CityVoter Blog

With social media being so wide spread these days, sometimes we often take advantage and forget that some of the language that we use in regards to the Twitterverse can sound foreign to people who aren’t avid users. We decided to take a step back today and get back to the basics of Twitter and how it can help your business.

What is a Retweet (RT)? A Retweet helps spread the word about interesting links or tweets from other users. Retweets can be manually done by copying and pasting the post with “RT” in front of the users Twitter handle and their tweet. It can also be down automatically by hitting the button with two arrows as seen below:

Asking for a retweet on your important updates has shown to be a great way to get your followers engaged. When they retweet your tweet, it allows your tweet to be seen by all of their followers which is great exposure. Be sure to thank users who RT you!

What is the pound sign used for? The hashtag can be one of the most complicated features on Twitter for users to understand. It is a topic with # in front of it. These are searchable and help organize topics of interest and information. Don’t overuse hashtags! Your entire tweet should not be made up of hashtags- it will seem spammy.

Todo Un Poco used #Mexican and #KCRA3ALIST hashtags in their tweet asking for votes. This helps their tweet be found by people who have similar interest in Mexican food or culture as well as fellow A-List businesses and voters.

What is the at sign used for? At signs are used for @replies and @mentions. An @reply is a way for people to reply directly to one of your tweets. An @mention is an update or tweet that specifically calls out to another user as the above user did to our Sacramento A-List contest account by including our twitter handle, @SacAList, as opposed to just writing the contest name.

Once you get the hang of twitter, it can be a great way to get people aware of your business and spread the word about your nomination. It is best to tweet about things that are relevant to your business to get like-minded followers. Search for people who are interested in what you are selling and follow them and @mention them to find and gain potential customers. Connect with people who are influencers and also find people who are tweeting about you and your business to engage with them. Follow your followers back and get them to retweet you and start a conversation.

We also have useful tools in the Business Center to help get the most out of your social campaign during the contest. Check them out and let us know what you do to campaign on Twitter in the comments!

Whether at work, a restaurant or the gym, it seems as though iPhones, Androids and iPads are everywhere. According to Digital Buzz, that’s not very far from the truth; in fact, mobile devices are fast becoming the most popular way to access the Web, and Mashable reports Morgan Stanley analysts think mobile will be bigger than desktop Web use by 2015. But what is the difference between a standard website and a mobile site, and why is a mobile site a good idea for your small business? The short answer to both of those questions is accessibility. Imagine trying to fit everything on your home page onto your phone’s screen. It would be crowded, difficult to read, and even harder to navigate. Mobile sites can alleviate those usability issues, reduce load time and, perhaps most importantly, make it super-simple for users to contact you while they’re on the go.

Setting up a mobile website isn’t as difficult as you might imagine, and following a few of the tactics below can help you — and your customers — get the most out of your mobile site.

1. Stick with easy navigation. Large font, big buttons and short sentences can make your mobile site easier to navigate. Forcing visitors to work hard to view info will likely cause them to give up, and move on. A major advantage of mobile sites is that they’re formatted to mobile devices, so everything is larger, but limited to a specific width so users won’t have to scroll to find their way through your site.

Hint: Check out your mobile site on an actual mobile device…if you find it difficult to navigate, imagine how visitors will feel!

2. Make it useful. A customer is probably accessing your business’s site from a mobile device because  he or she wants to get in touch with you…what he or she doesn’t want to do is scroll through a number of pages before finding out how to reach you.

Hint: Keep the info your visitors are looking for on the home page, and make sure it’s easy to read and click; try adding a prominent “Contact Us” button.

3. Keep it simple. Remember, on a mobile device, viewers are likely interested in quickly learning about your products, finding directions and/or getting in touch with you. While you want your site to be informative, too much info will give your visitors more pages to sift through before they get to their desired destination.

Hint: If you think you’ve added too much content, chances are you have. Think about consolidating it through the use of bullet points.

4. Speed it up. Tons of images, videos and unnecessary content can make your mobile site’s load time far too long.

Hint: Save the flashy stuff for your main website! You don’t need to trash all the bells and whistles you love, just think mobile = minimal.

5. Get social! Adding social media buttons to your site so you can communicate with users in the social space is key.

Hint: No need to add every social site on the Internet — Facebook and Twitter is a good place to start.

Did this post inspire you to go mobile? Tell us why or why not in the comments section!

Never has customer service been as important as it is today. With social media, online review sites and blogs, the customer oftentimes has more of a voice and influence than a company does. Budgets no longer matter as the power of influence has shifted. Customers have the power to shape the perceptions of a businesses brand, for better or worse.

But that doesn’t mean that the “customer is always right,” a long standing mantra for businesses everywhere.

Keeping customers happy is critical, but in many ways the pendulum has swung too far in their favor. What I mean by that is that because customers have so much of a voice and so many platforms to weigh in, their expectations are now higher and in many cases, skewed. Customers can sometimes become unreasonable in their demands, expecting to get whatever they ask because they have the leverage of a poor review or a nasty tweet. With small businesses this is even more pronounced, because in general they are less “well known.” If someone says online they were unhappy with a company like Best Buy, chances are that’s not going have the same impact that it would for a local dry cleaner. People are more likely to “move on” when it comes a small business option after one bad review.

The challenge is knowing how to navigate the tricky waters of a public spat with a customer on Facebook, a blog or Yelp, including when to finally give up and disengage when you’ve done all you possibly can. There are ways to step away from an angry customer and still retain a good reputation in the minds of others. Here are three tips on how to navigate a situation like this:

• Gather all the information: Oftentimes a dispute is simply a misunderstanding, something that can be worked out with a simple conversation either online or in person. When notified of a potential problem reach out directly through whatever platform the customer used (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and try to get more information, while showing a desire to help rectify the situation. The details will be important to you as an owner, but also important for everyone else to see.
• Show you truly want to help: No matter what the complaint or the dispute, make a good faith effort to help the customer right whatever was wrong. If that means giving a discount, refund or replacing something, those efforts should be made. Articulate what it is publicly that will be done for the customer and how it might work to regain their trust. Remember, the response is in public, be it Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, a blog, etc. So the response isn’t just for the customer, it’s for potential customers.
• If your best isn’t good enough, walk away 95 out of 100 times, the efforts made will be enough and a small business owner will succeed in having a customer stay a customer. But there will be times when no matter what concessions are made, it won’t be enough. Sometimes disengaging in a professional way is the only option. Explain clearly what was done to come to a resolution, but if the customer demands something that’s unreasonable, apologize and explain why nothing else can be done. Even if a customer has the “last word,” take heart in ending the conversation professionally knowing you did all that was possible. Others will see that you put your best foot forward and hopefully appreciate that. And a public attempt is always better than no response at all.

Over a long enough timeline in business an unhappy customer is inevitable, you can’t make everyone happy 100% of the time. But by spelling out clearly what has been done and the effort that has been put in, you’re showing customer service is important to the business and potential customers.

Have you had to deal with an angry customer in a public forum? How did you deal with it? Was it a positive or negative resolution?