It was right after the 2016 election cycle and people on both sides of the political spectrum were divided like never before. I advised Business people to stay out of the fray. Because, everyone has their own opinions, and some you will not agree with. But for the most part, if you are a business you will do business with anyone who wants to pay you or buy your products. (Within reason of course, not speaking of hate groups or the like)
So now, I am bringing up the same topic again. We just had the most contentious Supreme Court hearings ever. Once again both sides are so divided. So again I am giving the same advice. In terms of your business website and social media accounts, stay out of politics.(Unless of course you are a political adviser, or commentator makes a living off of politics)
Succeeding in many businesses today means having a broad appeal. You want to take in as much business as possible. Can you imagine if Amazon before they would allow you to purchase asked what your political views were? Of course they wouldn’t, and this of course is a silly example. At the same time, the point is valid, get business from everyone you can, and maximize your profits. This of course is simple economics, but it is something that can be affected by something as simple as a post which many of your potential customers/clients find offensive. The last thing your business needs is to be boycotted.
Personally, I even advised clients to stay out of the fray on their personal social media accounts. The reason is simple, a lot of times you get referrals and recommendations from friends & contacts on social media. Now if you alienate people, you are probably eliminating half your referral sources, at least among your friends and contacts.
Social media has allowed people to spread their views far and wide. It Is one of the truly great things about being an American with free-speech. But that isn’t what this post is about. I am taking a look strictly from a business standpoint. So yes, while you’ll certainly have a right to let your feelings be known, as a small business it certainly isn’t advisable and not a great marketing strategy.
There are several ways to do this, and this post will show you a few ways:
Proving to the world that you are who you say you are, is a big deal in a time in history where you receive fake emails, people create fake webpages and more.
Quit simply, verification proves you are who you say you are. As an example, on some Twitter accounts you will see the verification mark. Twitter verifies many celebrities, and other public figures so people aren’t confused by fake accounts. You see this for actors, politicians and more. But, they also will verify other accounts. As an example, Twitter verified my account @roosites (see image). Facebook also verified us as well. So if nothing else when people come to my pages, they know I am who I say I am.
Testimonials are great way to show people that your company is a legitimate entity and also allow you to brag without having it come directly from you. But, here are some important things to know about testimonials. Testimonials which are vague or don’t show a person’s whole name or their company our next to useless.
“They are a great company”
~Bill
(This may not be fake, but it sure looks fake!)
What I do is I recommend to my clients that when they show testimonials, only if the person allows them to show their full name, their company as well as their title. As you can see below, this is a real person from a real company having a real review testimonial. Nothing legitimizes a company like great testimonials from real people. See below, here is an example from my testimonials page.
Most people search for things by location. So if you are looking for a plumber, you don’t typically just type in ”plumber”. You typically will type: My Town + Plumber as an example.
By having your company listed in local directories, This will further legitimize your company. In the old days people would just pick up there yellow pages and that’s how they found you. But as we know, those days are gone. However there are still local directories, Google My Business, YP.com (The old Yellow Pages ), as well as a bunch of other local directories. Start with Google My Business, this will give you a listing that appears right when people are searching for your business or similar businesses like yours on Google Search and Maps. See my Boston listing below as an example. We can recommend several ways to gain local business citations. Contact us for assistance.
These are just a few simple ways to add legitimacy to your small business. There are of course many different ways to do this, and we would be glad to help you. All of our support plans include time each month for working on your company’s credibility through time-tested methods.
