**by Matthew Berk**
Whether they like it or not, every small business has a digital
footprint: who they are, what they do, where they are located, and how
customers feel about their products and services. Dialogue is in the
air: Google's newly announced focus on real-time search (read: search
of dialogue), and the rumors of a possible acquisition of Yelp (one of
the key consumer-focused local dialogue repositories) both bear
witness to the increasing prominence of consumer chatter on the web.
As we wrote recently (�Local Search: A Solved Consumer Problem
<http://searchengineland.com/local-search-a-solved-consumer-problem-28341>
�), Marchex has turned search and data mining technology on its head
to help SMBs understand and leverage their digital footprints. And
activity in the beta program of our reputation management service has
revealed some pretty critical insights. Here are three notable
observations about the ways small and medium size businesses are
interacting with customers online.
*Engagement.*. In focus groups, we saw SMBs filter, slice, dice, and
dig into how customers describe them. On average, beta users are
spending upwards of 9 minutes per session, with initial visits much
higher. Given the ability to filter by affect, dig into statistically
relevant phrases, and understand discrepancies in listing data, SMBs
are actively engaging with their footprint, most for the first time
ever.
*Competitive insight*. The most frequently used feature is the
ability to compare key phrases and aggregated opinions with a specific
competitor. In their day-to-day operations, almost all of the SMBs we
spoke to have specific competitors against whom they benchmark their
business, and this is reflected in their use of the product to
actively compare how they stack up in the minds of customers.
*Operational Decision Making*. In surveying beta users, we learned
that one of the most useful features of reputation management was
helping SMBs make better decisions about how they operate their
business: Is the new chef well received? Is customer service up to
par? Do customers like the selection of brands we carry? Etc.
Most of all, what we're realizing as we watch and learn from SMBs is
the increased need for delivering products that engage and deliver
real, actionable insight into how those SMBs are perceived in the
minds of customers. As we all know, to market and operate effectively,
the ability to understand your customers is a must-have information
advantage, and technology should—and can—help us.
Delivering clicks, calls, and profile pages, as we've learned from
our own business, is a necessary, but by itself insufficient way to
serve the full marketing needs of the SMB. After all, if customers
don't like the new chef, are made uncomfortable by the supercilious
store manager, or find that projects aren't delivered on time and
budget, what's the point of driving more leads?
To keep its leadership position in search, Google will need to
increasingly invest in real-time search of consumer dialogue on the
web. And to serve the SMB as broadly as we must, our industry will
need to invest in products that transform customer chatter to
actionable marketing and operational intelligence what we're calling
an information advantage for the SMB. Otherwise, it's all just clicks,
listings, opinion and noise.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Matthew Berk <http://searchengineland.com/author/matthew-berk/>
is the Executive Vice President of Product Engineering for Marchex
<http://www.marchex.com>
, a leading local search and advertising company that provides
innovative online and call-based advertising products and services for
local and national advertisers and advertising resellers.
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