Mastering Email Etiquette: Four Quick Rules for Better Responses

We all use email on a daily basis, but are you following the unwritten rules of the inbox? Here are the four most important pieces of email etiquette to improve your communication:

The “To” Field Matrix
Be intentional with your recipient fields. Use the “To” field for those who need to take direct action, “CC” for individuals who simply require visibility, and “BCC” to protect privacy when messaging large groups.

Make Your Subject Line Count
Your subject line serves as your first impression. Keep it clear, concise, and relevant so the recipient knows exactly what your email concerns before they even open it.

The Message Body Balance
Always begin with a warm greeting. It is important to remember that email is not the same as text messaging; your thoughts are not limited to a small character count. Take the space you need to be clear and professional, but ensure you keep your paragraphs short and easy to skim.

The Ultimate Sign-Off Secret
How you close your message matters more than you might think. Did you know that approximately 80% of emails signed off with a variation of “Thank you” receive more responses? Cultivate a habit of gratitude in your sign-offs to boost your reply rates.

Small changes in your inbox habits can make a massive difference in how your messages are received.

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Getting the Best Online Reviews

Have you ever made a decision to purchase an item, or use a service based on positive reviews from an online review website?

More and more consumers rely on online reviews, based on fellow consumer’s experiences, in order to make their buying decisions. Large and small businesses rely on reviews to help build their reputation as a trusted industry leader. Both assume that online review websites manage the reviews to ensure that consumers aren’t misled. Unfortunately, even though consumers expect online reviews to be legit, it’s not always the case. As a matter of fact, these days you can bet that a significant amount of online review websites are fake or have a considerable amount of fake reviews (upwards of 18%).

Not like fake Grass.

There’s a name given to fake reviews. Astroturfing (no, not the green lawn replacement you may be familiar of) it’s when a reviewer writes a fake review on behalf of their sponsored company. This company rewards the reviewer with payments, items of value or a gift card. Just imagine this for a moment. University students struggling to pay for their education are given a reward by one of the university’s football team sponsors to write bad reviews of the sponsor’s opposition. Over a course of a few months or a year there are thousands of bad reviews to that opposition. Their reputation is tarnished and their sales suffer, soon that company shuts shop. Although this is just an example, such simular events have happened and sponsoring companies have faced huge penalties.

But how Influential are Online Reviews really?

Obviously, you shouldn’t believe every online review you read. That said, approximately 80% of consumers actually trust online review sites, almost as much as they do personal recommendations. In most cases, older consumers (baby boomers) aren’t as trusting as younger consumers who have grown up tapping and scrolling away on their computers, tablets or smartphones, browsing through review after reviews and making their buying decisions based on what they read on the review websites.

Can reviews be beneficial?

The positive side to online reviews is that they can boost search engine results, can be a positive form of advertising for a business and provide the kind of extended exposure that you might never be able to accomplish or afford through conventional marketing channels.  The problem is that negative reviews also get this exposure and most of us, if we’ve been in business for a significant amount of time, are bound to have a couple.  A few negative reviews actually can make the positives look more realistic and if the business shows compassion and tries to provide a positive outcome, it can also work in favour for the business.

What to look out for.

Although online review websites are popping up all the time, consumers should stick to the more established ones. Unfortunately, even some of these sites can’t be fully trusted or a large number of reviews on such sites. As a matter of fact, one of the sites that have been touted as one of the most “trusted” (a U.S. review site), relies on individuals to post negative reviews so that they can give the option to the business reviewed to have that negitive review removed or pushed down the list for a considerable amount of cost. Talk about a complete scam!

Determining Which Reviews are the most Trustworthy.

The volume of reviews on these websites can be mind-boggling. For instance, TripAdvisor has over 150 million reviews posted by users on its site. Yelp has over 57 million local reviews. So how do you know which of these online review sites can be trusted and which you should ignore? The following information will help guide you through the “review” maze.

Read Several Reviews on a Number of Review Websites.

If you’re dying to book that cruise, hire a landscaper or buy a product before the sale ends, you should still take the time to do your research, reading a lot of reviews before you form an opinion about the review site and decide if it is trustworthy. Most consumers make a decision after only reading a few reviews. Do yourself a favour and don’t skimp when it comes to making a buying decision. Take the time to compare reviews on several sites to determine whether or not there’s a trend.

Check Out the Reviewers Profile.

Look at the reviewers other reviews to get a feel for whether or not you can trust what they have to say. Be especially wary of first time or one time reviewers as well because chances are they’ve been paid to post their review. Read through the reviewer’s posts on businesses, products and services, other than the one you’re considering. It’s also a good idea to search for the reviewer on Google and/or social media sites because some online review sites require people to sign into their Facebook account before posting reviews.

Be Sceptical of Reviews with Similar Wording.

Reviews that contain similar wording for several products or services are a good sign that they’re “paid for” reviews. In addition, if the reviewer uses targeted wording that’s beneficial to consumers that are searching for a specific product, they may be working as a paid blog writer for the product’s owner/service provider.

Be Wary of “Extreme” Reviews.

You already know that some reviewers are going to either hate, love, or have neutral feelings about a restaurant, hotel or service provider – that’s to be expected. What isn’t normal is if the reviewer goes over the top with their reviews, to the extreme, through their positive or negative remarks. If this is the case, they’ve probably been given incentive for posting the review. Examples would be their competition posting negative reviews, or the reviewer being compensated for posting a positive review.

Protecting Yourself.

Every online review posted by your customers is a kind of promotion for your business. Your brand and product are exposed to readers, raising their awareness of who you are and what you have to offer. Similar to social media, online review sites provide you with the chance to establish a closer relationship with consumers. You are likely to be able to read reviews from an array of customers, many that may not have shared their opinions about your business otherwise. You’ll also be able to reply to positive and negative reviews in many cases, showing consumers that you’re interested in what they have to say. Through your replies, your customers and potential customers have the opportunity to get to know you as an individual, not just a business.

While reviewers are required to disclose if they are affiliated to the company, some businesses have friends and family write reviews, or pay other people to write glowing reviews for them, presenting them as impartial recommendations, when in truth they are deceiving fakes (Astroturfing). It can be challenging to tell if an online review is trustworthy or not, but taking the time to do some research online will provide you with more insight.

The post Getting the Best Online Reviews appeared first on ChookChook.

Have you heard of this Crazy web service called Social Media?

Surly you have. At the very least you’ve heard of Facebook – right?

But before you go diving into Social Media and spending huge amounts of time, money and resources, we highly recommend you watch these videos:

Our summery to these videos, in 140 characters of less:
“Social Media works reasonably fine for People, Family and Friends. but not so good for Businesses trying to engage with all their customers.”

Well after all that’s said and done, I’m not suggesting to ignore social media altogether, instead have your business listed on your preferred social pages, or at the very least on Google My Business pages.

I wouldn’t encourage you to spend huge amounts of time and resources on trying to get Likes, besides Likes can be bought! Yes they can – have you watched the videos?  And then there’s a problem with having fake Likes.. go on and watch the videos!

Advertising can potentially attract fake clients – people that have no intention to ever visit your social page or website. They see your advert and Like your page because it gives them a ‘cover’, an extra layer of protection for when Facebook hunts for fake accounts that are used for selling Likes.

Spend just enough time and resources to get your Facebook profile looking nice so when a genuine visitors sees your profile they will understand your services and products. Also, having the additional Facebook, Twitter, Google+ icon and other Social Media icons on your website looks nice. Spend the remaining time on Adding Content to your Website, either through the Admin dashboard we set up for you or email us the content you would like to add. We are able to manage your website at affordable rates so you wont have to worry about a thing :)

But, there’s no denying it Social Media is everywhere. It’s on everyone’s phone, tablet and computer, it has fast become a lifestyle habit. People are staying in touch with one another. The videos above shows us differently when it’s a business.

30% of Americans get their News from Facebook. Granted we’re not America. This is an indication of how important Social Media is becoming for People – again it’s a bit different for businesses. There’s family News and then there’s Business News.

Social media companies are everywhere, from Twitter, Facebook YouTube, Google+, just to name a few. You can’t go anywhere without seeing people on their Smartphones, Tablets, etc. Keeping up with what is going on in their world. It’s a lifestyle of this generation, and on average a Facebook user will spend 30+ min per day on their Facebook page. They want information and want updates on everything they are interest in, and most people are interested in their Families and Friends. There’s only a very small percentage that follow a business and keep up to date with that business. Did you know Facebook has now moved to Pay to Promote your Post for businesses, so when a Business posts on their Facebook timeline not all their followers will see that post, Facebook wants the small business to pay a fee to get that post out into the wild… and the wild could even be fake subscribers who won’t even look at your post.

Here are some benefits of social media:
• Businesses will find beneficial exposure on Google rankings by having Google+ presence.
• For their clientele and customer base having a Facebook profile is still recommended. But Facebook could have now pushed the ‘envelope’ a bit to far.
• Able to target an ad campaign directly to targeted audience, such as age group and interests.
• Improve your Brand awareness by having it exposed in more than just a business card. People still think thousands of Likes build Brand quality.
• Unrestricted promotions of a quick sale. Quickly advertise a special sale and have your followers rewarded with the opportunity to purchase at the posted special price. We’re actually thinking of removing this point.
• Gain referral from your happy clientele. You can reward your clientele in promoting your business.

And there are disadvantages:
• It takes time keeping your social profile up to date. If on Average people spend 30 minutes on their Facebook looking and reading all sort of information you will most likely spend twice that amount in keeping up.
• An out of date social account will deter potential customers. Not much useful information if your Facebook page was last updated in 2010.
• A disgruntle employee or unreasonable client can post negative experiences and not always reliable information. In such a situation your better option is to quickly reply and state what steps you had taken to sort out the issue. If they are still frustrated with your efforts, other followers should see your proactive steps in solving the issue and this could actually be a positive for such a situation.
• Hacked social accounts can be highly prevented by having a Strong Password, Not sharing it with Anyone, and Not having the password written anywhere – including in a digital format. That’s not to say the Social media network itself won’t be hacked. Usually they are able to fix the problem reasonably fast and a quick follow up on your part posting about such a hack will minimize the negative impact.

Now that you know something about Social Media get brain storming with your employees. Ask the younger employees what they like about using Social Media. But remember, watch those videos and don’t go overboard.

We’re able to help you set up your social presence on Facebook, Google, Twitter and others. We can  even set up automated posts on your behalf and much more. Contact Us today about getting your Social Media profile working the best it can.

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