Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

January Pop Culture Round Up!

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Jan Pop Culture Round UpA new year means new pop culture goals around my house. This year my Goodreads goal is set for 30 (which includes graphic novels as usual) and I am still on the hunt for a Goodreads for TV. Why has no one created this? It’s a million dollar idea I don’t have time to create, but will gladly test it and help make it awesome…

What are your pop culture new years resolutions?

Reading

Hey – I’ve already read a book! My dad gave me Exit West last year and I kept putting it aside. But it showed up on a few end of year lists, so I finally read it. It was a quick read and a very sweet story. It’s about the refugee experience told in a bit of a magical way. I  highly recommend it!

I’ve also caught up on a few comics lately. Ms Marvel continues to be great. The story line with Negan in The Walking Dead was interesting, and I continue to love Hawkeye!

Listening

I really need the new Justin Timberlake album to be more Say Something and less Filthy. I don’t love the first two songs from the album but love Say Something! I also LOVE Chris Stapleton so…I can’t wait for the album release on Friday and for the Super Bowl Half Time Show on Sunday!

Chris Stapleton performed on SNL this weekend and he was GREAT. So great I bought the album while he was still performing. (New fun SNL game – how many musical guests do you know in a month? For January it was just Chris Stapeton…)

My husband and I had a recent date night to see Lovett or Leave It LIVE here in Portland! It is a fun and interactive podcast experience and we had a great time!

The Crooked Conversations interview with Dan Harris about meditation was FANTASTIC! I’ve started to meditate a bit over the past few months and if you’re at all skeptical about meditation, Dan Harris will convince you that you should do it. The episode also took a fascinating turn talking about host Ana Marie Cox’s faith – which was great.

I love The Daily and the recent episode where they interviewed Tonya Harding was fabulous. Listen to this podcast regularly, it’ll make you smarter and better informed about a lot of stories going under the radar these days.

Watching

Now that the Oscar noms are out, my need to get to a theater a few times over the next month has increased! But in the mean time, I’m keeping the DVR busy…

The Good Place is such a fantastic show and this second season has taken it places I would have assumed were final season level. The guest appearances these past two episodes were wonderful, and when Ted Danson got upset and cried? Brilliant.

I really enjoyed The Runaways on Hulu. It’s such a clever superhero concept. A group of kids who discover their parents are super villains. PLUS – there’s a cult, and we all know I love a cult!

I also started watching One Mississippi on Amazon. It’s very funny and I have loved Tig Notaro for a long time, I have no excuse for why it’s taken me so long to get with it.

This season of Top  Chef is good but not my favorite. But Restaurant Wars will always be fun to watch…

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction is fantastic. I love David Letterman, he’s a family favorite. Letting Dave talk long form to people on topics that are of interest to him  is exactly what he should be doing. The Obama episode was fantastic.

Jane the Virgin finally returned after an AMAZING winter finale and I am so happy! Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is going “off the rails” with the surrogate thing but I trust the writers that the chaos will be contained.

What are you reading, watching and listening to that you’ve enjoyed this month?

5 Ways to Ask For a Review

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5 ways to ask for a reviewOn an almost monthly basis I refer current and potential clients to this blog post from a few years back about asking for reviews. We all know that reviews are an important part of your business. You want those gold stars next to your business on Google! You want people to sing your praises so that other awesome clients will find you! But, how do you go about asking for a review? It can feel awkward to reach out to someone and ask them for a review, so here’s 5 things I recommend:

  1. Ask at the end of a Project – Did you just complete a big piece of work together and they’re happy? Now’s a great time to ask! “Hey would you mind writing a review or testimonial for me?” Make sure to include links to where you’d like them to review (and give them options, we all know I’ll never write a review for you on Facebook!)
  2. When They Say Something You Want to Frame – If your client responds to a project with a really nice note about it – ask them if you can use it as a testimonial – or ask if they’d mind posting that on a review site for you. That’s often how I handle review requests – when they’ve already said something!
  3. At a Specific Interval in Your Work Together – I have one client where we setup a review system to email new patients about a month after their first visit. We created an automated email that goes out asking how it went – if they like it, we ask for a review. If it didn’t go well, we send them to a survey monkey survey to find out what went wrong. You may find that for ongoing clients specific intervals are a good timeline for requesting reviews.
  4. In Your Newsletter – If the majority of people who subscribe to your newsletter are clients (current or past) then adding a review request to your newsletter is a great way to ask. Just a little box near the bottom of the newsletter may be all it takes to remind folks they should say nice things about you.
  5. Annually – You might want to setup a system so that at the end of the year you reach out to your clients from the past year and ask for reviews. Or maybe in the summer when business can be a little more quiet for some folks. Find a time of year when business is quiet for you and reach out and ask!

What other intervals do you find are the right time to request reviews and testimonials from clients?

Your Online Presence is Important (but Overwhelming)

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Your Online Presence Is Important - but overwhelmingThinking about your online presence is overwhelming and can be confusing. Where do you start? You want me to spend how much on what? What sites are reputable? How do you spot a scam versus legitimate help?

I know, it daunting. And, being found online is important! You started your business and spent a lot of money on a website and design – people should be able to find you! But where do you start? What do you need to do? And what if something changes?

Relax, I have you covered!

My recommendation is a handy tool from the fabulous SEO firm Moz. Their local search tool tells you exactly how great (or not) your online presence is.

Go do it right now.

I’ll wait…

So…what was your score?

8%? 42%? 78%? There’s almost always room for improvement. I like Moz because everything is all in one place. Their job is knowing SEO and where you need to be listed online. I don’t question if I need to be listed on City Search – Moz says I do, and they’ll handle it for me.

You know your score,

now what do you do?

I signed up for Moz Local – it’s not expensive and it’s  totally worth it. You input all your info and then check in every few days (for a couple of months, depending on how many edits and changes need to happen) and over time your ranking goes up and your online presence is in place and ready to go. Moz takes care of all the logistics with the key reputable search sites online. This way you don’t have to decipher what’s worth your time and what might be a scam.

Just like that. If your score is high enough that you don’t want to deal with it right now, that’s up to you. But, here are 3 times when it’s important that you consider confirming your online presence…

When You Have a Name Change

(Personally or for your Business)

I was talking with a client recently about their online presence. They went through a name change recently and it was time to get their name consistent online. Making sure that your website says what Google says and what Bing says (hey, it’s the Pacific Northwest, not everyone is allowed by their employer to use Google. If you get married or divorced you should make sure your online presence isn’t screwing things up. Likewise, if your business changes names. Maybe you become an LLC, or you incorporate, or add or slightly modify your business name. Time to check in and make the change.

When your address changes

True story – I know someone who only changed their address on Google when they moved and clients consistently went to their old addresses thanks to other GPS services that hadn’t been notified. If you move, don’t trust that everything everywhere is going to get updated. I’m working with a client right now who changed addresses and we’re still fighting with a couple of search sites to get the address fixed. It’s tedious, but worth while.

When you want to get serious about getting online reviews

If you want people to leave you reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, Bing, etc., you need to claim your profile on these channels. Last month someone called me because they had received a nasty Yelp review and needed help. They had gone through all the proper channels but Yelp was taking too long to respond. We discussed cleaning up and confirming their online presence so that they’re not undermined by someone out to get them. I don’t want to unnecessarily scare you, you make good choices in the clients you work with, but it IS possible that someone out to get you could claim your profile on your behalf and really mess with your brand. Just claim that profile so you can sleep at night.

Clients often ask me for help with their online presence because it’s a pretty tedious task. If it’s not on your list of fun things to do while running a business, we should talk.