Terms of Use. It is a good practice to visit the Google Support forums for the products that you use on a regular basis:

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2 Terms of Use This document was created to assist business owners to understand the importance of Google+ Local as part of an overall Internet Reputation Management strategy. This whitepaper introduces Google+ Local review posting recommendations called RADIUS Guidelines, which are provided to reduce the risk of being penalized for review spam. The recommendations included in this document are based on personal research and my discussions with respected industry experts. As with any third party recommendations regarding Google products, future Google updates may make some of the recommendations in this document ineffective. It is a good practice to visit the Google Support forums for the products that you use on a regular basis: This document can be distributed freely as a complete PDF document, in its original form. Please do not publish this document online. Encourage your social network to download a copy from the link below so that the latest version of the document will always be referenced. Please give proper credit if sections of this document are reference online. The credits should include Brian Pasch as the author and a link to the original document request page which can be found at: If you found this document helpful, or would like to suggest additional content for future revisions, please send that feedback to: brian@pcgmailer.com Photo on the following page was found at:

3 Google+ Local and Online Reviews There should be no doubt in business owners minds that online reviews influence consumerpurchasing decisions. Do you use online reviews to help purchasing decisions? Do online traveler reviews help you select hotels for your next vacation? Do product ratings from purchasers on Amazon.com help you to compare items that have similar features and pricing yet have strikingly different consumer experiences? To all business owners and managers who answered No to all three questions, I urge you to avoid letting your personal engagement with peer reviews lessen the urgency of establishing an online review policy for your business. The policy should educate all employees on the power of online reviews, processes surrounding customer review collection, and the common traps that should be avoided when businesses seek to leverage reviews for marketing purposes. Websites such as Google+ Local, Yelp.com, and TripAdvisor.com play a significant role in the consumer s online shopping path. Online reviews and related content syndication is a multi-million dollar industry that is growing exponentially. In addition to the Big Three, specialized review websites are becoming more popular, like DealerRater.com for the automotive industry and Angie s List for the service trades. If you are a subscriber to Sirius/XM radio business channels like CNBC, you may have recently heard commercials from companies claiming to help business owners with negative online reviews. Business executives may have also received a telemarketing call informing you that negative listings were found in Google search for your business. The newly minted reputation management industry has gone mainstream! Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

4 Google Enables Peer Reviews When Google Places was first introduced, a clear warning shot was fired over the bow of competing online business directories and business review websites. Google understands the value of peer reviews in both social media communications and ecommerce interactions. Google intends to create a reputable and reliable system for reviews based on active and authentic Google users; this is a key point that I will come back to later in the article. Despite its welcome from the business community for free local advertising, the original Google Places was fraught with listing anomalies and glitches that often took months to resolve. Duplicate listings, incorrect map markers, and merged listings were just a few of the headaches created by Google Places. Google Places was integrated into Google+ in May of The product was renamed to Google+ Local business pages. Google s purchase of Zagat in 2011 led to the replacement of the traditional five star rating system. Today Google+ Local uses the Zagat 30-point system that can be configured by the business owner to have three voting categories such as quality, service, and appeal. These categories increase the granularity and usefulness of the reviews posted by consumers. Business owners are hoping that Google+ Local will be more stable and scalable. Since local business directory citations appear thousands of times a month on the first page of Google search results, the platform must be reliable. Tighter Ownership Controls and Administrative Tools I have urged Google to introduce tighter rules for claiming and owning business pages on Google+ Local; it should not be possible to overwrite data that a business owner enters. Administrative sharing of claimed Google business pages, similar to how Google Analytics administration can be shared, would also be welcomed because the business owner is often not the person updating business listings and social media accounts. One area that has frustrated business owners is Google+ Local reviews. Business owners are demanding clear direction on how they should engage their customers and encourage them to post a review on Google+ Local. Without much clear direction from Google, entrepreneurs have set their own processes for becoming the highest rated business in their local market. Today, I have new insights to share with you regarding process and engagement, and I will provide a clear set of best practices to follow. Could Google make some changes over time that will require these guidelines to be updated? Expect it. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

5 Leveraging The Influence of Google+ Local Reviews In the automotive industry, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), like Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes, have drilled into franchise dealers for years the importance of customer service scores. The Customer Service Index (CSI) is compiled from customer surveys. These CSI scores impact the dealers financially. Owners have experience creating processes to prepare their customers for that manufacturer call or survey in the mail. The online equivalent of great CSI scores is positive reviews on Google+ Local, Yelp.com, Yahoo Local, DealerRater.com, etc. For my clients who are car dealers, a push for Google reviews has been a bittersweet experience. The rules of engagement were never clear and whatever rules were in place seem to have changed a number of times. Later in this document I will introduce a set of guidelines to assist business owners create a solid process for encouraging active online users to post reviews. The RADIUS Guidelines are an acronym for the six steps business owners can take to avoid review spam. Without a clear recommended process from Google, business owners are making unknowing mistakes when it comes to increasing their online reviews. These mistakes are negatively impacting their Google+ Local business pages. For example, reviews have been removed from their Google+ Local pages without warning. For a lucky few, some reviews miraculously reappear. Pundits have stated that active Google users posting reviews from inside the place of business was an acceptable practice while others warned that it would trigger spam from duplicate IP addresses. I now have clearer insight to why in-store Google+ Local review collection via ipads, iphone, tablets, or ipad kiosks running the Google+ Local app should be stopped immediately. The focus on review collection has created a cottage industry of software providers that have developed systems to automate the post-sale customer survey process. These companies pull data from the store s retail transaction database. For car dealers, transactions are stored in their Dealer Management System (DMS). Products from automotive software companies can automate surveys as soon as the DMS is updated to collect timely customer feedback. If the initial survey returns with scores indicating a positive experience, a second message can be sent to encourage that consumer to share an online review. These survey systems are effective in increasing review counts. Based on my latest research, these automated survey systems must be updated to comply with the RADIUS guidelines. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

6 The August Drop In Google Reviews As recently as the first week of August, automotive dealerships reported a significant deletion of online reviews on their Google+ Local business pages. For those dealers that contacted me, I asked about their review collection processes and the quality of these reviews. Most swore that the reviews that they lost were legitimate customers and that they were posted reviews by the book. There is no official comprehensive book sharing specific guidelines for posting reviews on Google+ Local. This article will serve as the latest Best Practice strategy for all business owners who want to understand Google s intentions and perspectives. Dealer Principals and General Managers want to believe that most of the reviews posted on their Google+ Local page are legitimate. Under further investigation, these well-meaning professionals did not realize that they were allowing review spam to negatively impact their Google+ Local business listing. As an industry, automotive retailers have a significantly higher rate of review spam than industries of their size. I can hear the Google engineers shout out after reviewing their car dealer listings: Houston, we have a problem! The amount of review spam from automotive dealers has most likely triggered Google engineers to increase the scrutiny of car dealer Google+ Local pages. It is also likely that some good reviews were thrown out in this process. Yes, I know that you are not supposed to throw out the baby with the bathwater! But until Google changes its policies, the harsh reality is that some business owners will have to start over building a quality review database based on the guidelines contained in this article. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

7 Avoiding Review Spam Penalties with RADIUS There is good news. I can share what has likely been triggering review spam filters and how to reduce the chances of losing reviews going forward. However, the news will contradict some previous statements that I have made and processes that are in place at dealerships across the United States. I created the RADIUS guidelines to make sure that your Google+ Local business directory pages are not negatively impacted by review spam. I will go over each recommendation in detail.. Remove in-store computer kiosks, mobile phones and/or tablets that are used to encourage customers to post reviews on Google+ Local in the store. Avoid using services that offer to create Google+ Local reviews based on customer survey data, online forms, or personal customer correspondence. Do not assist or encourage customers in creating a Google account to post a favorable review on your Google+ Local business page. Inspect your Google+ Local business page to monitor the reviews that are being posted. Make sure that all your business information is correct on a weekly basis. Update all customer-facing media that encourages customers to post reviews about their experience with new language that defines active Google users. Set a goal to attract quality of reviews from active Google users over quantity. Quantity goals will produce one and done posts.. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

8 Remove in-store computer kiosks, mobile phones and/or tablets that are used to encourage customers to post reviews on Google+ Local in the store. As recently as last week, I advised dealers that collecting reviews inside their dealership via an ipad kiosk from existing Google users was a best practice. Today, I have learned that this recommendation, however well intended, leaves the dealer open to increased review spam and scrutiny from Google engineers. The reality of this recommendation is clear once you step back and look at the data. Regardless of what anti-spam process is in place, once the employees of a business are motivated to increase reviews on Google+ Local, the ipad kiosk or just ipads in the store, become convenient tools for creating new Google+ accounts. The ipads running the Google+ Local app makes it too tempting for employees to avoid creating one and done accounts for happy customers while they sit across from their desk. The term one and done refers to accounts that are opened for the purpose of posting a review. The consumer never uses the account again. If you are familiar with Yelp.com, you will know that they have a similar process in place that filters one Yelpers, accounts that are created to only post one review on their site. In order to post a review on Google+ Local, the customer must have a Google+ account. Employees that help consumers to create a Google account and then post a review on Google+ Local, are likely unaware that their actions are hurting the business. The likelihood that this consumer will go home and use this Google account on a regular basis is very low. This places the review under scrutiny, and in most cases the review will be deleted since it looks like a throw away account. Business owners should focus on collecting reviews from active Google users and encourage them to post reviews from their home or office. It is NOT the physical kiosk or the store provided ipad that is causing the problem. If ACTIVE Google users only used the in-store ipad, the discussion would not be included in these recommendations. The practical reality is that when employees are recognized or financially rewarded for collecting customer reviews, accounts will be created in the store, and business owners will end up with many one and done accounts that Google will flag. This is a harsh reality that business owners must face and the data analysis shows that car dealers have one of the highest rates of one and done accounts posting reviews on Google+ Local. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

9 Definitions For Active Google Accounts What is the definition for an active Google user? How does Google know if an account that is active, could have been created for spamming? Google has not officially commented on their internal definitions, however, some of the weighting aspects could include: How long has the account been open? Has the account been actively used to access Google services like Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, or Google+ Has this account posted reviews for other business on Google+ Local? Has this account posted reviews for similar businesses across the country on the same day? Does the IP address of the device match the business locations that reviews are being posted for? If Google wants active users to post reviews, business owners must change their customer facing merchandising, newsletter, s, and word tracks to clearly identify active Google users. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

10 Avoid using services that offer to create Google+ Local reviews based on customer survey data, online forms, or personal customer correspondence. Google engineers have a tremendous data warehouse that can spot anomalies in online reviews. There is an emerging science around using complex formulas to automatically tag suspicious reviews. Google wants to ensure that reviews are posted from real people and not agents acting on a consumer s behalf. For example, a Google account located in Russia posts positive reviews for seven car dealers across the United States on the same day. Is this spam? Of course! There are a number of companies that offer business owners a service that will call their customers, collect a review, and post it on Google. This violates Google s policies and those reviews will eventually be removed for spam. I ve actually heard pitches from companies that claim that they have so many IP addresses, that Google will not pick out their third-party review posts as spam. My advice: Don t bet against Google engineers! Do not assist or encourage customers in creating a Google account to post a favorable review on your Google+ Local business page. This recommendation is based on the user activity data that is clearly available for Google engineers. Google knows how often accounts are used and what actions they are taking online with Google products. Consumers who are not active Google users should not post reviews. A Google account that only posts a review for one business, and does nothing else, has a high likelihood of being considered review spam. These disposable Google accounts go dormant after the review is posted. These review go against the Google s goal to create relevant and meaningful online reviews from active Google users. You can understand why Google would not want to include one and done reviews. It would degrade the entire Google+ Local platform and create easy targets for their competitors who claim to have a higher quality of verified reviews. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

11 Inspect your Google+ Local business page to monitor the reviews that are being posted and make sure that all your business information is correct on a weekly basis. Once a policy for online reviews is in place at your place of business, it is prudent to inspect your Google+ Local business page weekly. The inspection process will: Alert you if any negative reviews have been placed on your page and give you the opportunity to respond online to the review and reach out to the customer personally. Increase goodwill by thanking customers who posted positive reviews with a short note in the comments area. Potential customers reading these thank you messages under the reviews will see that you care about honest customer feedback. Allow you to upload new photos and videos that will keep your Google+ Local business page relevant. Too often I see promotions, videos, or images that are outdated or of poor quality. Document changes in review scores and quantity of reviews as a feedback loop to your marketing team and third party customer service efforts. The weekly inspection process should be an assigned task to someone in the business. Don t take Inspection lightly. Negative reviews, whether they are accurate or not, when left without a business owner response, will appear to the consumer to be truthful. There are a number of tools that will provide automated alerts when new reviews are posted on Google+ Local and other review platforms. These software products can be very effective to create a timely response to any negative reviews before they can impact your potential customers. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

12 Update all customer-facing media that encourages customers to post reviews about their experience with new language that defines active Google users. Contrary to what I initially thought, Google does not want to increase Google+ user counts if the account holders are not going to be active on Google platform. I thought it was brilliant marketing move by Google; show Google+ Local reviews on page one of search results for a given business name. This will force compliance and awareness of online reviews. If business owners wanted to increase their review scores, their customers would have to have a Google+ account. Did Google intend to create an army of business owners that were forced to be Google+ evangelists to enable their customer reviews to be visible in search? The truth may never be known but recent actions by Google make it clear that they only want active users of Google to post reviews. In effect, they are not saying that more is better. Google is making a statement: quality over quantity. Knowing this, business owners will need to reviews the way in which they communicate with your customers. I recommend that all templates, surveys, in-store merchandising, and point of sale materials be updated with language that speaks to active Google users. The goal will be to create messaging that asks customers where they prefer to engage online. Are you an active Google user? If yes, please consider sharing your experience on Google+. Are you an active Yelper? If yes, please consider sharing your experience on Yelp.com Any customer messages that contain links to registration pages or encouragement to create a Google account should be deleted. Employees must be educated on how harmful creating accounts for the purpose of posting reviews can be to ALL reviews that are posted on their Google+ Local business page. Review Portal Sites Or Landing Pages If your dealership created a microsite or a page on your dealership website which contains the logos and links to the top review websites pointing to your dealership review pages, please update the language on the landing page. Once again, the language should encourage active users to post reviews. The language at the top of the landing page could read as follows: Below are links to popular online review websites. If you are an active user on any of the websites listed below, we would appreciate your positive feedback. If you are not an active user on these sites or have never posted a review on these websites, please send us your review directly to: customerservice@abcford.com Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

13 Set a goal to attract quality of reviews from active Google users over quantity. Quantity goals will produce one and done posts. Again, I will be the first to admit that I have encouraged business owners to stand out from their peers by getting the most reviews in the local market. I still stand by that recommendation with one condition. Make sure those consumers are active Google users and that they post a review that is meaningful to their peers looking for direction. Have you ever looked at a business directory page and read reviews that had numerous posts that contained short phrases like: Awesome Highly Recommend I ll Go Back Here! When I read these posts I get suspicious. If active Google users post these short reviews, they will most likely get included on a Google+ Local page, but they do not offer much value to a consumer. Have you ever noticed how much detail consumers write when they post a negative review of a business? Why are very happy customers short cutting the process and not explaining their positive experience in great detail? With that in mind, once you identify customers that are active Google users, advise them on best practices for writing reviews. Remind them to outline why they chose to do business with your company and what employees deserve special recognition. By having more detailed reviews, the business owner and the consumers reading the reviews receive greater benefit. The more detailed the review, the more relevant it will be to local consumers. Increasing relevance and quality for your Google+ Local page should be your guiding light! Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

14 Looking To The Future In the future, Google s ability to validate reviews may become much easier. I foresee a day when a customer pays for an oil change at a local Chevrolet dealership using Google Wallet on their smartphone. In this scenario, after their oil change service, the consumer posts a review using the Google account that is associated with their Google Wallet. It would not be far fetched that Google will know that this user is a real customer of the dealership and can immediately validate the authenticity of the review. Google is also working diligently to improve the Google+ Local platform and to respond to business owner inquiries in a timely manner. The system for customer support is not ideal but our voices are being heard. I am confident that given more time, Google+ Local will be more robust and that business owners will learn how to work within Google s guidelines. Sometimes it is hard to be patient, I know. Were Review Policies Created To Inflate Google+ Membership Counts? On a side note, one of my latest revelations about Google+ Local reviews is that Google is NOT looking for business owners to falsely inflate Google+ membership numbers. If that were the case, the one and done reviews would not be in question. Google has a long-term plan to deliver high quality business data to consumers searching on the Internet. Google wants that data to be accurate and vetted by their peers. The review system is part of that vetting process, as imperfect as it might seem today. Today, the popularity of Google+ Local business pages has overwhelmed the support team at Google. Hopefully this is a short-term problem that will be resolved by an increase of staffing, greater platform integration with reliable third party data providers, and tools to escalate problems identified by business owners. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

15 A Recommended Action Plan For Google+ Local Business Pages 1. Make sure you have claimed or created a Google+ Local listing for your business. 2. Complete all the required data fields for your listing and make sure you: a. Select the proper business categories b. Load five photos of your business c. Load five videos related to your business d. Verify that the address and phone number is accurate 3. Create a marketing strategy that identifies customers that are active Google users and invite them to post a review. 4. Create clear disclaimers that customers should not create a Google account for the sole purpose of posting a review for your business. 5. Establish a written policy that employees are required to read that outlines the impact of online reviews to your business, recommended best practices for customer engagement, and that violating best practices will not be tolerated. 6. Do not provide devices to customers inside your business that would be used to create new Google accounts, which will likely lead to an increase of one and done reviews. 7. Document review counts and scores as you inspect your Google+ Local business listing for accuracy on a weekly basis. 8. Any inconsistencies with your Google+ Local listing should be reported to Google. 9. Respond to customer reviews online using the Google+ Local comments feature. 10. Offer immediate assistance to any consumer who did not have a positive experience with your business. 11. Update your Google+ Local business page frequently with new photos, videos, and offers so that your page will be relevant and fresh. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

16 Moving Forward If your business does not have a policy in place for encouraging customers who are active on Google to post a review, this is a good time to put that in writing. If your business has been impacted by the Google review-filtering algorithm, this is a good time to train your staff and start over. All businesses must make a commitment to building a strong online reputation. If you plan to benefit from the free advertising provided by Google+ Local, build that foundation by identifying active Google users and avoid taking any shortcuts. To stay connected with the latest updates to this document or to be invited to our free training webinars on Internet Reputation Management, follow me on my social media channels listed on the following page. I encourage you to share this whitepaper with your employees, peers, 20-Group members, and automotive professionals that may not be aware of these important changes in strategy pertaining to Google+ Local business reviews. Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

17 About The Author Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Consulting, has built his business insights and strategy on a foundation consisting of over 20 years of Information Technology and Marketing leadership. His career history includes work in the public sector, Senior Telecom Analyst on Wall Street and has an incredible talent for building successful private enterprises. Fresh out of Rutgers University, Brian published his first book and software package with Prentice Hall in Since that time he has been recognized as a builder of world-class data warehousing models, a creator of award winning search marketing strategies and the highest rated Internet Trainer in the automotive industry. Recognizing a powerful shift in corporate advertising spending, Pasch founded PCG Digital Marketing in 2005 to assist growing companies with their digital marketing strategy. Brian s ability to speak authoritatively to business leaders and their technical teams on business architecture, marketing, and sales helped to catapult their growth and credibility. In August 2011, Inc. Magazine named PCG Digital Marketing the 192nd Fastest Growing Private Company in the United States. PCG was also ranked in the Top 10 Fastest Growing Private Companies in New Jersey where PCG is based. PCG serves many industries, but their largest by far is the automotive retail industry where they serve hundreds of car dealerships across the US and Canada. Brian Pasch is an avid writer and blogger and his commentary on Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing can be easily found on the Internet. In 2012 he founded PCG Consulting to provide vendor neutral advise to business leaders looking to create a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes the latest opportunities in traditional, digital, and social media. Brian is an active speaker at automotive industry conferences, 20 Groups, and digital marketing workshops. His popular training programs make him an in-demand speaker with elite flying status. Brian is an advocate of balance living and takes time to invest in his health and spiritual well being. That lifestyle includes making time for his family and friends in New Jersey where he lives by the Jersey Shore. Google Plus: Twitter: LinkedIn: Website: brian@pcgmailer.com Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services

18 Join Brian Pasch At Upcoming Conferences Brian Pasch will be conducting workshops for automotive professionals seeking to strengthen their knowledge and strategy for digital marketing, reputation management, and Google tools at the following upcoming events AutoCon 2012 September 5-8 th at the Aria Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV Join over 600 hundred automotive professionals in September for access to over 70 workshops, dynamic keynote presentations, and the ability to visit with over 50 exhibitors. Brian Pasch will be conducting workshops on Google Adwords, Google Analytics, and Digital Marketing Strategy. A special session will be dedicated to the recent changes in Google+ Local reviews that are contained in this whitepaper. Details can be found at: Internet Battle Plan November 8-9 th at the Revel Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJ Brian will be joining James Ziegler s popular conference series at the brand new Revel Hotel in Atlantic City New Jersey. Brian will be conducting a workshop on Reputation Management Strategies for car dealers in light of all the recent changes in policy, process, and rules for review spam. Details can be found at: Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) February 5-7 th at Hyatt Regency Orlando DMSC is schedule just prior to the 2013 NADA Convention in Orlando enabling automotive professionals to attend two dynamic events in one location and trip out of the dealership. The conference is designed for automotive professionals who seek insights into creating their annual digital strategy with the assistance of top industry experts. Join hundreds of forward thinking automotive professionals at this boutique conference where everyone leaves with actionable tasks to improve their business. Details can be found at: Copyright 2012 PCG Consulting Services