When it comes to travel, user review sites have proved a complex challenge for business owners. While these sites have become utterly invaluable tools for travelers, they’ve also been an issue for some property owners dealing with negative or defamatory reviews.

Trip Advisor, arguably the most popular travel review site on the web, is being sued over claims that there are false allegations published about businesses on the site, according to HotelMarketing.com.

This type of allegation is nothing new in the world of user reviews. Ideally, any user review site has a system in place where suspicious reviews are weeded out by a variety of different processes, including the ability for other users to flag them. Trip Advisor does allow the ability for users to “report problems with a review”.

The whole point of a user review site is that the law of averages comes into play – so, one negative review likely won’t affect an average rating, as long as the rest of the reviews are mostly positive. However, there’s always the issue of potentially false reviews making their way into the mix, hence the lawsuit.

In particular, this lawsuit is dealing with accusations of food poisoning. Kwikchex, the group initiating the lawsuit, alleges:

“We have found many thousands of anonymous posts on online review sites that accuse specific businesses of being responsible for food poisoning. These posts are unproven and in almost all cases are unreported to the proper authorities.”

Accusations of food poisoning are definitely a serious matter – so is this lawsuit the right way to go? Will this lead to some sort of system where users have to prove they were customers in order to write reviews? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Stay tuned for a blog post about the Top Five Ways for Business Owners to Handle Negative Reviews.

In this day and age, who hasn’t felt the sting of email overload? Thousands of messages flooding into your inbox, with no way to immediately determine what’s important and what’s not. It’s time consuming to sort through the clutter, but the always-innovative Google is rolling out a new feature to help clear the way.

Gmail has coined the phrase “bologna” to describe all the non-important mail we receive. It’s not Spam, it’s just bologna, and the new system will help relegate it to the back burner, where it belongs.

According to the official Google blog, the system will filter your inbox into three sections: “Important and Unread”, “Starred” and “Everything Else”. The brilliant part is that Gmail will start filtering your emails for you, based on a whole host of criteria, including who you email most often, and which emails you open and reply to. There are also buttons to help you assist the system in categorizing the mail, which will allow you to mark certain conversations as important or not important.

This system will be rolling out to all Gmail users (including apps users!) over the next week or so, according to the blog. So be on the lookout, and let us know how you like the new system!

When I was in 4th grade, I got my first computer.  It was a TRS-80 Color Computer from Radio Shack, and in 1983, it was big news. It had a tape deck for the hard drive and I could manage to program my name to repeat itself across the screen.  Smooooooth.  Call me the OG of Geek in the Pink.

Of course, I didn’t learn my fancy programming tricks from just playing on a new computer. It came with a manual and a cartoon guide with a talking computer named Compy, who was my first digital teacher. By the end of the year, I had mastered all of the code this manual had to offer.  Information was available for me to learn how to use my equipment, but you know what?  Knowing this information didn’t give me the magical power to author new technology for Radio Shack or steal their market share. In other words, a 4th grader being knowledgeable in their product had no effect whatsoever on their business model.

So I keep wondering, why are agencies so afraid of sharing their strategies and processes with clients?

Agencies (I am using this as a broad term to include service providers and vendors) are notorious for “not playing well together” in fear that the other guy might swipe a process or a tactic for his own business benefit.  Wha what? Really?  It’s not like the formula for Coke: company processes are so individual and specific to each and every person working on the account.  Or at least they should be.

There are two kinds of process that agencies employ.  One is a set of formulaic best practices that a monkey could execute.  “Strategy in a Box” is stretching what this actually is.  The second kind is based on the talent the agency employs – stemming from individual right-brain thinking.  Nothing is duplicated, but strength of experience allows some general “standards” across the board.

This has always been the debate people have whenever I speak.  It’s so often that speeches are really just sales pitches.  You spill enough to make the audience-goer think you’re the wizard of your industry … then tell that them HOW you do it is the magic part.  OK, wizard of Oz … lead us to a heart.

Regardless of who I’ve been speaking to or what company I was representing, I’ve always been a “leave it on the dance floor” kinda gal.  Yes, I’m walking them through strategy I have formulated for clients. Yes, I am telling them where I’m learning about trends so they can follow.  Yes, I am teaching them how to use the tools our company charges for, themselves. And. It. Feels. Great.

When you lock yourself down to not sharing information you’re doing more damage than good for both the client and your own company.  The internet has been a notoriously shady business.  New models and “just one click to profits” (let’s not even mention Y2K) are rampant, and trust in this arena is scarce (with good reason).

Let me give you some examples from my side of things that should be shared and not held as proprietary:

Market Strategy/Marketing Plans – These are critical to team success with multi agencies for a client.  OK, OK, I know what you are thinking … but it’s our roadmap! Um, ya.  The only reason you should be scared of sharing it is if they all look alike!  These were your individual plans for this particular client – they really don’t apply to anyone else.

Thinking the client will no longer need you or the other agencies are going to duplicate your work is just plain stupid.

I’ve seen a Van Gogh, yet I can’t recreate it.  I’ve read a Stephen King novel, but I’m not about to write one, either.  Being afraid of having your talent duplicated indicates a lack of talent. A true marketing talent creates for the individual clients and uses strength of experience as guidance.  Experience is NOT demonstrated in any plan you write … it’s a peek into the end of the process.

Social/SEO/Media Strategy – I lumped these together so I don’t sound like a broken record.  But the key here is that none of these are alike for any one client, and the trends that drive results change CONSTANTLY and are OPEN for ANYONE TO FIND.

SEO ranking is cheap.  Cheap Cheap Cheap.  Any SEO company can get you ranked.  Yep, I said it.  But, it’s the individual client strategy that a talented strategist will steer.  Choosing keywords should be significantly different from one client to the next.  Success on one destination might not work in another and very often doesn’t.

Social Strategy -  I just have to say HAHAHAHAHAHA (wait have to breathe) HAHAHA to anyone that thinks they have a foolproof formula for success.  I’ve been lucky enough to work with one of our clients that has reached 115K fans on FB.  I also have clients that have under 1K followers.  Using the same exact formula (if duplication WORKED), you’d think I could guarantee that to all of my clients.  That’s like guaranteeing when a hurricane is going to hit.  I can create conditions, I can propose campaigns … but it’s my strategy and the brand strength that have to make the perfect storm.  Thus, I just finished a two day seminar showing destinations every possible “tactic” that I use for success.  Viral is just that … viral.  You have to be creative, put it out there and keep doing it until you strike gold.

Quit hiding what you do and share with the client. You BOTH have to be on board for any success to transpire.

Media Placement – One sentence: You negotiate agency rates, that’s your advantage.

Bottom line, don’t trust anyone that doesn’t trust you.  If they aren’t giving up the goodies with every question you ask – if they’re holding your assets hostage because you aren’t in the know – if they’re telling you it’s magic … it’s bullshit.

Being human, we tend to focus on our shortcomings. Finding fault is a common theme in many workplaces and personal lives. But does this attitude really benefit us? Not according to Tom Rath, the author of StrengthsFinder 2.0.

As a researcher with Gallup, Rath has been conducting strengths-based assessments for years, and his studies have shown remarkable results. As it turns out, the difference in performance between people who play to their strengths, and those who don’t, is astonishing. Those who are in the “strengths zone” (as he calls it), are six times more likely to be engaged at work. Imagine the productivity if everyone were working in their areas of strength!

To help people determine and work towards these particular assets, Rath and team developed the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test. This 35-minute test will tell you your top five personal strengths, what they mean, and how you can create action items to incorporate them into your daily life. (Note – you do have to purchase the book in order to take the test. The book gives you a personalized code to use online.)

I found that taking the test invigorated me, and shined a light on qualities I knew I had, but might not be utilizing as often as I should.

There are a total of 34 specific themes, which equals a whole lot of possible combinations when it comes to yourself, your colleagues, your bosses, and everyone else you surround yourself with. These strengths are also extremely significant when it comes to working together as a team.

All in all, I think playing to the strengths of each individual is a simple yet brilliant concept. No one can be all things to all people, and productivity and job satisfaction would be immeasurably higher if all individuals could play to their individual abilities. Have any of you taken the StrengthsFinder assessment? We’d love to hear your results & stories!

There’s nothing like reading an insightful, intelligent blog post to get those creative juices a-flowin’! But you know this – hence why you’re here. Well, we wanted to spread the wealth and pass along this terrific list of 33o of the Top B2B Marketing & Sales blogs, courtesy of Proteus. You’ll find some invaluable info and goodies here, so bookmark away!

Bestselling author and marketing whiz Seth Godin made a bold statement this week, announcing he was abandoning traditional book publishing altogether, in favor of the digital alternatives.

According to Godin, in his interview with Mediabistro, “I like the people, but I can’t abide the long wait, the filters, the big push at launch, the nudging to get people to go to a store they don’t usually visit to buy something they don’t usually buy, to get them to pay for an idea in a form that’s hard to spread…”

Godin is a brilliant marketing mind, but I think he’s missing the point. Yes, you can reach larger numbers of people easily online, but there’s an emotional element missing that only books can satisfy. If you love a book, you dog-ear the pages, highlight passages, and read it over and over. You just don’t get that kind of interaction on an e-reader or through a blog. Books may be old-fashioned, but they can certainly inspire loyal and engaged audiences like no other medium.

Books aren’t going anywhere. They induce a certain charm and fill a need that no website can satisfy. Personally, I enjoy holding a book in my hands, feeling the tactile nature of the paper, the bind, the smell of the new pages – that’s a hell of a sensation.

I couldn’t disagree more with Mashable’s assertion that “Paper books aren’t a particularly elegant way to spread an idea in the age of blogs, e-readers and social media.” Books are about as elegant as it gets!

Being a digital girl, I completely understand the importance and amazing value of e-readers, social media and other forms of communication – but nothing’s gonna put books out of business. There’s room for both the tactile and the digital worlds to co-exist. After all, you can’t fill a bookshelf with a stack of Kindles.

So Facebook has introduced its new Places tab (or started to … it’s rolling out slowly across the country), and you may be asking, what the hell do I care? Well, if you’re a business, this is good news for brand awareness.

The new Facebook Places feature will allow businesses and organizations to claim their locations. All you have to do is click on a link that reads “Is this your business?”, and Facebook will verify you’re the official owner or rep through a phone call.

This way, people will be able to officially check into your headquarters or store branch.You will have control over your own “Place”, and be able to edit (according to Facebook): “your Place’s address, contact information, business hours, profile picture, admins and other settings.” And it’s FREE. Hint to business owners: DO IT!

Additionally, if your place isn’t listed as of yet, you will be able to add it. See details here.

Facebook also alludes to performing a “Page to Place merge”, which undoubtedly means it will be possible to merge a current business page with a Facebook Place – great news for tracking and additional exposure. (However, according to Tech Crunch, this feature may not be available for all advertisers right away.)

But I digress. If you own your place, you WILL be able to advertise it! This is a HUGE opportunity for marketers, and if the check-ins take off (as they very likely will), it will open the door for millions of local businesses to take additional advantage of the massive power of Facebook.

It’s yet to be determined how this will play out for DMOs, as the social media behemouth hasn’t made it clear whether entire cities or regions will be deemed Facebook Places on their own. Stay tuned for updates as the tool is implemented!

When it comes to managing a Facebook page, unless you’re a social networking addict and able to stay on top of every new trend – it’s likely you’ll need some guidance on how to create an effective setup, and keep fans coming back. Well, have no fear! This terrific list of 40 highly effective Facebook pages, courtesy of Sparkyboy.com, should give you some brilliant ideas on how to make your brand stand out.

Has the King of Internet Search been bumped down a peg? Well, according to the latest report from Comscore, the mighty Google did slip .4% in search share. And who picked up the slack? Yahoo!

Yahoo may have been forgotten by many when it comes to search, since Bing and Google have been the buzzwords in recent months – but it looks like they picked up where Google lost out. Bing didn’t increase or decrease from June to July, but stayed steady in third place.

What does this mean for marketers? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Both Yahoo and Microsoft sites are extremely relevant, even though Google does retain the lion’s share of search. Between the two, they still maintain 28.1% of search share, a large percentage that marketers can’t afford to ignore. So in addition to PPC, SEO & SEM endeavors geared towards these sites in particular are worth the investment.

You know social networking has truly made the mainstream when they start making major motion pictures about it. And so it is with Facebook, and the upcoming “The Social Network”, based on the exploits of Mark Zuckerberg as he created the world’s most successful social site of all time.

I was a little skeptical when I first heard about the flick. My main thought was – will it be overdramatized (as most non-fiction flicks are)? But I must say, the trailer totally intrigued me. The truth is, most people who make it big have a story worth telling – a story that translates well into Hollywood glitz and glamour. Check it out, and let us know what you think!