As you may know, Google Place Paages contain links to reviews for businesses, and Mike Blumenthal has discovered an interesting nugget in Google’s Rich Snippets for Local Search FAQ that pertains to this. The tenth question is: "How will Google treat businesses posting testimonials with review mark up on their own site? Will these be treated as a review by the Place Page?"

Google’s answer to this is, "Testimonials will be treated as business reviews on the Place Page."

So, naturally, there are questions about people putting up fake testimonials to make their businesses look better than the real public perception would dictate. 

Blumenthal says, "The implications of this are profound in terms of the impact that these testimonials will have on review count. The impact that they will have on tone of the reviews, sentiment analysis and rank are yet to be seen but if they are handled exactly as current reviews are, this too will be profound."

People have been putting testimonials on their sites for years, and really there’s no way for consumers to tell how real they are, so that’s not really different. However, when these are put on Google’s Place Pages, a place where many, many people will see as they simply search for local business listings, they could be a little more persuasive. 

As Greg Sterling points out at Screenwerk, popular review site Yelp doesn’t include testimonials from companies’ sites. Google recently stopped showing Yelp results on Place Pages. 

I was not aware that Hulu had filmmakers guest posting on their blog, although there was a post the other day that I evidently missed from David Modigliani, director/producer of "Crawford" as well.

Smith, a man whose dialogue I’ve quoted more times throughout the years than I can count, has used his post on the Hulu blog to tell a story about a movie called "Slacker" that was apparently one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) influences on Smith’s filmmaking career. Of course, he also uses this opportunity to tell us this film is available to watch via Hulu.

I’m writing about this for a couple of reasons. For one, I’m a fan of Kevin Smith’s work (for the most part), and I just found it interesting that he was blogging for one of the big online video players. Secondly, I find this to be a good example of how a business can use a blog to market itself. It’s not a new strategy by any means, but it highlights a good example of it.

Smith says, "If you hate me and my films, blame Richard Linklater’s Slacker. And if you love me and my films, thank Richard Linklater for Slacker." What we have here is basically a testimonial for a movie. A movie that I have never heard of, but now admittedly has me intrigued. I will probably check it out when I have time.
From this simple celebrity blog post, Hulu will gain views for this particular film (meaning views for the ads that accompany it), a reason for readers to keep up with their blog, a credible celebrity endorsement of their service, and frankly, just an enjoyable blog post.

Businesses could use this as an example of how to market themselves with a blog. Not everyone’s going to be able to get a Kevin Smith to write for them, but a well placed guest post from someone well-known within your niche, or even from someone who just knows what they’re talking about can increase awareness and best of all interest in your product. There are some pretty good guidelines on guest posts here as well.

The article covers some seriously important issues regarding the claims marketers make for their products and services. One section I found worthwhile is about using customer testimonials. Did you know that anything a customer says on behalf of a product is subject to the same FTC regulations as an advertiser’s claim? Based on the MarketingSherpa.com article, there are certain precautions required for customer testimonials including:

• Getting affidavits from customers making testimonials certifying the claims
• Any connection between the customer and advertiser must be disclosed
• Testimonials must reflect a typical scenario for the product’s use

From my experience reading businesses sales letters and web copy, it seems that many of these precautions are not being followed very carefully. Although it’s probably fair to assume the FTC is too overwhelmed to pursue minor claims against the use of customer testimonials – I recommend still being careful and following these precautions.

The article also covers suggested requirements covering claims about “clinically-proven” product demonstrations, expert endorsements and product comparisons. If you are using any of these best practices to showcase your value proposition, then it’s probably a good idea to read this article.

Comments

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve reached my Gmail storage limit, currently 2768 MB. This is something I didn’t think could happen and it is really hampering my productivity. I’ve been an advocate of Gmail and my blog review is listed in their testimonials, where I said:

• “I want all my personal data accessible anywhere anytime.
• Privacy concerns are overblown… I’m more concerned with services that model me and my relationships without my permission or control.
• It’s the best webmail app there is. Simple, usable and powerful.”

While I have offloaded much of the work I used to do in email to wikis and blogs, my public position makes me a target for spam and genuine correspondance with new collaborators.

While there are some good tactics for reducing Gmail volume, the solutions I want are not available to me:

• I want to whip out my credit card and buy more storage.
• I want to not only search to find deletable emails, but sort. I can make a massive list of emails with attachments, but I can’t sort to eliminate the top 20 files that are undoubtedly hogs.
• I want to keep my user pattern of being a piler, not a filer, and relying on search for recall
• I don’t want to have to offload my archive onto my client and end up having two seperate places to search

Unfortunately, for now, I’m back to the user experience I’ve had with webmail. Constantly tending to an inbox at the limit instead of actually getting work done.

Any suggestions?

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Ross Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of Socialtext, an emerging provider of Enterprise Social Software that dramatically increases group productivity and develops a group memory.

He also writes Ross Mayfield’s Weblog which focuses on markets, technology and musings.

The official site does a good job of describing the process. “As you click Stumble!, you’ll get high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended (rated I like it) by friends and other SU members with similar interests. Rating these sites shares them with your friends and peers – you will automatically stumble upon’ each others favorites sites.”

StumbleUpon is extremely popular within the relatively small group that is aware of it. In a TechCrunch article about the new version, readers’ comments display a strong affection. “I have been a user for a while.very addictive,” said “Eric Willis.”

“Harry” felt this development was long overdue. “About time if you ask me, you just can’t shove the dominant browser aside if you are serious about grabbing more people’s attention! On the otherhand, Stumble is awesome!”

In the StumbleUpon testimonials section, the praise becomes even more extravagant. “I personally view Stumbleupon as one of the single greatest web developments I’ve seen since I’ve been online,” said “Cloudhopper. “And that was around about the time someone came out with a staggering new thing called a browser.’”

I’m not sure that StumbleUpon’s availability to Internet Explorer users (or even Stumbleupon itself) can be billed as “revolutionary,” but this development is sure to make a lot of people happy.

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Testimonials Give You Credibility

If you want to have believable, credible testimonials, they have to be real: fully attributed with first name, last name, job title, company name, and at the absolute minimum, a city and state.

It shows your prospective clients that you mean business-you’re not messing around and these testimonies are real.

People are a lot more apt to believe your other clients than they are to believe the claims that you make. People believe third parties who don’t have a vested interest in this much more than they’re going to believe your own IT marketing and sales copy.

What Testimonials Should Include

You want strong benefits-focused testimonials written on your clients’ letterhead discussing how your company has helped them over the years.

You want specific examples that talk about the return on investment, how reliable and dependable your company has been, what kind of response time you generally show, that you’ll always be there for emergencies, that you understand their business needs, and that you work within their budget and time constraints.

IT Marketing: Getting Testimonials

How do you get your clients to do this?

You can ask them to review it, edit it, and approve it. And have your clients put it on their letterhead and sign off on it.

- Put together five or six suggested bullet points for them to address in their testimonial (like a survey).

- Take clients out to lunch or breakfast and interview them. Jot down some notes and go back to your office, type it up, email it to them and ask them if they could just review whether it accurately reflects your conversation. If they feel it does, ask them to put that on their letterhead and sign it so you can put it in your file and use it for marketing purposes as a testimonial.

Make it easy for them and they’ll likely give you the IT marketing testimonials you need.

The Bottom Line on IT Marketing

Getting testimonials from your current clients can help greatly with your IT marketing. Make it easy for your clients to provide you with the testimonials you need to help your prospects gain trust in you.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

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Yes, I said dismemberment.

To get you up to speed, the concept was to set up a webpage made up of one million blank pixels for sale for $1 each. An advertiser could by some cheap web real estate, and Alex could make $1,000,000. The British yonker has since sold 999,000 pixels, rocketing him into the marketing hall of fame for making “Internet history.” In fact, buying the final 1,000 pieces of Internet history is his main selling point.

The testimonials on the website rave about their investment, bragging about 40-50% sales increases and 10 fold increases in traffic.

“Our hits have quadrupled, and our sales have gone through the roof,” informs Lollipop Animation’s Will Marston.

“Overnight we saw an 1800% increase of hits to our site and a total of 1200% for the month of September,” brags Greg of The Date Exchange.

Of course one has to wonder if, after the hoopla dies downafter CNN and Fox have forgotten about Alex and his simple concept, the traffic will die too.

Obviously the top bidder on eBay right now is making a $145,000 bet, as are the imitation sites that have sprung up to cash in on the craze. There are a number poseurs, script monkeys, and domain chuckers who’ve banked variations on the Million Dollar Homepage name.

There’s now the SexyPixelHomepage, with a buoyant take on the original; the 2 Million Pixels.com page; the Australian Million Dollar Homepage; and a supposed charity pixel site, SaveMyPenis.com, where the owner claims if sponsors don’t buy enough pixels for charity, he’llum, (shiver)emasculate himself.

One thing’s for certain, even if traffic never returns after the buzz quiets down, Tews will be a millionaire and his entombed piece of Internet history will be of little concern.

1. PICTURES

Ask people if they would e-mail a picture with their testimonial. If they don’t have one scanned you could have them send their picture by mail and you could scan it. This technique will give your testimonials more credibility.

2. ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES

Most online testimonials you see have text signatures. You could have people mail their written signature, scan it, and upload it with their testimonial. People will feel the testimonial is more official.

3. ONLINE AUDIO

You could record people’s testimonials with a mini tape recorder over the phone, on your answering machine, or voice mail. Then you could convert the recording into a online audio file and upload it to your web site. You can find more information about converting audio recording’s by typing “real audio” at a search engine.

4. POSTCARDS

Have people mail you their testimonial on a postcard, scan it and upload it to your web site. This will give people proof that the testimonial isn’t fake because it will have a post mark on it.

5. PROFILES

Ask people to include a profile of themselves with their testimonial. You could just have them answer some questions like age, occupation, hobbies, favorite quote, etc. This will make your testimonials more entertaining to read.

6. HAND WRITTEN LETTERS

This is similar to the “electronic signature” tip. Scan and upload the entire written testimonial or letter to your web site. This will give your testimonials a feel of realism.

7. RECORDINGS

You could record peoples testimonials over the phone with a mini tape recorder. Then, take the recording and record it to an answering machine or voice mail system. Under each one, include a phone number they can call to hear the actual testimonial.

8. E-MAIL MESSAGES

When you get e-mail testimonials, publish the entire e-mail message instead of just the contents. It will be more believable because it will include the date, time, subject, who it’s from and who it’s to.

9. CONTACT INFORMATION

When you get testimonials from people, ask them if you could include their contact information under the testimonial. This will allow potential customers to ask your current customers questions about your product or service before they buy. Usually, they will trust them more than you.

10. ONLINE VIDEO

If some of the people who give you testimonials have a camcorder, ask them to record their testimonial on video and send it to you. Then you could convert the video to an online video file and upload it to your site. You can find more information about converting audio recording’s by typing “real video” at a search engine.

Author Dan Brown has been active in internet marketing for the past 4 years. Dan currently is working with the Zabang search engine introducing their new affiliate program which is due out Sept, 2005. http://www.zabangaffiliate.com/

2. ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES

Most online testimonials you see have text signatures. You could have people mail their written signature, scan it, and upload it with their testimonial. People will feel the testimonial is more official.

3. ONLINE AUDIO

You could record people’s testimonials with a mini tape recorder over the phone, on your answering machine, or voice mail. Then you could convert the recording into a online audio file and upload it to your web site. You can find more information about converting audio recording’s by typing “real audio” at a search engine.

4. POSTCARDS

Have people mail you their testimonial on a postcard, scan it and upload it to your web site. This will give people proof that the testimonial isn’t fake because it will have a post mark on it.

5. PROFILES

Ask people to include a profile of themselves with their testimonial. You could just have them answer some questions like age, occupation, hobbies, favorite quote, etc. This will make your testimonials more entertaining to read.

6. HAND WRITTEN LETTERS

This is similar to the “electronic signature” tip. Scan and upload the entire written testimonial or letter to your web site. This will give your testimonials a feel of realism.

7. RECORDINGS

You could record peoples testimonials over the phone with a mini tape recorder. Then, take the recording and record it to an answering machine or voice mail system. Under each one, include a phone number they can call to hear the actual testimonial.

8. E-MAIL MESSAGES

When you get e-mail testimonials, publish the entire e-mail message instead of just the contents. It will be more believable because it will include the date, time, subject, who it’s from and who it’s to.

9. CONTACT INFORMATION

When you get testimonials from people, ask them if you could include their contact information under the testimonial. This will allow potential customers to ask your current customers questions about your product or service before they b.uy. Usually, they will trust them more than you.

10. ONLINE VIDEO

If some of the people who give you testimonials have a camcorder, ask them to record their testimonial on video and send it to you. Then you could convert the video to an online video file and upload it to your site. You can find more information about converting audio recording’s by typing “real video” at a search engine.

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You know you can find testimonials from corporate bloggers at this site? Lot’s of different examples to learn from, and here’s another one. Greg Hoffman at The Security Awareness Company, with the blog Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless, tells us about their experience – or success, rather.

What do you expect/hope that the blog will deliver in terms of marketing and branding? Something different compared to other ways of communication?
I work for a Computer Security Icon named Winn Schwartau. He’s a very colorful character and a legendary author/writer in the Information Security Industry. During the planning of a marketing strategy for his security awareness company’s new products last spring, I began studying the world of blogs. We had a limited advertising budget so I needed to find a way to connect with the world while using the same style and voice Winn had crafted over the years.

Since then, we quickly created an online community of “security aware” readers. Winn contributes regularly by sharing stories, anecdotes and what I call “relevant rants” about computer, people or physical security threats. We also post trade magazine articles and expert columns to help give our readers the knowledge they need to combat these threats.

This content is the foundation of our monthly newsletter and our bi-weekly blog update, which are emailed to a double opt-in audience. The company has been around for 15 years but blogging has helped brand our company as the premier Security Awareness team in the industry; all while saving us time and money.

Has clients or prospects reacted in any way? What do they think?
Winn received substantial feedback from meeting people at the tradeshows we visited during the fall. I usually get frustrated that we can’t walk ten feet down the aisle of a show without someone stopping to chat with him, but this time, they were talking about the present, mostly, not the past. They were excited about the messages delivered and the general “tone” of the blog.

Winn’s phrase, “Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless” was almost scrubbed internally. Not many of the staff liked it for external use. But I knew that Corporate America would understand and forgive us. The title gave us the edge to be heard amongst the increasing crowd of blogs.

Have you seen any concrete results from your blog?
By measuring the daily, weekly and monthly site statistics of the blog and comparing them to our main site statistics, I can see the increase in traffic to and from both. They feed off of each other. Our active sales leads obviously increase on high traffic days but they also range higher on a daily basis compared to this time last year. The “Open” and “Click” rates of our newsletters are also above average as the audience is passionate about the topic and they are always happy to read and download free materials. Finally, because of the power of blog ranking in search engines, we have seen a surge in requests from subcontractors and Corporate Partners asking to join us in our quest to train the masses about computer security.

I don’t see any change in our Corporate Blog strategy in the near future. The demand is extremely high for the content we provide and computer security threats will only get worse as technology evolves.

Fredrik Wacka is the author and founder of the popular CorporateBlogging.Info blog which is a guide to business and corporate blogging.

Visit Fredrik Wacka’s blog: CorporateBlogging.Info.