It’s hard keeping pace with Google in the past month. Google Instant, Google Preview, Google Boost, and now Google Hotpot. It seems that I’m chasing Google’s product team to understand the implications of all these new tools for search marketing. The latest tool, Google Hotpot, is a streamlined interface for location based reviews.

Location based applications are a hot segment of the market and Google is moving fast into this space to become a dominant player in consumer reviews and feedback loops. Google Hotpot takes the data from Google Places and the reviews from other consumers and places them in a simple interface that anyone can use.

Creating a Hotpot Account

The first thing you will need to do is to create your account. Click through on this link to get started: http://www.google.com/hotpot

If you have a Google Account, just login and you will be asked to create a screen name. This is your public “reviewer” name so you can get creative at this point or use your real name. From the screenshot below, you will also see that your default start-up account needs a photo as well as some basic information. I decided to use my actual name so my Google HotPot account.

Once you create your account you can start rating local businesses and places nearby. You are presented with a search box and you can start by reviewing your favorite places. You have unlimited 1-5 star ratings and initially you only get 10 “Best Ever” stars, which is a special rating. I’m not sure how the “Best Ever” ratings will pan out but since they are limited, they may be weighted heavier.

Google HotPot Simplifies Review Posting

The default search is restaurants and so Google is taking aim at the most popular ratings engines like Yelp.com and CitySearch.com. Google also knows businesses that you rated in the past. For example, you will see that my review count started at eight even though this is a brand new account. This is from past reviews that I used with this Google email address on Google Places.

Hotpot takes all of Google Places‘ ratings and reviews features and adds a more personal touch. Currently, Place Pages mostly aggregate review data from sources such as Yelp. With Hotpot, users will be encouraged to rate and review businesses directly from their Google-linked profile. Users’ ratings and reviews are tracked with a counter at the top of each profile, and likes and dislikes are remembered and used in Google’s recommendation engine.

When you post a review, you photo will now appear next to the review as shown below:

Google Review Trends

How does this apply to car dealers? Think stars! The progression over the past few months looks like this. Google upgrades Google Places and emphasizes the important reviews. Then Google integrates Google Places reviews into organic search so business “star” ratings appear for broad business searches. Search for “Baltimore Honda dealers” in Google to see exactly how that look.

Then Google offers business owners the ability to run pay-per-click ads using their star ratings: Google Boost. Now, Google is making it easier for consumers to post reviews for local businesses.

In 2011 the most important investment dealers can make is to establish a strong online reputation management process.

Good customer service will be rewarded ten-fold if Google’s Hotpot takes off. Bad customer service will be placed for all consumers to see for popular search phrases. Dealers need to start inspecting all business processes and test ways to integrate review posting strategies.

As Google makes it easier for consumers to post reviews from their mobile devices, like Google Hotpot, you should be encouraging your customers to post reviews on Google Hotpot when they are in your store or when you are on the phone with them. If you are NOT asking your loyal and happy customers, then most likely you will only see negative reviews.

Need Help?

PCG Digital Marketing can assist your dealership implement an Internet Reputation Management (IRM) process and show you how to leverage customer reviews. Act now because this is one of those rare opportunities to leap-frog ahead of your competition.

Why does one page on RipOffReport.com or ComplaintsBoard.com come up on Google Page One?

First of all, the name of these websites, when they appear on a page of search results for your business name, is enough to unnerve you alone. When your business name and RipOffReport.com is in the title of a Google search result page, it immediately implies that you have done something wrong.  When these complaint posts are resolved to the satisfaction of the consumer, you will find that the post still stays up.  You might infer that the end game of these websites it to have something “bad” on every business name to drive traffic to their advertising campaigns.

Second, these websites make their living off of being sensational and controversial, so don’t expect any common courtesy or concern as to how a post is negatively affecting your business.  The owners of these websites get daily threats and letters from lawyers but most are ignored.  This can be incredibly frustrating especially when businesses could be losing hundreds or thousands of dollars each week the post remains visible. 

Is there any protection from your competitors who decide to make false reports?  Not really.  If someone wants to attack there are numerous ways to defame another company anonymously.  So what is a company to do when the Internet has created a virtual soapbox for anyone to instantly create a negative global message? 

Companies need to have a strategy that includes offensive and defense measures to control what consumers are writing about them on the Internet.  Companies that stand to be hurt by sites like:

• 1. www.ripoffreport.com
• 2. www.complaintsboard.com
• 3. www.pissedconsumer.com

should implement a proactive Internet Reputation Management strategy that includes positive reviews on the Internet to create a balanced view of their company and its products or services.

The defensive elements of an Internet Reputation Management strategy would start with ensuring that your business listing is correctly represented in all the top consumer review websites.  Once this task has been completed, an email needs to be drafted to your customers that would request and simplify the task of posting positive reviews on these sites. 

The customer participation email should have a few versions since there are so many places that you will eventually want to have reviews. You would not want to have only one version that shows links to 10 different review websites; it would overwhelm your customers.  I would recommend that you don’t put more than 3 choices in a customer email.

Since there are about a dozen websites that should be considered for your IRM platform, your first email could link to the highest value review sites like Google, Yahoo and Yelp.  Once these websites had ample reviews posted, you could send a second version of the email to target sites like InsiderPages, CitySearch and JudysBook.  The goal will be to have at least six positive reviews on the most popular public portals in your industry.

Do your research since every industry has specific high value web review properties.  For car dealers, that website is www.dealerrater.com.  For restaurants, they have a few high value sites like www.opentable.com and www.chowhound.com .  So, in addition to the big national review websites, don’t overlook industry specific websites.

Keep in mind that only REAL customers should be posting.  Often computer IP addresses are checked when a review is posted so 10 reviews from the same IP address would most likely raise a flag and the posts would be removed. 

Fake reviews are often easy to spot.  Encourage your customers to be specific in their reviews and write about whom they dealt with in your company and what was their specific interaction with your business. In your email, ask them to close the review with their full name and the State/City they live in.  By adding a name the post has an extra degree of credibility rather than a review being signed as “J. Smith”.

The offensive elements of an Internet Reputation Management (IRM) campaign will be proprietary to the firm that you hire to assist you with your specific problem.  However, in effect, an Internet Reputation Management consultant will often employ highly focused SEO strategies and content publishing platforms to push these negative reviews off of page one.

If you have not carefully reviewed what has been written about your business on the Internet, take the time to assign that task immediately.  Then formulate a company IRM policy that addresses any immediate needs and protects your business from future attacks. Ignorance in this area of Internet Marketing can be costly.

For more information on Internet Reputation Management, visit http://www.automotiveirm.com/