The Hidden Opportunity Cost of Google Plus: Review Volume
Blumenthal: I was able to look at reviews per month since 2015 for a large number of restaurant locations across the sites that are now common in the restaurant industry. Interestingly, Yelp’s and TripAdvisor’s review volume is roughly the same now as it was in January 2015, while you can see that Google’s review volume is now roughly 10x that of either of those two sites. And Google was receiving fewer reviews per location per month than either Yelp or TA in early 2015.
There is an interesting but not totally obvious point on the slide where Google’s review volume starts to take off and that is April 2016. For those of you who don’t track Google minutiae quite the way that I do, that was the month when Google finally separated reviews from Google Plus and no longer required a Plus profile to leave a review.
Fake Reviews Are Silicon Valley’s Next Fake News Problem
Local businesses are struggling to adapt to a world where online reputation drives offline sales, and fake reviews are making the transition harder. What’s more, the fake review problem is getting worse. A Harvard study found that fake reviews on Yelp grew from 5% to 20% over several years.
There are lots of reasons for this trend, but this is an area where big data can be used to the benefit of consumers and businesses to increase trust. This means it’s on the tech community—not small businesses—to fix fake reviews. Just as media platforms have a moral obligation to avoid the spread of fake news, review sites have a responsibility to their users and businesses to ensure their content is as accurate as possible.
Heard on the Street, Episode 20: Local Reviews Tactics from a Travel Giant
Even in a hyper technology-driven world, one of the most influential forms of local marketing remains word of mouth. But of course that universal principle has taken on new digital formats, including social influence and good-old local business reviews. Reviews optimization is the name of today’s game. We spoke to TripAdvisor Restaurant Division Lead Mark Goloboy on the latest episode of Street Fight’s Heard on the Street podcast to find out how his company is innovating in reputation and identify best practices for businesses.
Review Strategy Is Key to Restaurant Success, Says TripAdvisor Restaurants Marketing Leader
What’s one of the secrets to a coveted top spot on a TripAdvisor Restaurants list? Respond to every review within 24 hours, said Mark Goloboy, the marketing leader for TripAdvisor Restaurants, at a panel during Brandify’s 2018 conference. Responding to reviews effectively can make the difference between showing up on the first and fourth pages of the site.
New Hires at TripAdvisor, Rio SEO, Snap
Every two or three weeks, guest columnist Geoff Michener rounds up some of the latest hires and openings in local and digital marketing. This week’s roundup also includes openings at Instagram, ThriveHive, and LoopMe.
TripAdvisor Debuts API with MomentFeed Partnership, Helping Brands Reach Hungry Travelers
A new partnership between TripAdvisor and MomentFeed is making it possible for the customer experience management platform’s restaurant clients to manage TripAdvisor’s sponsored advertising product via the MomentFeed platform.
Street Fight Daily: A Test for Voice Search Readiness, Putting the Video Ad Boom into Numbers
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… Synup Test Measures Voice Search Readiness for Brands… Video Swells to 25% of Digital US Ad Spend… TripAdvisor Debuts API with MomentFeed Partnership, Helping Brands Reach Hungry Travelers…
Heard on the Street, Episode 12: How Important Are Online Reviews?
Considering the level of influence that online reviews can have on any given business, it’s become increasingly important to optimize them in various ways. How is that done? There are lots of tactical ins and outs we highlight on this episode of the Heard on the Street Podcast.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Gets into SMB Goods, Leading Travel Reviews Site Pivots to Social
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… Amazon Wants to Take Over Every Aspect of Shopping. Next Up? Small Businesses… TripAdvisor Wants to Become Your Social Media Network for Travel… Shoppable Billboards: Retailers Say Physical Stores are Driving Online Sales…
TripAdvisor Wants to Become Your Social Media Network for Travel
What started as a site for travel reviews is pivoting to become a social media hub for travelers, providing a personalized travel planning experience that combines reviews and recommendations from friends, publishers, and influencers, the company announced Monday.
LBMA Podcast: DoorDash, Uberall & TripAdvisor, Apple
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Uberall + TripAdvisor, DoorDash, Sinagpore’s WhereIsWhere, Mall of America, Amazon buying Landmark Theatres?, Apple going into your windshield.
Uberall Partners With TripAdvisor for Multilocation Reputation Management
While it has become commonplace for hotels and restaurants to check their TripAdvisor ratings on a regular basis, the process breaks down as the size of the business grows, causing brands with hundreds of locations to struggle. The digital location marketing platform Uberall is trying to change that.
Street Fight Daily: The American Version of GDPR Is Coming, Supersized Funding Rounds Becoming Common
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING… Should Ad Tech Panic Over the California Privacy Protection Act Now or Later?… $100 Million Was Once Big Money for a Startup. Now, It’s Common… Bridg Positions Itself as Marketing Arm for Offline Businesses…
Street Fight Daily: Google Expands Into Fresh Food Marketing, Snap Expands Commerce for Brands
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Enters Deal with Carrefour to Sell Food Online in France… Snap Expands Commerce for Brands Within Stories… Report: Social Attracting Most Widespread Investment from Advertisers, Topping Search…
Street Fight Daily: Highlights from Street Fight Summit, Advertisers Drop DSPs to Cut Costs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… #SFSNYC: The Growing Power of SMB OS… #SFSNYC: Investors on Billion-Dollar Opportunities in Local and Where to Find Them… Advertisers Cut DSPs 40% Over Two Years…
#SFSNYC: UPS, TripAdvisor, and HappyOrNot Break Down Divergent Approaches to Customer Feedback
Consumer feedback and brands have a complex and sometimes contentious relationship. Three panelists from companies with starkly different relationships to both their customers and the customer feedback process provided their angles on the issue at Street Fight Summit in New York Wednesday.
Street Fight Daily: Target Aims to Lead on Customer Experience, GDPR’s Impact on Facebook
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Is Trying to Become America’s Easiest Place to Shop. Here’s How… GDPR Is What Facebook Advertisers Should Really Worry About… Consumers Want Voice Services Beyond Basics…
TripAdvisor Pushes Further Into Restaurant Space with Local Ad Product
Having already tackled travel and hotels, TripAdvisor is continuing to go after the restaurant vertical, today launching a new product aimed at independent restaurants and restaurant groups. TripAdvisor Ads marks the company’s first product designed to allow restaurants to reach customers through cost-per-click sponsored ad placements.
TripAdvisor Study Shows Room for Growth in Restaurant Marketing
According to the new survey, more than eight in 10 restaurateurs in the United States believe they should be doing more to promote their businesses, but only 17% say they’ve hired a dedicated employee to handle marketing tasks and just 1% use an outside marketing consultant.
The Ghost in the Machine: Google Gamifies Machine Learning
David Mihm to Mike Blumenthal: As for our Halloween topic, a spooky good SEO, Scott Hendison, tweeted a link over the weekend that I found fascinating: https://crowdsource.google.com. Even for those of us who are used to these kinds of initiatives coming from Google, it’s the most brazen public effort we’ve seen to train their machine learning algorithm via user contributions across a whole range of data types.
Mike: It is certainly brazen. There is NO attempt to bury this as an activity within some other program like their Captcha. It’s a gamification of their ML plain and simple, and if I know Google, the reward will be either insignificant or worse: a discount on some “premium product” (i.e., an ad).