No, that’s not some self-help guru mantra, although doing so could very well help revenue for your business…
A new Pew Research Project has some interesting statistics on why managing your local business listings and web presence are important and valuable tasks:
44% of online adults say they have searched online for information about someone whose services or advice they seek in a professional capacity, like a doctor, lawyer or plumber
That stat comes from a Pew study on reputation management and social media. Pew says the number would be higher, too, if not for age differences: Only 23% of Internet users 65 and older research small businesses online.
What type of people are most likely to research businesses online? Here’s what the study says:
* Parents – 49%
* Broadband users – 49%
* Wireless users – 50%
* College grads – 58%
* Higher income groups – 58% of people who make $75,000 or more
* Social networking users – 56%
That last group is worth noting: The folks who use Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon and other group-content-sharing websites are more connected online, and look to their online connections and other online resources to find professional services or vendors of quality.
What to do next…
Now is the time to go search for your business name, personal name, or the names of important people in your small business (see what Google, Bing and/or Yahoo have indexed about you, and click through on those links, read what’s being said or posted).
And if the answer is ‘not much’, then let’s talk about raising your internet profile with a social media integration and strategy that makes sense for your business.
For what it’s worth, this article was the final push for me to get started in both Facebook and Twitter – and I found the right tools that allow me to update my website Thoughts (blog), which then pushes the content to Facebook, Twitter and my email newsletter service (Mailchimp.com). I joked with a client that I was so automated now, I could fire myself!
