By Marcia Yudkin Heartsick over negative reviews on Amazon or Yelp? I want to tell you about an experience I recently had that, for me, put the phenomenon of reviews into perspective. To cope with an early-morning flight, my husband and I booked a room at a Days Inn near our local airport. To get… Read More
Consumer Reviews
Inventor Needs Publicity Ideas for Handle That Makes it Easy to Shovel Snow and Dirt
Publicity Hound Howie Rosenshine of Downington, Pa., writes: “I invented the Shovelution, a shovel handle attachment that lets you greatly reduce the effort, strain and potential injury involved in shoveling snow or dirt. “It attaches easily to any straight-shaft shovel or similar implement. When you add it to your standard shovel, you can switch sides… Read More
How to Pitch the Top 50 ‘New Product Review’ Bloggers
Whether you’re launching a book or introducing a new app, plan to spend time researching and pitching bloggers who do product reviews. Cision has published its list of the Top 50 New Product Review Bloggers, a great starting point. Authors and publishers, add to this list three more bloggers who review books:: But don’t just click… Read More
7 reasons hotels should respond to bad reviews
That nasty review of your hotel isn’t as bad as the one above, but they still gave you only one star because they found mold on the walls in the bathroom. Or the drunks in the next room carried on all night. Or the surly waitress in your restaurant smelled like cigarette smoke. When you get… Read More
Authors: Why you shouldn’t respond to bad book reviews
One of the most powerful tools for marketing your books is the treasure trove of online book review and book recommendation sites like Goodreads, AuthorsDen and Shelfari. You can create a community of hundreds or even thousands of raving fans who will examine which books you’ve placed on your virtual bookshelf. They’ll discuss, review and recommend… Read More
How to reach millions of readers on online book review sites
Smart authors don’t fret about the shrinking book review section in The New York Times, or the 12-page book section that the San Francisco Chronicle eliminated. Instead, they target online communities such as Goodreads.com, the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. Here’s why sites like Goodreads are so powerful if you… Read More
Videos: How 2 businesses deal with bad reviews on Yelp
Last week, I wrote about 11 ways to use Yelp and respond to bad reviews. I just came across these two videos from business owners on Yelp who explain how they handle bad reviews. Jeff D., who owns a wine and cheese shop in San Francisco, explains it here: Here’s what Frank and Paul, auto… Read More
11 ways for small business to use Yelp, respond to bad reviews
If you do business in your own community, start participating on Yelp, the popular social media site that helps people share the best (and worst) of businesses like dentists, hair stylists and car mechanics. If you’re a PR person whose clients are small business owners, incorporate this site into a publicity or marketing campaign. But… Read More
LinkedIn lets users recommend products
Starting this week, LinkedIn is offering its more than 80 million members a chance to recommend products and services on other companies’ Company Pages, under the Product tab. The new feature includes only 40 large companies like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Dell, JetBlue, AT&T, Citibank and Volkswagen. But LinkedIn will expand it to include all companies and small businesses during… Read More
Wine bar/bistro can’t get a restaurant review—ideas?
This week’s Help this Hound question is from Timothy Nishimoto, owner of Vino Paradiso Wine Bar & Bistro in Portland, Oregon: “My business is known as a wine bar, but we are trying to transition into more of a restaurant, meaning we have a full dinner menu, bigger than ever. “But, many people in town still don’t… Read More