Million Signatures

Posts Tagged ‘Public’

Article by Devang Barot

Before Posting Be Sure You Follow The Review GuidelinesShare your experience on Google PlacesWe want people searching the Internet to get the information they need to make smart decisions about places, and to find the places that are just right for them. We would love your help in doing that and encourage you to share your experiences and opinions, both good and bad, by writing reviews about places you visit through Google Maps so that they appear on the relevant Place page.Tips for Writing Great ReviewsGreat reviews come in different shapes and sizes. If you’re not sure where to begin, here are a few tips to help you get started:• Be informative and insightfulYour review should be specific and relevant to the place you are reviewing and describe what other patrons are likely to experience. Describe why you liked or disliked the place. Highlight what makes the place special and try to share something novel. From favorite dishes to secret sale racks, reviews can describe unique experiences about a business.• Keep it realPeople read reviews to learn about real experiences from real people, so be authentic. Keep your reviews to your own, direct experience with a place. Try to describe your experience as accurately as possible, including both positive and negative aspects.• Be respectfulWe don’t expect that every interaction you have with a place or business will be perfect. Sometimes, you’ll want to share negative feedback. Even if you’re frustrated, be sure your criticism is constructive. Business owners can use feedback to improve their business, but remember — they’re people too.• Write in stylePeople will pay more attention to what you say when you write your review thoughtfully. Keep it readable and don’t use excessive capitalization or punctuation. Use good grammar, check your spelling, and don’t use excessive profanity. Choose the right length: People aren’t necessarily looking for formal write-ups, they want to know what’s notable about a particular place. Whether it takes an essay or share your thoughts and be creative.Does Google remove reviews?We want people to get ratings, reviews and recommendations that are relevant, helpful, and trustworthy. To protect both business owners and customers, we have systems in place that may remove individual reviews that include any of the following:• Inappropriate contentWe want to provide a clean and positive user experience for all users. We may remove reviews that contain or link to unlawful content, or content that violates our Google Places content policy. We may also remove reviews that include plagiarism or are copied from other sites.• Advertising and spamNobody likes spam and it can only make its author look bad. Don’t use reviews for advertising or post the same or similar reviews across multiple places. Obviously, don’t post fake reviews intended to boost or lower ratings.• Off-topic ReviewsReviews should describe your personal, first hand experience with a specific place. Please do not post reviews based on someone else’s experience, or that are not about the specific place you are reviewing. Reviews are not a forum for personal attacks, rants or crusades. Please also do not use reviews to report incorrect information about a place — use the Report a problem link for that place instead.• Conflict of interestReviews are only valuable when they are honest and unbiased. Even if well-intentioned, a conflict of interest can undermine the trust in a review. For instance, do not offer or accept money or product to write positive reviews about a business, or to write negative reviews about a competitor. Please also do not post reviews on behalf of others or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with the place you are reviewing.Sometimes our algorithms may flag and remove legitimate reviews in our effort to combat abuse. We know this is frustrating when it happens but believe that overall, these measures are helping everyone by ensuring that the reviews appearing on Google Places are authentic, relevant and useful.Can I get a review removed?For reviews by Google users, you can use the Flag as inappropriate link next to a review to report it as inappropriate. We will then check if the review violates these guidelines.However, note that Google Places reviews are a forum for users to share both positive and negative opinions. We do not arbitrate disputes and more often than not, we leave the review up.If you received a review you do not agree with for your business, we encourage you to use business owner responses to reconcile the situation with the customer. We know a negative review can be frustrating, but don’t be discouraged. Engaging with a customer to address their concerns can often turn an initially negative experience into a positive one.Google Place pages also display reviews from sites across the web. We generally do not remove these reviews unless they have been removed from the original site or when required by law.Be kind in your reviewTips for creating a free business listing in Google Places: business typesTuesday, December 21, 2010 | 8:35 AMAre you curious about what kind of businesses are eligible to appear in the free listings that appear on Google and Google Maps? In this second post in our blog series about how to create a clear and effective business listing via Google Places, we’ll help you to determine if Google Places is right for your business.Business types and models that work with Google Places Google Places is meant to facilitate customer interaction with brick-and-mortar businesses and service providers. Therefore, the business owner or employee who is officially authorized to represent their particular business location must have a physical address in order to comply with our quality guidelines.Having a physical address means that your business has a specific location (typically including a street name and a street number), can be visited by potential customers or business partners, and has a specific phone number at that location where you can be reached during operating hours. Including your physical address in your free business listing helps customers figure out where they can find you.Businesses that aren’t right for Google PlacesHere are a few examples of business types that are not currently eligible to use Google Places:• Web shops that operate exclusively online and have no office for visitor traffic or direct client interaction• Businesses without actual physical locations (your living room, the airfield where you offer paragliding lessons, nor the river where your rafting tours start do not qualify as business locations)• Companies with non-permanent locations like a farmers market stall, a mobile hot dog vendor, or a one-time concert event at a local café• Real estate companies that don’t have a central office and are trying to advertise individual apartments where no one can be reached in person or by phoneFor operations like these, rather than appearing in Google and Google Maps search results associated with a physical location, other online tools might better fit your needs. One option is to advertise and generate awareness about your business activities through Google AdWords. This cost-effective program enables you to get the word out about your business, website or event via online ad campaigns, and does not require you to have a brick-and-mortar business address.How to create a free listing if you’re eligibleIf you’re a business with a physical office location that is open to customers and staffed both in person and via phone during regular business hours, we encourage you to create a free listing by signing in to Google Places here. For example, a real estate company with a corporate office can add the services it offers, the apartments it sells, and so on in the description field of the listing. Be careful to create just one listing per physical location and to create listings only at places where your business is actually located. For example, if you run a DJ service and your office is at 41 Broadway in New York, you should only add that location in Google Places, even if you also DJ at 32 Main Street and at 14 Smith Street.How to indicate service areasFor businesses that have one physical location but also offer their services elsewhere – such as the aforementioned businesses as well as locksmiths, translation services, delivery pizzerias, cleaning services and the like – you can use the Service Areas feature in your Google Places account. Marking a service area enables you to show your potential customers the range of places where you work.Businesses that require travel to meet customers can define a radius around their main location or select specific areas they serve. If your main location is your home address and only used to receive business-related mail and phone calls, you can also hide that address and only show the service area in which you operate. This might be the case for babysitters, DJs, household services or IT repair services. Detailed instructions about how to set up this feature can be found in our help center.Taxi and courier companies are particularly good examples for the use of the Service Areas feature. They offer a service that is location-independent and therefore shouldn’t be associated with fixed locations on Google Maps. Even if you can find taxis often in front of train stations or airports, these are not locations owned by the business. The service area feature allows taxis to indicate the area in which they operate. If the taxis are coordinated over a dispatch center, that can be listed as one physical location, otherwise the address should be hidden.How to verify a listingIn order for your free business listing to appear on Google and Google Maps, you must verify your business via Google Places. This simple process includes providing a verification code by mail, automated call or

At first glance, it is a bit surprising when you see how much some powerful and prominent businesses in every community bend every effort to court public favor. Almost any community of significant size in the country has a business section in the paper. And subscribers to the local news see their ability to stay in touch with what the strongest and up and coming businesses in town are doing as an important part of their business awareness.

Sometimes it’s good to read the business news in your local paper both for information and with an eye on the question ? “Did the business being discussed work to get this article printed about them in the paper?” In some cases, it is blatantly clear that the business went to great lengths to get noticed. Many businesses actually employ public relations and advertising professionals to tailor how they will be viewed in the press and to court public favor by romancing the right kind of press coverage for the business.

There are some solid business reasons behind such aggressive work being done by the business community to have good press coverage. On the surface, it might seem like the intent of managing public approval for a business is just a desire to be a good citizen and so that public opinion is favorable and everybody thinks of that business as a bunch of “good guys”. But the motivations for courting public favor for a business are far more complex and entrepreneurial than that.

* A good reputation means better sales. Public opinion is a funny thing. If a retail company gets a bad reputation in a community, it will have a tremendous impact on their bottom line. But the business that is well regarded at the neighborhood level will be one that sees strong customer loyalty.

* A strong reputation makes for better business dealings. Running a business means entering into dozens of business relationships, making deals and drafting contracts with other businesses in town. If your business is well regarded in the public eye, that will reflect favorably when you need a deal to fall your way at the negotiating table.

* Investors like to see a good public image in a business. Investors like to know that the business they are interested in partnering with will be able to complete its business goals and endure year in and year out. Part of that stability means that the business can live up to its mission statement and its statement of values. When the business the investor is interested in has a strong public image, that reflects that this is a business that conducts itself with integrity, is interested in the public good as well as private profit and is looking for the long-term gain as well as the short-term profitability. These values translate directly into dollars in an investor situation.

* A strong relationship with city and state government is important to long-term business health. Many businesses seek concessions or to enter into a relationship with local government so they can have a clear path to get building permits or conduct other business that impacts the public good. A local or state government can be a businesses best friend or stop your projects in their tracks and keep them stopped. But the thing that pleases the political world is public opinion and the public good. So if your business has a good public profile, that translates to votes for the politically minded people at city hall. And that means influence which can help a business go a long way toward completing its long-range plans.

* A good public image impacts recruitment. When you put an advertisement in the local paper to recruit talent, how you are viewed by those looking for jobs will directly influence if they will respond to your recruitment efforts. Many a business got a bad reputation locally and saw dismal responses to recruitment efforts which can mean a less talented staff and poor performance of the business in general.

These are solid reasons for a business to put some energy and capital into courting a good reputation in town. Whether that means a strong representation on United Way weekend or holding blood drives once a month, the business that has a reputation for reaching out to the community will be a business that prospers.