Importance of monitoring online activity

Recently the media highlighted the need for small businesses to monitor their online presence. It reported that a competitor altered their competitions Google Local Business Maps details and that it took sometime for her to get caught.

Too often small businesses in New Zealand believe that they are immune to being hacked and that nobody would defame them or their business online. This results in the common thought that they should not bother to invest in online technologies to monitor their online presence.

An even more common issue for New Zealand Businesses is that they do not have any consideration for for Search Engine Optimisation or online marketing. Thus, they do not list themselves in online directories, instead waiting for an automatic listing to occur.

The media report states that a Hamilton Florist manipulated her competitors Google Map listings resulting in her competitors loosing an alleged substantial amount of business.

Google Local Business Maps is an effective and reliable free option to be ranked high in search engines and is an easy way to find local businesses in your area. You log in and add a number of details about your business such as location info, contact information, services, hours of operation and business website link.

To register your organisation in Google Lcoal Maps you need to have a free Google account.

2 Twitter tips based on observations

 Increasingly organisations are utilising Twitter. Sadly, many organisations and especially NZ companies are doing two fundamental things wrong that will stop people following them.

Worse still with the introduction of a myriad of automated Twitter tools that give statistics on users, these fundamental mistakes will make it look like you are a spammer.

 Tip 1 – Don’t ask followers to verify themselves.

 Do not ask people to verify that they are a real person when they follow you. Captcha tools are annoying and difficult for many people to read. If a spammer follows you this has no effect on your Twitter account.

For me personally using such tools tells me that you can not be bothered to see if I am worth following and you will have an automated process to follow me back.

Take a moment to follow only those Twitter accounts that you are interested in.

Tip 2 – Don’t make your Organisation Tweets Private.

 By making your Tweets private to only your followers it gives the impression that you are hiding illegal, immoral or otherwise objectionable material. It also makes it impossible for potential followers to know if you have interesting information so they can follow you or not.