have means, I have motivation, I control my schedule, I know lots of people who traffic in information (i.e., I’m a potential referral source) – I’m a perfect prospect but like my Daddy always said, “I was born at night, but not last night!”

So the good word I received from the person who invited me (and a 2 time program participant) was crushed under the ‘testimonials’ provided by the program creators themselves. Ironic, isn’t it.

Here’s the marketing 101 lesson for you:

I learned long ago in Job Hunting 101 to call my references and ask them what they’re going to say about me before I hand them out to Mr. Potential Employer. Same goes here, just because you got a good testimonial in the rosy afterglow of a successful event, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t recheck that testimonial before recycling it for your next round of promotion.

I checked six of the eight testimonial providers sites and all six gave me reasons from minor to major to not spend my money or my time.

Not everyone looks behind the curtain, but when they look behind yours, make sure that the Wizard hasn’t, like Elvis, left the building.