5 Tips for Responding (or Not) to “Fake” Reviews

Reviews come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they are used to get back at a business for bad service but they can be used as well to settle a personal or political score in a public forum. In this review and review response, it really isn’t totally clear who is telling the truth. jared …

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Google Places: Pending Status Showing Up Erroneously?

I have received several recent inquiries about the Pending message showing up on more Google Places accounts of late. According to this post by John Audette of 406 Strategies, a local internet marketing firm in Bend, Or. it is a fairly widespread bug. From his post: “Pending – Being Reviewed. This listing needs to be …

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Fake Reviews Starting to Get Mainstream Media Attention

The latter part of this otherwise lame ‘expose’ about deceptive hotel marketing practices from NBC’s 2/24 Today show highlights the issue of fake reviews. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Certainly the issue of fake reviews is both more pervasive and more common than the report indicates. Our industry …

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GetListed Spokane

Today, I am presenting at the seventh GetListed.org Local University in Spokane, WA. I hope to personally meet all of you in attendance. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask any questions that come to mind or to just introduce yourself. These links will provide background information and details for a pathway to dig deeper …

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Google Places Mobile Option to Only Show Open Businesses

Google Places Search on the iPhone and Android now offers an option to show only business that are open. The feature is available in Places search and filters out not just restaurants that are closed but restaurants for which Google is not confident of their hours. I performed the following search yesterday afternoon for Restaurant …

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New Google Places Review Bug

Google Places and Hotpot have had a rough run of bugs of late. It seems that barely is one fixed that another crops to the fore. This was reported to me on February 22 by Plamen. The first 40 characters or so of the review are lopped off. It appears to be affecting any review …

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GetListed Portland

Today, I am presenting at the sixth GetListed.org Local University in Portland, Or. If you are coming PLEASE take a moment to introduce yourself as I would love to meet you. For those of you that attended the presentation these links will provide background information and details for a pathway to dig deeper into the world …

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GetListed University Spokane- New All Day Agenda

I am traveling and speaking in the Pacific Northwest this week. Get Listed Portland on Tuesday, Searchfest on Wednesday and Getlisted University Spokane on Friday. Needless to say it will be a light posting week. I am particularly excited about GetListed University Spokane for two reasons. It celebrates GetListed University’s first year anniversary. It has …

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Google Dashboard Upgrade: Request a Review Link

Google is every so carefully dipping their toes in the water of providing real support. They seem to be moving at the speed of the slowest glacier but they are moving. One much needed customer support feature, pushing the reconsideration link directly into the dashboard, was first seen early last summer. The following statement has …

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Google Places Bug Alert: Your Name No Longer Exists

Update: At roughly 10:00 am EST it appears to have been fixed. Last night I went to bed with my blog post about the new Places hotel booking feature in the bag thinking life was under control and all was good in Google Places land. Hah! I awake to an email from Matt Tengler of …

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