If you regularly surf the web, you’ve likely stumbled onto Get Satisfaction by now. Marker by the little ‘Feedback’ tags that show up on the sides of pages across the internet, Get Satisfaction is a customer feedback engine that allows companies to hear concerns directly from their customers.

And let’s be clear: it’s not just limited to internet companies. Anyone can sign up for a page and begin taking suggestions online. You don’t even have to be affiliated with the company to create or manage a Get Satisfaction page (although it obviously helps) – company devotees can easily create pages for their favorite brands and try to build awareness of customer concerns.

In short, for any business that actively focuses on customer service, it’s a great tool that’s worth checking out.

And now Get Satisfaction has taken it to the next level. Got a Facebook fan page? You can now turn it into a fully-featured customer support engine, thanks to the newly-released Get Satisfaction Facebook Social Engagement Hub. This plug-in allows your company Facebook page to seamlessly integrate with Get Satisfaction’s main site.

How does it work? Here’s a key example: if someone posts a question, it will automatically search GetSatisfaction.com and discover whether it already exists, then either display the appropriate response or create a new question on your Get Satisfaction page. (There are other features, too, but adding this functionality to Facebook is obviously the biggest story here).

ReadWriteWeb lists a number of other advantages to the service in their review – most notably, the fact that Facebook users tend to be very active on Fan pages. As a result, this service gives you more ways to interact with and get feedback from your strongest supporters. Not to mention the fact that it allows you to leverage some of your Facebook content from outside of Facebook’s ‘walled garden.’

We think Get Satisfaction is an excellent service – one that’s only enhanced by this new offering. It’s definitely worth a closer look for any small business in search of a more direct link to customer feedback.

Kipp

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If you’re engaged in email marketing, you already know: your company’s email marketing list is an important business asset.

A good subscriber list takes time to build. But the work doesn’t just stop there – if you go to the effort to build a subscriber list, you should also be taking the time to maintain it.

You should already have a mechanism to weed out hard-bouncing email addresses – this helps you stay on the good side of spam filters, and (as your list grows) lessens your server load. But equally as important is making sure you’re keeping the subscribers who are interested, and getting rid of those who will likely never convert. You can do this by sending out a reconfirmation email.

What is a reconfirmation email?

It’s a simple email that asks you to reconfirm that you want to keep receiving emails. As Derek Harding explains, there are two types of reconfirmation emails: opt-in (which requires subscribers to take a specific action to stay subscribed) and opt-out (which asks the subscriber to take specific action in order to unsubscribe). Naturally, opt-out is the most attractive to marketers, as it loses fewer subscribers.

My reason for writing this post was a reconfirmation email I recently received from Panic, a company that makes great software for the Mac. Here’s a screenshot (click to view the full-sized image):

This is a reconfirmation email done right. It’s simple and to the point, reminding me that they’re there and offering me the opportunity to opt-out, should I desire.

What does it really accomplish?

For Panic, it lets them re-focus their list on the subscribers who are likely to convert to sales. By cleaning their list, they can better segment it and make messages more relevant to subscribers…and as Douglas Karr points out, “smaller email lists and targeted content always outperform mass media.“ They can expect to see their email marketing success metrics improve, just by eliminating the people who aren’t interested and focusing on those who are.

(If nothing else, it also gives them some subscriber face-time to build their brand.)

For me (the subscriber), it reminds me that they’re there (& that I haven’t visited their awesome blog lately)…and it builds trust. The simple act of them sending this email assures me that they’re not the type of company that will spam me. That’s huge. It’s good customer service, internet marketing-style, and makes me want to stay on the list because I know my time won’t be wasted.

By occasionally pruning your list, you can focus your list on quality over quantity, and get a much more accurate representation of how successful your marketing efforts are. Depending on your email marketing software, you can even target the email to those who haven’t opened the last X emails you’ve sent. I’d recommend only sending it out once a year (twice at most) – but if you’re not doing occasional list maintenance like this, you should definitely consider it.

It’s the new year, after all – a great time to do some cleaning.

Kipp Chambers
Sr. Internet Marketing Specialist

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It looks like Mozilla fans are stuck with version 3.5 for the time being, as Firefox recently stated they are planning on falling short of their 2009 deadline of 3.6’s release.  In addition, Firefox 4.0 which had been due in 2010 is now looking at a release date of late 2010 to even early 2011. This push back is not unusual, as scheduled delays are very commonplace in the software and hardware world.

The arrival of Google’s Chrome has specifically made browser development more stressful and crazy than usual, as the competition is literally up day and night trying to keep up with Google’s advancements. Mike Shaver, Mozilla’s VP of Engineering states ” We’ve always been more quality-driven than time-driven, but we understand timing in the market matters to our users and our competitiveness.”

There is an exciting future for Firefox on the horizon; the new big feature in its 3.6 version is incorporation of the Personas plug-in that will allow people to customize their browser’s appearance.  Other enhanced features will bring improved security and faster browser time to Firefox, along with other improvements.

Version 3.7 will bring even more development to Mozilla. This version will introduce even more changes in overall performance.  A development called “Electrolysis” will separate computing processes into individual compartments for better stability, among other benefits. Another expected addition will be more enhancements to the “Weave” a plug in that synchronizes bookmarks, passwords, plug-ins, and open tabs across different instances in Firefox.

Version 4.0 you ask? Well the list of changes this rollout will bring keeps growing. In all honestly, it’s release is too far in the distance to get into detail about. For the time being, it’s safe to say you can definitely expect significant user interface changes and a new way to replace the standard “menu” bar.

Until then, it’s still version 3.5 for Mozilla addicts.  Feel free to keep on top of Firefox’s development progress here.

SS

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I know the title above sounds somewhat Blade Runner-esque…but bear with me. I’ll explain.

Today location-based online advertising revolves around services like Google AdWords, which allow you to set a target local area for your ads (so you — the Florida-based mechanic — can make sure your ad for ‘Auto Mechanics’ only appears to people searching for auto mechanics in the Tampa Bay area, but not to people in Boise, Idaho). If you’re a local business (such as an attorney or a house painter), targeting your specific location with your ads is a very smart idea.

But things on the web are always changing, and Augmented Reality is the new kid on the block.

What is Augmented Reality (AR)? Basically, it’s a class of technologies that place data from the web on top of a camera view of the physical world. So when you view your surroundings with a camera, you can see annotations to the places in your view as you move the camera around. All thanks to the GPS features of new digital cameras and camera phones.

So picture an application from Yelp.com that allows you to stand on a busy city block, turn on your phone’s camera, and see which nearby restaurant in your field of view gets the best reviews. With AR, it’s possible.

But that’s just the beginning.

Today location-based social network Brightkite announced it has partnered with Best Buy to run Augmented Reality ads in the Brightkite iPhone & Android app. In what is supposedly the first AR advertising solution in the U.S., Brightkite will display markers for nearby Best Buy locations in images from its social network.

As Marshall Kirkpatrick at RWW points out, the world of AR advertising is brand new, but the idea has a long way to go. For instance, currently the Best Buy markers appear at all times, even when users search for things completely unrelated to Best Buy. In the modern world of highly-targeted ads, this sort of irrelevant advertising won’t do.

But still, imagine the possibilities of being able to serve up a special offer to a potential customer who’s looking for your products and services – and is within sight of your business. As Augmented Reality features are added to more devices, that sort of geotargeted advertising should be just around the corner.

Kipp Chambers
Sr. Internet Marketing Specialist

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Yesterday evening, the rumor mill churned to life when TechCrunch broke a monstrous story – that Google is in final negotiations to purchase Yelp.com. Today the blogosphere lit up with commentary, from tech pundits like Robert Scoble to everyday-life bloggers like LifeHacker. Of course, nothing has been confirmed yet – but even if you don’t know both companies well, the sheer number of people talking about it have to tell you something. This is huge.

For those of you who don’t know, Google’s Local Business Center allows businesses of all sizes to create and edit their listing on Google Maps. Yelp, on the other hand, is a site that focuses on user reviews of local businesses. It has a much more social tone to it, as users interact and give feedback to each other as well as hair stylists, art supply stores and other local companies. Both are important ways that potential customers can find you.

At Everon, we advise our clients to build up a presence on sites like Yelp and Google Maps – becoming established on both can lead to increased website, phone and foot traffic.

So Why is This Important?

Mike Blumenthal’s thoughts on the potential Google-Yelp acquisition give a lot of insight into why this should matter to you. Mike talks about how he uses both sites. He sees Google Maps as being more for ‘recovery’ – finding a place that you already know about, such as when you’re looking for the nearest Starbucks. Just whip out the iPhone and a few keystrokes later, you’ve got its address and directions how to get there.

Yelp, on the other hand, is more for discovery – because of the large number of user reviews, people go to it when they’re looking for, say, an auto mechanic. They decide to try one out based on reviews from people they trust.

Now, I’m not sure that I agree that Google Maps doesn’t allow for discovery – just the other day, I found a new pizza place by typing ‘Pizza Denver’ into Google. (Although I might have found a better place had I used Yelp).

Regardless, it’s tough not to see what an impact these two companies merging would have. By acquiring Yelp, Google can fill out its listings with a ton of user reviews, and further solidify itself as the online-yellow-pages-of-choice.

How Can You Take Advantage?

Your company should make sure you’re listed. You should also set up a program to encourage your customers to give you online reviews. If you build this out now, by the time anything happens with Google and Yelp, you’ll already be far ahead of your competition when someone is looking for your product.

(And if the merger is just another rumor that doesn’t happen, you’ll still be far ahead of the game.)

Kipp Chambers
Sr. Internet Marketing Specialist

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