Merchants Can Have Access to Tools to Better Control on How Their Information is Presented Online

                                          www.locationtraffic.com

How can a merchant be sure that the locations of their business is correct on search engines, websites and mobile apps? There are some great tools that they can use to clean up location data.



1. Placeable: Control location data through a unified dashboard.
Agencies and brands with multiple locations can use Placeable’s new Placeable Plot feature to ensure the accuracy of their business data across hundreds of websites, mobile apps, and third-party sites like maps, networks, and directories. Businesses can import their location data from spreadsheets, and then clean up that data using Placeable’s tools. Once the local data has been “normalized,” Placeable puts it into a standardized format and sends it to location-based platforms like Facebook and Google Places. Placeable charges clients a $299 “monthly platform fee,” and $2 per location, per month.

2. Locu: A data-cleansing solution for small and medium-sized businesses.
Locu works with small and medium-size businesses to ensure their contact and product information is accurate. Restaurants, home service providers, and personal care services can manage their business listings, menus, product lists, and company photos from within Locu’s digital platform. This information is then shared across the web—to publishing partners like Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, YP, OpenTable, and CitySearch—each time an update is made. Locu offers its basic plan for free. Users can upgrade to Premium accounts for $25 per month.

3. Yext: Instantly updating local information on 50+ websites, maps, and apps.
Yext offers a location data cleansing solution that’s scalable for businesses of all sizes. Businesses can run a scan to see how their listings look when customers search online, and Yext will pinpoint how many “location data errors” it finds. Businesses can fix those errors by entering the correct information into Yext’s PowerListings system, and the company will automatically push those updates across a network of 50+ websites, maps, and apps.Pricing for Yext’s PowerListings packages ranges from $17 to $67 per month.

4. MomentFeed: Merging and deleting duplicate entries for multi-location brands.
Large brands with multiple locations can use MomentFeed’s PinSync tool to improve engagement and discoverability at the local level. By utilizing the correct latitude/longitude coordinates (also known as “geocodes”) for each of a client’s physical locations, MomentFeed is able to pinpoint outdated listings, adjust inaccurate geocodes, merge duplicate listings, update listings with correct address information, and upgrade local pages on platforms like Facebook, Google, and Foursquare. Pricing for MomentFeed varies depending on the number of locations being monitored.

5. SweetiQ: Identify inconsistencies in local listings.
SweetiQ is an all-in-one location-based marketing platform for agencies, brands, and franchises. One of the vendor’s key features is its local business listings management tool, which clients can use to find out how their business listings are presented across the web and make unified corrections to any inaccuracies. Businesses can also see how their listings are ranked in search engine results, and which keywords are most likely to bring those listings up. SweetiQ offers a free 14-day trial. Paid plans start at under $100 per month.

6. Universal Business Listing: Take ownership of your online profiles.
Businesses can use UBL to unify the information that shows up about their companies on local directories and search engines. Inaccurate phone numbers, addresses, and website links are updated within UBL’s platform and then pushed out to 150 “points of distribution.” These updated listings will appear as “verified” or “claimed,” depending on the site. By partnering with anchor databases like Infogroup, Factual, and Dun & Bradstreet, UBL is able to expedite the process of having its clients’ old listings removed or changed. UBL’s listings packages range in price from $79 to $799 per year.
http://streetfightmag.com/2013/10/08/6-tools-merchants-can-use-to-clean-up-location-data/

Is Google Making Its Mark With Social Media?

                                  

                                           igetpaidonline.biz



Google 's popularity as a social network has really grown in the past year. You may be wondering how did this happen. The following article explains how Google is a must for marketers.


Why Google+ is becoming a necessary social media channel for marketers by Chris Mead at "Tug".

The service has evolved to offer a growing user base, unique functionality and interconnectivity with other Google services.



In January 2013, the Global Web Index announced that Google+ had overtaken Twitter to become the second largest social network. Six months prior, many marketers may have had their reservations about setting up a Google+ page, but the network has gained traction – and with good reason.

Given the rise of social search, marketers and large brands are now aware that Google has pushed the integration of many of its services such as YouTube, Google Maps, Android and others with Google+, making the social network integral to social media and search marketing campaigns.

Google+ boasts a sizeable 359m monthly active users and brand interaction has increased by 45.5% between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013.

When logged into a Google account, searching for a brand terms allows a connected Google+ page to appear on the right-hand side of the search listings (see the search results for Expedia as an example). The page appears regardless of whether you follow the page or not, and sits prominently in the right-hand sidebar. Since this placement (based around searches for brand terms) is free, easy to set up and quick to implement (brands need only add a small piece of code that connects their Google+ page to make the connection) it is highly advantageous and gives a quick data capture and community build element from natural search listings.

What this means is that Google+ has become a very serious player in a short period of time. Google have been careful to link the social network to search listings, ensuring that there is a clear reason for brands to integrate the service into their existing online marketing strategy for SEO.

Larger brands have already taken advantage of the social network by working directly with Google. For example, Topshop's well-documented usage of hangouts to stream live fashion week, and Burberry recently introducing its Kisses campaign. The uptake is not limited to the luxury industry however, with Cadbury having adopted hangouts early with a series of live events. Other noteworthy mentions include Coca-Cola andIntel, both boasting an established, content-rich presence on the social network.

Google+ is not like Facebook. In order to understand and define its purpose in your online marketing strategy it is important to embrace its uniqueness and individuality – no matter how similar the two may operate and look.

Gaining traction and interest is Google+'s Hangout, which has featured heavily on the network and is set to be integral to Android devices andGoogle Glass. A neat feature embedded within Hangouts is the ability to watch shared YouTube videos across the group. This allows users to share videos among industry experts. Hangout's also opening the door for more advanced uses including the "draw" tool to facilitate competitions. Real-time giveaways and competitions integrated into Google+'s Hangout functionality are becoming a reality thanks to the emerging live stream market and high volume of early adopters making use of the service.

The social network should already be viewed as a customer relationship network (CRM) channel – just as Twitter and Facebook may be to you now. When this does happen, you'll need to understand the nuances the platform offers, and how to use them to your advantage.

Google+ has fast become an integral component to online marketing campaigns, with larger brands already exemplifying the creative possibilities attributed to the social network. Currently the simplest reason to use Google+ is discoverability, given that your page can appear in the natural listings on Google. Yet the social network has evolved from a purely SEO beneficial channel to one where its growing user base, feature-rich environment (Hangouts, Communities) and interconnectivity with other Google services have re-aligned its importance within digital marketing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/jul/24/google-plus-social-media-marketers