By Bob Nicholson Most club owners know that the best marketing tool is good buzz, or word-of-mouth, and that bad word-of-mouth can quickly sink a club. Increasingly, word-of-mouth means discussions in chat rooms, postings on Internet forums, and reviews posted on rating websites. Studies show that the Internet is now the number one source of consumer information ahead of newspapers, TV, and even friends. In other words, when people think about trying a new club, they first do a web search to see what they can find. You may already be using the Internet to promote your club via your website, e-mail lists, and MySpace friends lists. You can control and target your own website and promotions, but you can't control what is said about you on other sites. So how can you be sure you're getting good buzz on the Internet, and prevent bad buzz? First, remember that managing customer impressions starts right in your club. Make sure that your staff is trained to handle service problems and complaints. A complaint that is resolved graciously and quickly can produce a satisfied and loyal customer; a problem that festers can produce an angry critic of your club. Next, be aware of what is being said about your club on the Internet. Regularly search for you club by name (as well as any nicknames that customers may give the club especially the uncomplimentary ones!) You'll probably be surprised at how many places your club is mentioned: MySpace pages, forums, blogs, band sites, DJ sites, community news sites and more. Also, use your favorite search engine to search for nightclub ratings and nightclub reviews sites, and bookmark them in your browser so you can check them regularly. There are several prominent national rating and review sites, but there may also be local sites in your area. To find the local sites, simply include the name of your city in the search; for example: nightclub ratings dallas or nightclub reviews dallas. Once you've found and bookmarked the review sites, check each to see if your club is listed, and the basic information (for example, type of music, hours, and location) is accurate. If the club is not listed, you should see if there is a way to add it yourself, to be sure the listing is accurate. If there are errors in the information, look for a way to contact the site operator with corrections. Finally, check the review sites, and the other sites you've found in your searches, to see what's being said about your clubs. Think of this as an opportunity to find out what your customers really think and say to one another good and bad. You'll sometimes find very negative reviews - perhaps even lies and defamatory comments. If a review is really damaging, you may contact the site operators to see if it can be removed. Very likely the answer will be "no." Review sites don't remove reviews, good or bad, unless they violate the site's rules. (If they did, there would be no negative reviews, and the sites would be pretty useless.) At this point, some business owners begin making threats of legal action. This is almost always a waste of time. Rating and review sites operate as public forums where people can post their opinions. The sites are protected by law, and they are not liable for the opinions posted there. The rating and review sites are often represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the ACLU, so any legal battle will be very costly and almost certain fruitless so let's talk about what you can do instead of making threats. Fortunately, most review sites have a process for you to respond to reviews, and this is worthwhile. The tone of your response should be reasonable and positive. It's good to acknowledge the complaint (even if you believe it's false or exaggerated), and respond to it directly (especially if it's a valid complaint!). For example: "As the reviewer says, we've had some delays in the line on busy nights; we've added another person on the door to speed things up." "We were unaware of the problem in the restroom this reviewer is describing. Our staff checks the restrooms every hour, and we're available for immediate clean-up if a problem is reported." In other words, try hard to put the complaint to rest and sound like a good guy, making the person who wrote the bad review seem less credible. How about a bad review that says something you can't really respond to, like "this club sucks. The music stinks and it's filled with ugly people." In that case, simply talk up the club's positives: "I'm sorry the reviewer doesn't appreciate our music choices. Our club has grown more popular each year for the past three years, and won the 2005 DanceBeat award for best club in Philadelphia." Hopefully you won't need to deal with many negative reviews. Focus you energy on getting positive reviews on the web. Your best assets are you current customers. Your regular customers are likely to say good things about your club, so encourage them to write online reviews. First, visit the major rating sites, and find the URL (web address) of the page where your club is mentioned. Then: * Include the URL on your club flyers, and a link on your club's website ("Rate Club Paradiso at "). * If you have a MySpace friends list, or an e-mail list, you can use it to ask your customers to submit ratings and reviews. * Be sure that DJs, performers, promoters and staff associated with your club visit the rating sites and post reviews. When submitting reviews, ask your friends and customers to talk about the best features of the club, or good experiences they've had. Reviews that simply say "awesome club!" don't carry much weight with readers. Once you get some positive reviews and ratings on the web, publicize the fact! Include your ratings, and excerpts from reviews, in your ads, flyers, and website. Remember that people will talk about your club on the web; make sure you know what is being said! Bob Nicholson is VP of Marketing for Ratingz Inc, operator of the ClubRatingz.com website. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_Nicholson http://EzineArticles.com/?Building-Buzz-for-your-Club-with-Online-Reviews&id=360361 without prescription ambien
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