The same could be said about designer-hacks who steal a design (say, of a logo) and implement it for a totally different client. The design may be beautiful but it didn’t solve your client’s problem. It is a solution to a totally different problem. This is a failure on many levels.

It seems that Google Local Business Listing has fallen under the radar, at least in my sphere of influence. So I wanted to share some advice to anyone who runs a small business or provides a marketable service.

What is it? Google Local Business Listing is a way to get your business on Google Maps and subsequently Google search results…for free.

Why is this important? When someone searches for your product or service along with your city, your business will show up, top ‘o the list.

Localized. As I mentioned above, you get free local advertising on Google. When folks search a keyword plus your city, local businesses are displayed above  the regular search results.

Build Street Cred Whether you sell cheeseburgers or wedding dresses, Google Local Business Listings is one big way to build your street cred. How? Customers can write reviews of your product or service for others to see. Don’t be shy about asking customers to write a review for you on Google. I’m not. This is also an incentive to provide top notch service and products to your customers, because you may receive bad reviews too!

How much does it cost? Nothing is free these days… but this sure is and…

It works! At least for me. I’ve gotten one client so far by using Google Local Business Listings. Google has begun sending out periodic stats on how many hits you receive from your listing as well! Now, you might be asking….

How do I sign up? Go here and login with your Google account and simply fill a few things out!

Recently I tweeted about Ruby Tuesday and expressed my dissatisfaction for the service I received. For a company this large not to have a presence on twitter is a missed opportunity. Companies large and small should be using search.twitter.com to crawl twitter for mentions about their business. When someone is dissatisfied about their product or service and tweets about it, they should respond via twitter reply or direct message.

Let’s see how easy it is find dissatisfaction with Ruby Tuesday on Twitter – I searched ‘Ruby Tuesday service’ at search.twitter.com and found a few tweets – here and here. Why can’t Ruby Tuesday be on twitter and reply to them about what they can do to make amends?

This isn’t too difficult to do.

Godaddy.com does it.

Vistaprint.com does it.

Starbucks does it.

After taking our drink order, we waited about 10 more minutes for Abby to get her tea. Rebecca and I were told it will just be a bit longer for ours. Five minutes later, we are given water and told it will be just a minute longer. A few minutes later and we had about enough… after waiting 30 minutes to get our drinks…

We walked out.

We went where there is fast and friendly service – my old workplace – McDonald’s. While eating, I called Ruby Tuesday and asked for the manager and told her I was none too happy with the service we received.

This is where things turned around. She apologized and offered to personally serve us if we wanted to come back. I said we were already at McDonald’s enjoying our food and fast service. She then asked for my name/address to mail me a $25 gift card for my next visit.

Perfect!

But wait….

At around 10 p.m. that night I was taking the trash out and noticed a note/business card fall to the ground as I opened my door. It was the General Manager’s business card and a personal note (written in pink Sharpie). The note said she stopped by to apologize and give me two $25 gift cards. However, she did not leave the gift cards, but just a free appetizer coupon.

The creeper part? She also put in the note “Call my cell sometime…” and gave me her cell number.

Is this ‘stalker service’ or ‘customer service’? What are your thoughts? Did they go overboard with the apologizing or is it a nice gesture to come to my house sometime between 9-10 p.m. ?

Does anyone know what type of bug this is? It looks like a bee, but can’t tell since all that was left was a thin dry shell. Pretty gross and awesome all at the same time.

I will have a video of my talk very soon, but for now here is just a bit of what I shared:

• TV, newspapers and radio used to be the global platform – today that global platform is the Internet – a world wide web filled with social networks, websites and blogs.
• This new global platform allows ANYONE who has good content, products or services to gain support for free. This is HUGE.
• Blogs – a successful blog is one that encourages interaction among the community of people with the same interest
• Facebook – a way for businesses or organizations to reach their target audience on a personal level. It puts a face on an otherwise faceless corporation. If you have a business, you should have a facebook fan page and talk to your fans often and encourage feedback
• Twitter – basically the SMS of the Internet – a quick way to share short messages. Retweeting or forwarding messages has huge endorsement power, because you are saying this person or business is worth paying attention to.
• Retweeting has the power to make something go ‘viral’
• All these online tools are a way to interact with a community of people online that have the same interests as you – whether it is someone else who shares your love for the Smurfs or someone who might be interested in your business, product or service. Dude, smurf it up!
• Today, blogs, social networks and websites have provided the opportunity for anyone to pursue what you love – for more on this idea watch the following video (try to ignore the language)

This is the first phone US Cellular is selling that has Google’s new Android OS. Being from Google, it integrates really well with any of your google accounts – gmail, youtube, voice, talk, etc.

The sheer awesomeness of the various apps is keeping me pretty intrigued! A few of my favorite apps -

• The obvious – facebook, twidroid (twitter), email, youtube
• Voice Search – simply say a search term and it searches google for what you said.
• Your Navigator Deluxe – get directions, maps, traffic updates. You can say the city you are traveling to and it gets directions
• CityID – find out where that unknown caller is calling from.
• Air Horn – plays various loud air horns – perfect for when your coworker comes in to your office and farts (as happens to me daily)
• Google Goggles – take a picture of anything and it searches google for it.
• Google Sky Map – aim phone at the sky to identify, search and find various planets, constellations and stars!
• Pandora - stream music as you can on pandora.com
• WordPress – post to your blog
• gStrings – tune any musical instrument
• Solo lite – find guitar chords, and play an interactive guitar from your phone
• Barcode Scanner – aim at any barcode and google search that item – whether it is to learn more about it or to compare prices online
• Of course the phone also takes photos and video with a 3.2 MP camera. I can even post pictures/videos straight to this blog or facebook/twitter/etc

And now for a few photos:

Left: one of three home screens. Right: full list of all apps, available from the bottom slider arrow (seen on the left photo)

Has a full QUERTY keyboard along with a 3.2 inch screen

Left: Solo lite app that allows you to find guitar chords and play them on the interactive guitar

As I was flying out of Seattle, WA this morning at around 6 am, I was lucky enough to be in a window seat on the side of the plane facing the mammoth of a volcanic mountain: Mt. Rainier. Enjoy!

Smoooooooth Jazz.