{"id":7085,"date":"2010-08-04T14:35:04","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T18:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=7085"},"modified":"2010-08-05T13:17:49","modified_gmt":"2010-08-05T17:17:49","slug":"will-reviews-become-googles-first-successful-foray-into-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/04\/will-reviews-become-googles-first-successful-foray-into-social\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Reviews Become Google’s First Successful Foray into Social?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small businesses are engaged (and often enraged<\/a>) with reviews on their Google Places Pages. Understandably, the SMB posters at the Places Help forums have a great deal invested in their businesses and the reviews about their business. As a result they often respond with great passion about Google’s handling of them. The forums are rife<\/a> with over the top pleas, cajolings and complaints about reviews on their Places Page.<\/p>\n

Many SMBs don’t really like reviews. For many it is the first time they are accountable to outside forces over which they feel that they have no control but wish that they did. Historically they have responded to this tension by lashing out (sometimes justified and others not)\u00a0at Google with their frustrations.<\/p>\n

In my sales days, I was taught that objections were in fact buying signals. Complaints by SMBs about reviews seem to fall into that category and to me indicate that they are ready to actively engage with Google’s new feature<\/a> allowing them to respond to customer reviews.<\/p>\n

It is my sense that they won’t just respond but that they will actively\u00a0respond. The passion that SMBs have about reviews will lead them to engage their customers in Places for better or worse. This engagement will incent more of them to claim their listings and monitor their reviews in a more active and even compulsive way.<\/p>\n

Reviews have always been social in nature. In some respects they may be a business’s best social forum as the (hopefully happy) customers do most of the work. Yelp and before them others like CitySearch created social platforms around the review process and the business response. But because of the visibility of the 7 – Pack, \u00a0Google Places will capture the attention of SMBs in a way and with a volume that quickly become significant. It will lead to an ongoing, interesting (and possibly often bizarre) interchange between businesses and their customers.<\/p>\n

Because of the potential for volume and visibility it may make reviews more “social” than ever and could very well become a primary territory for SMBS to interact with the world around them. Has Google possibly created their first successful foray pushing Maps to become a Social platform?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Small businesses are engaged (and often enraged) with reviews on their Google Places Pages. Understandably, the SMB posters at the Places Help forums have a great deal invested in their businesses and the reviews about their business. As a result they often respond with great passion about Google’s handling of them. The forums are rife …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t