Online reviews. We love them as consumers when they help us decide what to buy and which businesses to trust. But what happens when your business gets a negative Google or Yelp review? Or even worse—if you find that your livelihood has been “review-bombed”, and you’re watching your star-rating drop as you see a steady stream of negative reviews, some from people you think may have never been your customers?

Removing negative reviews is controversial. On the one hand, business owners feel that negative reviews are unfair or unwarranted and may want them removed to protect their reputation. On the other hand, consumers and potential employees rely on reviews to make informed decisions, and eliminating reviews may be seen as dishonest or manipulative.

If you believe that your business needs help removing or managing negative reviews, whether it be from former employees leaving Glassdoor and Indeed reviews or angry consumers on Google and Yelp, here are four steps to take immediately to protect your reputation:

1. Document the situation: Keep a record of each negative review and any evidence you have that disputes their claims. Records may include screenshots of the reviews, timestamps, and other relevant information.
2. Report the reviews: If the negative reviews violate the platform’s policies, report them to the platform’s customer support team for possible removal. Provide specific information about the violation and any evidence that the reviews are part of an attack.
3. Seek professional advice: Public relations teams can help advise businesses on how to approach getting reviews removed, or even if they should be. For example, if the attacks contain illegal activities, such as harassment or defamation, legal intervention may be necessary to get the reviewer to remove the reviews.
4. Address the underlying issue: This may involve improving your products or services, addressing customer complaints, or addressing negative publicity.

Much of our work at Tucker/Hall includes guiding businesses as they carefully respond to negative reviews professionally and respectfully to show they are responsive and prepared to improve on the issues presented. However, there are instances when reviewers attack a business by leaving inaccurate or exaggerated comments to harm the company. Responding to these reviews, especially if they contain false allegations, may be more harmful than helpful.

We can work with you to help you protect your reputation and remove negative reviews on Google, Yelp, Glassdoor, and any other platform. Tucker/Hall can also develop a strategy with you to help build more positive reviews and momentum for your business online. If you need help removing negative reviews, or gaining more positive reviews, reach out directly to our digital lead, Theresa Collington, and she’ll work with you to devise a plan—email tcollington@evoqueag.online.

Google has launched a centralized page called A guide to Google Search ranking systems,  making learning about the backend of search and algorithms easier.

This new page joins others Google added this year related to their search algorithm systems.

Here’s a recap of the helpful resource pages Google has updated this year and what they do:

• List of Google Search ranking updates: Lists the latest ranking updates made to Google Search that are relevant to website owners.
• Google Search’s core updates and your website: Explains how updates to our core ranking systems work and how to assess and perhaps improve content.
• Google Search’s helpful content update and your website: Explains how our helpful content system works and how to assess and perhaps improve content.
• Google Search’s product reviews update and your website: Explains how our product reviews system works and how to assess and perhaps improve content.
• Google Search spam updates and your site: Explains how updates to our spam detection systems work and how to assess and perhaps improve content.

Also, check out the new Google Search Essentials:  if you’re looking to learn about the back end of a search, this is the perfect place to start on the path to success with Google Search.

If you’re interested in developing or updating a strategic plan to focus on how Google Search ranking, Google reviews, and leveraging website content can help your reputation and increase your business or company’s goals, contact Tucker/Hall VP Theresa Collington directly at tcollington@evoqueag.online.

At Tucker/Hall, we believe the data you collect should work hard for you. Here are some ways to make that happen: 

Think about the end to inform the beginning

It’s easy to want to dive right into a new project or campaign. However, setting aside time to consider the ultimate audience and outcome delivery requirements will help ensure the tracking and importance of data along the way. A finance-focused audience may be most interested in your Cost-per-Click outcomes while a more development-driven audience may want to understand the change in brand exposure to high-net-worth individuals. Without understanding what data you need to execute your end goal, you may miss an opportunity to collect pre-campaign information or you may overlook a data point of great interest to your stakeholders. Investing a little time on the front end can help pay dividends in the end by ensuring you are ready to collect the information that truly matters. 

Data should inform ACTION

Data that educates is wonderful – but data that drives action is priceless. While considering what data will resonate with your audiences and best serve your business’s goals, it is also important to consider how the data you have will help change your decisions or behaviors in the future. Knowing that your employees like your newsletter is good but knowing that they prefer no more than two emails a week is better. Knowing that your posts perform well is good but knowing that engagement spikes between 3 and 5 p.m. is better. Whenever possible, collect data that will help you understand when you should maintain or modify to optimize your results. 

Data matters, visuals help

When we think of communication, words often come first to mind. But don’t forget about the significant impact visuals can have on understanding and accepting information. It is wasteful to spend time considering and collecting excellent and actionable data that then is conveyed in a way that doesn’t resonate with your end audience. Leveraging size, color, shape, and space can help bring complex data to life and make it easier to understand.  

Tucker/Hall works with companies and leaders to help develop solid strategies for gathering and understanding the data that matters to communications. Feel free to contact Darren Richards at 813.228.0652 or via email at drichards@evoqueag.online to learn more about how Tucker/Hall can help your data work for you. 

Because Giving Tuesday is typically a central part of nonprofits’ end-of-year campaigns, these potential high returns could prove helpful to charities currently facing the headwinds affecting our economy. It is more important than ever for those nonprofits to effectively present their mission, culture, and impact, making clear why they are worthy of support. A strong communications strategy will undoubtedly be integral to any successful end-of-year fundraising push.

Predictions: What is Giving Tuesday going to look like?  

During this giving season, in particular, there is a lot of need for charitable contributions. With so many organizations relying on strong end-of-year fundraising, there will be a lot of competing calls to action and potentially less money to go around.

Nathaniel Heller, vice president and managing director of Geneva Global and Global Impact, explains for Fast Company, three seismic shifts will impact philanthropy in 2022: inflation, interest rates, and a disruption of the traditional private foundation model.

“We may ultimately look back at 2020 as the beginning of a truly generational shift in philanthropy that long outlives the pandemic. The need for innovative, brave philanthropy has never been greater,” he writes.

However, a recent survey from Edward Jones, found nearly one-fifth of American adults plan to give more money in 2022 than they did in 2021. And Whole Whale, a digital marketing agency for nonprofits, predicts an 18 percent increase in GivingTuesday revenue over last year.

Best Practices and Recommendations 

Put in the time to prepare early on 

Set realistic goals upfront. You need to have benchmarks to evaluate your success along the way and at the end of your campaign. Likewise, it is wise to create a strategic communications plan ahead of time to guide your efforts. This plan should be flexible enough to be adjusted in accordance with how well you are doing on the way to achieving your goals. Although you cannot predict potential external disturbances (e.g., from the pandemic, politics, natural disasters, etc.), your plan needs to be agile enough to allow you to maneuver through such crises. 

Hone your messaging 

Stay consistent with your brand identity and mission. Focus on what your organization does well. If it fits into your overall communications strategy, feel free to talk about what is going on in the country and the communities you serve, and how this has affected your organization and those whom you help.  

Give a tangible purpose for your ask. The crowdfunding mindset became a mainstay because people like to rally around specific objectives. Instead of asking supporters to fund general operating costs, try asking supporters to help you reach/grow a certain metric, expand in a particular way, continue to meet these needs, etc. 

Be intentional with your communication tactics  

Popular tactics like time-limited matching gifts are effective. Personal stories with an emotional appeal that people can connect with are usually well received. Make sure to use these appeals to clearly convey your organizational successes. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; if there is a tactic you have used in the past that works well for you, try to adapt it for our current times.

Given the growing portion of Giving Tuesday fundraising online, a digital strategy will be particularly important. According to the 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report, the communications tools most likely to inspire donors to give are email, social media, and websites. When utilizing these channels, make sure that you are reaching out to the right targets at a pace that keeps them engaged. When done correctly, your digital presence should establish and grow relationships and loyalty for your cause.  

Additional Resources 

• Giving Tuesday: Guide and Toolkit 
• Global Giving: Communications Templates 
• Nonprofit Tech for Good: Social Media Tips 
• MobileCause: #GivingTuesday2020 Strategies and COVID-19 Communication Strategies
• Sumac: End of Year Appeal Guide and Virtual Fundraising Tips 

Online Reputation

It can be scary to know that your online reputation is inextricably linked to the opinions of strangers. It’s easy to imagine a situation in which someone holds an unreasonable grudge against your business and goes on an online agitation campaign to “review-bomb” you. Whether an isolated fluke bad experience or an accusation against an employee that has nothing to do with the business, it doesn’t take much to incite the mob.

We deal with it regularly–aggrieved parties usually aren’t interested in apologies or explanations; they just want to take revenge for a perceived slight, and they’re not very responsive to new information. In some cases, the majority of negative reviewers that result from such a scenario have never interacted with your business—they’re just following the herd. Keep in mind that it costs these people nothing except a few seconds to leave a bad review, but it can cost your business much more.

Thankfully, you can mitigate the effects of such negative attention with a sound internal review site policy.

Here are some tips to guard against and recover from review-bombing:

Build a Strong Foundation

It’s harder to tear down a strong reputation than a weak one, so the better you manage your business’s online presence the more resilient you’ll be against negative reviews. This process starts with controlling where and how your business appears online, to the extent possible.

Get Google

Start by getting a Google My Business (GMB) account. It confers a ton of benefits, starting with SEO–Google likes its own products, after all. Your GMB profile is the first thing people see when they google you, so stock it with information. Your location, phone number, hours, website, menu–fill in all the details and it will function as a one-stop-shop for people looking into your business. In addition, it’s where people will review you.

While you’re creating your Google presence, get an AdWords account too. You don’t even have to purchase any ads–the point is to get access to Google’s support services. If you’re having a problem with reviews, call your ad account’s support number and ask to be transferred to GMB support. They’ll do it, no questions asked, and you’ll be able to talk to a real person about your problem.

Because Google reviews appear in search results, they are the most important reviews to monitor. Before anything bad happens, build that five-star reputation! Ask customers, whether verbally or through signs and discounts, to support you by reviewing you. Respond individually to reviewers, thanking those who rate you highly and sincerely reaching out to those who don’t. Goodwill has inertia, just like bad faith, so make it work for you! The better your rating and the more reviews you have, the harder it will be for people to bring it down.

Bad Reviews–What to Do?

If you’re experiencing a flood of unfounded negative reviews, report them all. Google’s policies are clear; if the review indicates that the reviewer didn’t actually have an experience at your business, or that it’s just there to harass or demean, they will remove it. To expedite the process, call Google support and tell them about your issue. It’ll draw their attention to the situation and may result in quicker removal, especially for the more egregious reviews. One unfortunate caveat, however: Google will not remove one-star reviews with no text, as they cannot ascertain whether the person had an authentic experience unless hundreds appear in response to some article or incident.

What About Other Sites?

We haven’t mentioned Yelp, TripAdvisor, or other platforms yet, and there’s a reason for that: Google is far more important. Yelp is the most prominent alternate site, but you’re better served by staying away from them. Although they deny it, Yelp has strong pay-for-play elements and heavily favors advertisers when it comes to support and search results. If you don’t have a Yelp profile for your business, keep it that way–you can’t leave nasty reviews on a nonexistent page! By limiting the number of places people can review-bomb you while getting maximum value from the sites where you do have a presence, you give yourself more control.

If you’re a retail business, you probably have a Facebook page and therefore another place where people can recommend you–or not. Thankfully, the relevant steps for Facebook are similar to those for Google; make an ad account, report harassment, get in touch, and stay vigilant.

Weather the Storm

Because some reviews slip through the cracks in Google’s (or Facebook’s) review policies, a review-bombing incident will likely negatively impact your overall rating. The steps outlined above will mitigate that effect, but can’t prevent it entirely; unfortunately, the online mob has considerable power. The best thing you can do after the storm has passed is to redouble your efforts to get real customers to review you positively. If the incident in question was clearly not your fault, you may be surprised by the level of support your loyal customers will show.

Review sites are the ultimate two-edged sword online. They can showcase your excellence to the world, but also be a source of pain if your profile is targeted with malicious intent. Controlling your presence, staying vigilant, and promoting positive reviews will help harden you against review-bombing, as well as make your business more attractive and accessible.

To learn about how Tucker/Hall can help you fight review-bombing and other online crises, contact Solomon Howard at showard@evoqueag.online or 813.28.0652 x1126.

Google Ad Grants work just like Google Ads online advertising, by displaying your message to people searching for keywords relevant to your organization. If you’re a qualifying nonprofit, you are eligible to receive $10,000 in in-kind Google Ads advertising every month. Your organization must be verified as a nonprofit organization by TechSoup or the local TechSoup partner. Governmental entities and organizations, hospitals and medical groups, schools, academic institutions, and universities are not eligible for Google for Nonprofits, but philanthropic arms of educational institutions are eligible. 

There are a few conditions Google places on participants’ advertising: 

• Ads placed through the Ad Grants program must be entirely text-based (no videos or images).  
• Ads appearing through the Ad Grants program will appear only on Google search results pages, in positions below the ads of paying advertisers. 

Tucker/Hall can work with you to conduct keyword research and ensure you are getting the most out of your Ad Grant. Optimizing your keywords is crucial to your participation in the Ad Grant program because Ad Grants accounts must maintain a five percent click-through rate (CTR) each month (at the account level, not necessarily each keyword). If the CTR requirement isn’t met for two consecutive months, your account will be temporarily deactivated.  

In order to ensure that their Ad Grants drive meaningful impact, Google also requires participating organizations to have conversion tracking set up following tailored requirements intended to suit the needs of nonprofits. Conversion goals may look a bit different in the nonprofit sector compared to a business, but the analytics tool is adaptable: whether you are trying to drive donations, membership registrations, volunteer sign-ups, new membership form completions, or other types of engagement on your website, there is likely to be a conversion goal to match your needs.  

Contact Tucker/Hall today if you think you may be eligible for a Google Ad Grant and let us help you adapt your communications plan to incorporate this useful tool. 

Facebook and Instagram 

Most people allocate a significant portion of their social media advertising dollars to Facebook and Instagram, which can be accessed through Facebook’s Ad Manager. This is a logical decision because it is the largest social media platform in the world, with 2.6 billion users, and much has been written about changes in its algorithms that inhibit the reach of organic content from Facebook Pages. For both the myriad targeting options it offers advertisers, and the broad audiences it allows advertisers to reach, it is an excellent advertising platform to start with. 

Facebook also offers advertisers the ability to create “lookalike” audiences. Once you have identified a “source audience” from a customer list matched with Facebook users, or people who presently follow your Facebook page, Facebook can create an audience for an ad campaign that is similar to the source audience, tailor it by size and geography (by country), and begin delivering your ad campaign to that audience of people who have a similar profile to those you know have an interest in your product or service. 

While the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League have spearheaded an advertising boycott against Facebook for what they consider to be Facebook’s inadequate response to hate speech on their platform, Facebook has responded by partnering with the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. to offer free digital training classes, business advice and panel discussions for Black-owned businesses across the country through the month of August. 

However, if your organization is committed to the ongoing #StopHateForProfit movement, there are still plenty of other platforms to consider.  

Twitter 

Twitter may not offer the nuanced targeting options available on Facebook but there are a few mechanisms in Twitter’s advertising platform that make it incredibly useful. 

• Keyword advertising: Interest and topic targeting on Twitter is much less nuanced than on Facebook. However, Twitter makes up for that by offering the option of targeting by keyword, reaching people who have used a specific word or hashtag in their Twitter post, or people who have interacted with tweets containing those words in the last seven days.  

For example, downtown Jacksonville’s Business Improvement District has made the hashtag #dtjax popular—if you are an advertiser interested in reaching people who have an interest in downtown Jacksonville because they live or work there, select dtjax as your keyword for an easy way to reach that audience. 

• Follower lookalikes: This option allows you to target people with interests similar to another account’s followers. You may wish to target competitors, brands that complement yours, or media and news outlets that report on your industry, to name just a few examples. 
• Events: Twitter maintains a list of prominent upcoming events that you can select from when building your advertising campaign, reaching audiences that are interested in events related to your campaign. Review Twitter’s 2022 Marketing Calendar here. 

LinkedIn 

LinkedIn bills itself as “the largest global community of professionals” and for that reason, it is by far the strongest B2B advertising option on social media.  

It offers you the option to target audiences by individual characteristics—alma maters, fields of study, job title, function, seniority, skills—as well as by company characteristics—name, industry, size, connections, etc. 

LinkedIn also offers two ad formats that are unmatched by the other platforms listed here.  

• Dynamic ads are tailored to your advertising campaign’s objectives while gleaning data from individual profiles to create customized ads for each viewer. 
• Sponsored messages place tailored content in LinkedIn inboxes along with other organic messages. 

One final benefit: their website tag, a simple piece of code that is easy to install in any content manager, allows you to track what companies are visiting your website, whether to identify competitors or follow up on prospective clients and retarget visitors with subsequent advertising campaigns. 

Contact Tucker/Hall to discuss how a well-designed social media advertising plan could benefit your company or organization. 

A conversion is any significant interaction with a product or service produced from marketing efforts. Some examples of these interactions could be a visit to a company’s website, a like on Facebook, or clicking a targeted link.

Growing your conversion rate is essential if you want to increase your returns and make the most of every cent you spend on digital marketing. Fortunately, there is an ever-increasing amount of information on how to improve your conversion rates.

Here are three effective ways to increase your digital ad conversions:

Track.

You can’t improve your performance if you don’t know how you’re performing in the first place. In order to understand how your ad is doing, you’ll need to have accurate conversion tracking in place. 

One of the best—and simplest—ways to track conversions is Google Ads. This platform lets you measure your own custom conversions with independently generated code that can be pasted into almost any webpage. 

You can start analyzing trends immediately after you’ve set it up. Google Ads will even let you know where your problem areas are so you can fine-tune your strategy.

Socialize.

Social media networks like Twitter and Facebook have become required features of any well-rounded marketing strategy, but it is a waste of time to create corporate profiles if you haven’t developed a clear digital strategy. To use your social media profiles to help you increase conversions, you’ll need to make sure that your brand’s messaging, look, and tone seamlessly blend across platforms. 

Mobilize.

In 2020, it is crucial that your campaign be adaptive and far-reaching. Mobile devices use a larger part of internet traffic than traditional computers, and this trend doesn’t look like it is going to slow down anytime soon. 

In order to be successful with digital advertising, you need to make sure that every part of your online presence is seamlessly accessible across platforms. Whether it’s on a smartphone, tablet, desktop, or anything in between, you want your ads and content to be easy to read.

Usability

If navigating to important content is a chore for users, loyal clients will get frustrated quickly. Whether people are coming for specific information or browsing, it’s essential to have an intuitive interface and organized layout. Any page on the site is no more than three clicks away from any other. You don’t just want visitors; you won’t return visitors.

Performance

Speed is essential to user experience. If your website lags or buffers, there are many other sites for your visitors to go to instead. And if your website is down more than once in a blue moon, then you can trust that you’re losing valuable opportunities.

Quality

A well-designed, high-performing website won’t retain users if the content is low quality. Each time someone visits your website, they should come away with something of real value, something that your competitors may not have been able to give. This is how you’ll impress people and hopefully turn them into loyal clients.

Search Engine Optimization

Look at your keywords and how they’re being used. Are high-performing keywords being used enough? Are you relying too much on these keywords and not providing enough high-quality content to back them up?

Search the back end of the site, too; check for an XML sitemap, page descriptions, etc. Google may be mighty, but you want to make its job as easy as possible.

Website audits can be tedious, but they don’t have to be daunting, especially if you’re diligent about maintenance.

Writing headlines is a specialized but necessary skill for anyone writing for an online audience, and there are no shortcuts. With readers’ short attention spans and the competition from crowds of competing writers, you have to catch their attention with concise, sincere language. Here are some tips.

Make it Relatable

You may find that your content is best framed as a personal story, which can be especially useful if the subject matter is controversial; personal experience can disarm critics and skeptics. However, you must keep in mind that anecdotes aren’t data and that readers need a reason to care about your perspective. Make it clear from the headline that this is about your experience, not necessarily everyone’s.

Use Facts and Evidence

People tend to be selectively skeptical. They frequently accept claims with which they already agree unexamined while applying arbitrarily higher standards of evidence to claims with which they don’t. Therefore the more controversial your claims, the more likely people will need solid evidence to accept them. If you’re writing such a piece with substantial evidence, lead it in the headline. It’ll help establish your credibility early and make your readers more likely to accept your contentions.

Avoid Clickbait

Don’t make promises your piece can’t deliver. Doing so might get you a click, but at the expense of future clicks. Once you burn someone with a flashy headline that leads to poor or unrelated content, it’s unlikely they’ll be back for more. Don’t drop cute hints, either—tell your reader what the piece is about. Don’t make them click to find out who a “Hollywood star” or “politician” is. A good headline is catchy and concise, not vague or misleading.

Write More Than One

Instead of racking your brain for the perfect headline, try writing as many quality headlines as you can think of. This will not only give you a good selection pool, but it will also help you frame your content from different perspectives. The headline is the shortest part of your piece yet the most important. Don’t waste the opportunity to get and keep an audience’s attention.