Why Get Reputation Management? These Stats Will Help You Understand

Social media marketing has become a must for companies in the 21st century, whether businesses like it or not. Along with the great consumer engagement and strengthening relationships that is a goal of social media for business, corporate blogging, and other digital marketing activities, it means that eventually, there will be some negative response.

Whether the negative response is from a customer complaining on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or on a review site like Yelp, negative press can affect business and the health of your reputation.

How can your business protect itself from a negative review? Reputation management.

Did you know that negative reviews are the number one concern for CEOs? It is.

Did you know that 65 percent of consumers consider online search as a trusted source of info about brands and their products? This means that negative reviews can scare potential customers away from your business. That is a higher level of sincere trust than any other source, online or offline.

Lastly, did you know that 79 percent of consumers have equal weight for online reviews and personal recommendations; 85 percent of all consumers use the web to research reviews? That is an awful lot of pressure for your online reputation to be pure and defended. It is absolutely critical to keep a very close and analytical eye on what people are saying about your business. The frequency of online search for reviews and analytics of products and services has grown exponentially over the last 10 years; as mobile devices have become mainstream, that number will continue to grow more and more.

As a Los Angeles internet marketing agency, we know how important it is to protect a reputation; it is easier and more cost efficient than to have an issue and be forced to clean it up, maybe even rebrand.

10 Characteristics of Great Blogs: Dos and Don'ts

Blogging can be a somewhat arduous endeavor; for one thing, you have to find good content to write about and pair it with good images. Also, you have to have a blog that has pleasing design, a good purpose, and connections.

To make things a little easier, here are 10 tips for making your blog even better. Or, if you are just getting started, here are 10 tips for getting off on the right foot. These tips are courtesy of our Los Angeles marketing company copywriting team.

1. Do make sure your blog platform is mobile responsive. Or, if your blog is hosted on your website, then make sure that your site is mobile responsive. With more and more smartphones and tablets being used these days, especially out of the home, more web searches and navigating is being done away from desktops & laptops. If you are not sure, then contact our Los Angeles web design team, they can help you figure out if your site is responsive, if not, what can be done about it. 
2. Do have a purpose for the blog. This purpose is not just so you have a place to write your thoughts but the content always needs to circle around a specific theme. A visitor to your blog should know what the subject matter/purpose of the blog should be apparent within a few seconds. 
3. Do watch spacing. Have some whitespace, don't pack everything in so tightly, like a can of sardines. Let the text, the images, and the reader breathe! 
4. Don't clutter. Sure, there is the sidebar for things like widgets and other links but avoid filling it so much that it becomes crowded and aesthetically displeasing. 
5. Do watch the header heights. Avoid making your headers so tall that it takes a couple scrolls for viewers to see your content. 
6. Do make sure your site has great navigation. If your blog is on your website, then your website needs to have good navigation. If it does not, then visitors to your site will find the site frustrating and that will lead to visitors leaving. You want your web visitors to stick around! This is important for good blogging, web design, and search engine optimization.
7. Don't have auto-play music or videos on the blog. As soon as the sound starts to play, the visitor will either get scared or annoyed; whichever is the result of the auto-play sound, the person will hit the mute button on their keyboard and your song or video will be rendered useless. 
8. Do have contact buttons or links on your blog. Make it easy to move over to your site and specifically, the contact page. It makes your blog much friendlier and engaging. 
9. Do be focused on your reader. Is your blog welcoming and helpful? Make it look and feel trusting. 
10. Don't use bad background or font colors. One poor choice of blogs is to have a light text on a dark background. Another mistake is to have too many colors with the fonts. 

Enjoy your blogging. Make it great! If your business needs helping getting a blog started or want someone to manage your blog, then email Integraphix about blogging services, SEO, or social media! 

13 of the Biggest Product Fails in History

Sometimes, even with the most creative marketing and business minds around a product, it just doesn't deliver. It's how business is. Not every product that is introduced to the market will be a winner.

Here are 13 of those examples. Researched by our Los Angeles marketing company development team.

1. Ford Edsel in 1957. This car is pretty much synonymous with "product failure" in the marketing world. Ford invested a whopping $400 million into the car, which is a lot of money now but consider that much in 1957! Americans didn't buy the car. It was removed from the market in 1960

2. Coca-Cola New Coke- 1985. In the early 1980s, Coca-Cola was losing its market share to its main competitor, Pepsi. So, to win back consumers, they wanted to release a game-changer, New Coke. It was supposed to be a similar taste to Pepsi, which is sweeter than Coke. What is morAfter a few short weeks, Coke went back to their original formula. This was when they introduced a new name for their flagship product: Coca-Cola Classic.
e surprising here is that taste tests showed the product would do well; however, once it hit store shelves for real, it flopped.

3. Pepsi AM- 1989. In the late 80s, Pepsi believed they could reach a new market, morning coffee drinkers. They released Pepsi A.M. to appeal to breakfast cola drinkers with this breakfast variety of cola. The product was pulled from shelves after only one year.
          3b. Crystal Pepsi. In 1992, Pepsi tried to intrigue the clear soda consumers with their Crystal Pepsi option. It lasted a year and was pulled in 1993. We could get into Pepsi Blue but we'll hold off on that for now.

4. Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water- 1990. Sometimes brands can have product extensions that work, while other brand extensions just don't work out. For example, this one. In 1990, consumers were not ready for a popular beer maker to make water.

5. Apple Newton- 1993. This is a great example of when Apple was in its "forgettable" days and not the world's most valuable brand. This device flopped because it was too expensive ($700), was tall and thick (the world wasn't ready for tablets) at 8x4.5 inches, and its handwriting recognition was horrendous. See this joke from The Simpsons.

6. Orbitz Soda -- 1997. The cool thing about Orbitz Soda was that it looked like little lava lamps, which appealed to kids. However, it tasted like cough syrup and the "lava" bits were awkward to have in your mouth with a liquid. It was pulled from shelves a year after debuting.

7. Cosmopolitan Yogurt -- 1999. The famous women's magazine, Cosmo, decided to make a yogurt back in 1999. The problem was that consumers were already satisfied with their yogurt selection in stores and the product connection wasn't logical, consumers couldn't figure out why they should buy the yogurt simply because they liked the magazine.

8. Mobile ESPN - 2006. Back in 2006, ESPN thought they had a great idea, offer a phone that would feature exclusive ESPN content via Verizon. The fail was so bad that it is considered one of the largest fails in mobile history. The only device equipped at product and service launch was a Sanyo flip phone that cost $400. ESPN shut down the service and moved on.

9. HD DVDs -- 2006. The race was on in the 2000s between the HD DVD, led by Toshiba, and the Blu-ray, led by Sony. Blu-ray won the race and it was mostly due to Warner Bros. it would no long support the HD DVD, in favor of Blu-ray.

10. JooJoo- 2009. During the emerging days of the iPad, which cost $499, another tablet computer was coming onto the scene, the JooJoo (also known as CrunchPad), which also cost $499. It emerged in 1009 and was gone by 2010.

11. Qwikster- 2011. When Netflix decided to split streaming and DVD services into two services, it spun off Qwikster as a DVD rental business. Consumers hated this decision. Netflix quickly retracted this decision.

12. Facebook Homescreen - 2013. Facebook tried to do one of the biggest mobile moves of all time with their "Facebook Home" service, which resulted in turning your phone's home screen into a Facebook feed. It flopped. For one thing, it was "too much" Facebook for users and it cost $99 for 2-year plans. It used up a lot of data and battery, too. It was quickly pulled.

13. The Nook- 2009. Barnes & Noble wanted to enter the e-reader market, which made sense since they were known for books! But they soon saw badly suffering sales, spun Nook off into its own company, and looked the other way.

Did you have a fun trip down memory lane? We sure did. Is your business looking to launch a new service or product? Then email Integraphix, a Los Angeles marketing agency, to help you make sure it is not a flop like these products.