Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Are consumers really in control in this Web 2.0 era of local social media? Citysearch President Jay Herratti shared in his Kelsey Interactive Local Media keynote yesterday that merchant requests for removal of consumer reviews is the number one ”complaint escalation” he is called upon to arbitrate.

I met with Herratti following his presentation to discuss how Citysearch aims to help both merchants and consumers “make sense of” and “sort out” the burgeoning, and increasingly cacaphonous, world of online user generated content in the local space. 

Reputation management is an increasing imperative for local merchants as consumers become more and more active in sharing their experiences online, Herratti said. The passionate pleas from local businesses, and legal letters from lawyers, that reach the Citysearch president’s desk on a regular basis underscores the influence consumer opinions now have on SME’s prospects, he indicated. 

Merchants request removal of consumer reviews from Citysearch that they deem to be inaccurate and/or damaging, according to Herratti. During his keynote, Herratti described the cases of two restaurants that sought consumer review deletions from Citysearch.

When a restaurant in San Francisco changed ownership, the new management claimed that its prior track record, as described by consumers at Citysearch, no longer applied. Herratti determined, however, that as the restaurant continued to operate under the same name, the new investors acquired the business reputation along with its hard assets: No removal of reviews.

After a patron had an unfortunate experience under a pigeon while dining at one establishment, the customer was unable to find pleasure in any aspect of the restaurant’s experience and shared all online. While the merchant pleaded that pigeons don’t ordinarily interfere with their customers, Herratti determined the consumers’ review to be consistent with Citysearch’s “Ten Commandments” because the review added value by describing an actual consumer experience: No removal of review.

I asked Herratti if the two restaurants he described were Citysearch advertisers. Herratti said he was unaware, because client status does not factor into his decisions. Nevertheless, Citysearch sales reps will seek consumer review arbitration on behalf of client accounts. Regardless, most consumer reviews remain, Herratti told me.

I asked Herratti if, and under what circumstances, he WOULD agree to remove a consumer review. Citysearch consumer review decisions are based on its explicit Terms of Use, Herratti told me. Unacceptable review content includes:

1. Offensive, harmful and/or abusive language, including without limitation: expletives, profanities, obscenities, harassment, vulgarities, sexually explicit language and hate speech (e.g., racist/discriminatory speech.)
2. References to illegal activity, malpractice, purposeful overcharging, false advertising or health code violations (e.g., food poisoning, foreign objects in food, etc.)
3. Reviews submitted by the reviewed business’s employees (past or present) or competitors as determined by Citysearch.
4. Reviews that do not address the goods and services of the business or reviews with no qualitative value (e.g., “this place is great!”) as determined by Citysearch in its sole discretion.
5. Reviews commenting on other users.
6. Content that contains personal attacks or describes physical confrontations and/or sexual harassment.
7. Excessive damage caused by business or service to person or property.
8. Personal information or messages including email addresses, URLs, phone numbers and postal addresses.
9. Messages that are advertising or commercial in nature, or are inappropriate based on the applicable subject matter.
10. Language that violates the standards of good taste or the standards of this website, as determined by Citysearch in its sole discretion.

To assist local businesses in managing their reputations online, Citysearch offers a “merchant reply tool.”

To help consumers filter the hundreds of thousands, and counting, consumer reviews available at Citysearch, a new “Reviews Dashboard” is offered. Citysearch aims to give users a manageable, one-screen, snapshot of the aggregate consumer reaction to local establishments.

The Citysearch “Reviews Dashboard” features a “Ratings Roundup” and “The Verdict.” Local merchants will nevertheless undoubtedly continue to contest consumers’ verdicts.

MORE FROM KELSEY CONFERENCE: Google Beware: Facebook Takes Local Advertising Gloves Off, ILM REPORT and
Local Advertising Online: SMEs Hold the Billion Dollar Keys, ILM ANALYSIS and
Google Apps & Maps: Enterprise and Local Business STILL Missing and
The Future of Local IS (Google) Search: ILM REPORT and
Local is Global: $134 billion in Yellow Pages, Classifieds and Internet Advertising, ILM REPORT and
Jason Calacanis: ‘I Am Wrong About Local Too,” ILM REPORT

ALSO: Sony Jeopardy! Union and Studio Egos in the Way? WGA STRIKE INTERVIEWS

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

“Get a site, get found, get customers” all for the rock bottom price of $4.99 a month, is the Homestead pitch to SMEs. For $170 million, Intuit can get Homestead itself, and it has.

Does the acquisition of a ten year old, startup, self-serve, entry level Website design and hosting service by a $2.7 billion in sales financial software company represent a revolution, or an evolution, in the local advertising space online?

I am tasked with evaluating just such a theme on the closing panel of the Kelsey Interactive Local Media conference set to kick off Wednesday morning in Los Angeles.

Intuit will be discussing its SME strategy:

The keynote by Intuit’s Small Business leader Allison Mnookin addresses the challenges of winning strategies for small-business services and advertising, and Intuit’s success strategies.

“Intuit: The Next Local Advertising Agency?” I headlined following the company’s keynote at the last Kelsey conference in March. The Intuit mission is to “help small businesses achieve their dreams,” Steven Aldrich, VP, Strategy and Innovation, Small Business Division, said then. He also underscored: For new businesses, finding customers is the biggest limiting factor to growth.

Enter Homestead, “dedicated to providing small businesses with affordable, easy-to-use tools and services that help them tap the Web to compete more effectively and win more business.”

Why is Intuit so keen on helping SMEs get more business? “Small business is as big as big businesses,” Aldrich indicated in March.

How big is the Homestead business though? Homestead asserts “Since 1996, more than 12 million businesses have used our award-winning products and services to establish their presence on the Web, maintain and promote their site, and sell or market their products and services.”

In announcing the Homestead sale to Intuit, however, CEO and founder Justin Kitch quantifies “We have 100’s of thousands of business websites that are counting on us being around–and staying the best in the industry–for many years to come.”

Financially speaking, Intuit advises shareholders it “expects the acquisition to be slightly dilutive in fiscal 2008 and 2009.”

A positive financial impact of Intuit’s deal with Google to promote that company’s small business products also seems to require several years for fruition.

Bringing small businesses online, and keeping them there, is a tough proposition. Nevertheless, Intuit is making strategic investments aimed at winning in the SME space longterm.

Who else is making big local moves? R.H. Donnelley, Marchex, Idearc…and many more, all who are convening in Los Angeles for the remainder of the week to talk shop, and the big local business opportunity.

SEE YOU HERE? CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

IN THE MEANTIME, READ MORE: Stepan Pachikov: EverNote Web 2.0 Perfect Mobile Storm To Hit in 2008, EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

ALSO: Google’s Secret Weapon is a Four Letter Word

The future of all varieties of local search will be analyzed, debated and predicted over three days of The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media Conference set for Los Angeles, post-Thanksgiving holiday.

I am a five year, multidisciplinary veteran of the Kelsey local intensives: From academic analyst, to startup entrepreneur, to professional blogger, I have experienced the annual event for interactive local media execs and local search practitioners from all angles and always look forward to the high-level local pow-wows.

This year, I have the pleasure of joining the Kelsey Group analysts on stage to wrap up the three-day local meetup in helping evaluate if we are in the midst of a local revolution, or an evolution.

Local media play AnchorFree, for one, would undoubtedly vote for local revolution, thanks to its ”hotspot media network.”

I met AnchorFree co-founder and CEO David Gorodyansky, and team, at the Ad-Tech conference in New York City earlier this month when the Silicon Valley based startup hosted a Silicon Alley Happy Hour. While many Ad-Tech exhibitors laid claim to the latest and greatest ad network innovations, the AnchorFree value proposition is indeed compelling:

The largest Hotspot media network, representing more than 10,000 Hotspot locations, generating more than 400 million page views through five million user sessions per month. The location-based ad network is a new marketing channel for brand and direct response marketers to deliver interactive, timely and targeted advertisements to laptop and mobile device users when they are away from the home or office.

What is so “revolutionary” about the AnchorFree ad network? In a telephone interview this week, Gorodyansky proudly told me his company can target local ads better than Google and Yahoo! As the leading search engines rely on IP addresses for ad serving precision, both Google and Yahoo work under 30% to 50% margins of error, Gorodyansky indicated.

AnchorFree serves ads “pinpointed to street level location,” Gorodyansky told me. AnchorFree may even be able to target Yahoo local ads better than Yahoo itself; AnchorFree has an ad sales and delivery partnership with the number two search engine:

Advertisers are guaranteed 100% accurate location-based targeting, as AnchorFree’s geo-targeting capabilities are based on the access location of the consumer, and not on the less reliable ISP data.

The AnchorFree sales pitch: “We connect advertisers with millions of consumers in a captive, persistent manner that is highly measurable and geo-targeted to users’ exact locations. Any business, from coffee shops and restaurants to hotels, airports and malls, can leverage the AnchorFree network to offer their patrons free Internet access while generating new revenues with no financial investments required.”

AnchorFree aims to build a nationwide broadband advertising network providing 1-to-1 connections with attentive consumers, Gorodyansky told me. Whats more, the out-of-home laptop and wireless device users that engage with AnchorFree’s free-to-the-consumer, ad-supported hotspot network, are highly desirable to brand and direct marketers, Gorodyansky indicated.

Brands currently running across the AnchorFree network include American Express, AirTran, Circuit City, Clorox, Ford…AnchorFree commands CPMs of about $12.50.

While Gorodyyansky hails the local advertising appeal of its service for the media business, AnchorFree also sees its mission as revolutionary for the world at large:

The company enables a grass roots movement of thousands of locations around the world that come together into the largest public, ad-supported Wi-Fi community.

AnchorFree’s hotspot concept does sound “hot.” The hot local space nevertheless has lots of companies vying for “revolutionary” honors.

Dozens of other prospectively “hot” local plays are unbdoubtedly gearing up to make their own best advertising and/or technology cases to the hundreds of local decision makers set to convene in Los Angeles from November 28 to 30!

SEE YOU THERE? BE SURE TO STAY TO THE VERY END! CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

MORE INSIDER CHATTER CEO INTERVIEWS: MerchantCircle CEO Aims To Disrupt Local Advertising $39 billion Spend: INTERVIEW AND Stepan Pachikov: EverNote Web 2.0 Perfect Mobile Storm To Hit in 2008, INTERVIEW

UPDATE:  CBS To AnchorFree WiFi: WE Own The Ad Billboard, Online AND Off

Google may be readying its latest and greatest blow-out earnings report for Thursday, but the king of online text ads is NOT this year’s king of marketing, the integrated kind, according to the Direct Marketing Association at least: The DMA has named Microsoft-MSN 2007 Marketer of the Year.

Why was the king of software recognized for advertising platform excellence? Because it “consistently demonstrates thought leadership, market innovation and exemplary corporate responsibility,” in the words of DMA CEO John Greco:

Microsoft-MSN addresses both sides of the marketing equation–consumer and business-to-business–while retaining user-friendly and practical approaches that deliver winning results.

Microsoft “thought outside of the box when it created advertising platform adCenter and produced the crtically accliaimed Live Earth project, which integrated television, radio, Internet and audiences to bring a live concert to the world while raising awareness about global warming,” the DMA explained. 

Yahoo received DMA honors last year. Google next year?

(Disclaimer? The DMA announced the Microsoft honors at the DMA 07 conference today in Chicago, of which Microsoft is a “Silver Sponsor”)

ALSO: Local Ad Sales War: Why Google is a Guaranteed Winner and Jerry Yang Sees a ‘Kick-Ass’ Future: Yahoo!

PLUS: Startups: Who Needs Business Plans? Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mayfield, Sequoia…

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

UPDATE 10/10/07: Insider Chatter Started With Houston “Pay Per Yelp?” analysis, Wall Street Journal Follows With Chicago Yelp “Payola?” analysis noting “the price of a four star rating” for Dine restaurant, thanks to anonymous (not so) real Yelp Chicago “reviewers.” SEE BOTTOM OF STORY BELOW 

9/27/07: Microsoft is hoping “local reviews” will help spur adoption of its new and improved Live Search.

REALITY CHECK: InsiderPages is now the “property” of Citysearch, Backfence was a $3 million dream turned nightmare, Judy’s Book changes its business stripes at will…YELP!

Is Yelp the hottest thing to happen to local? CEO Jeremy Stoppleman hails his startup as THE “ultimate city guide” and he gets plenty of media backup for his “ambitious plan top take over the local ads market.”

The core Yelp value proposition is “real people, real reviews.” How real, though, is the Yelp experience? Late last year, Stoppleman fired back at reports that Yelp was “paying people to Yelp,” asserting that Business Week “misrepresented Yelp’s marketing programs by insinuating that users often interact with paid shills and that is simply not the case.’

Yelp quickly yelps about any press coverage of the company that strays from its tightly controlled PR feel good messaging. “Believe the hype,” Yelp IS the “next big thing,” Yelp confidently asserts.

Nevertheless, Yelp does indeed appear to continue to be “paying people to Yelp”: Houston, we have a problem, a Yelp problem.

“Why don’t people in Houston use Yelp,” a Ms. Fayza E. posted at Yelp last June:

I really fail to understand it. Yelp is fantastic, and way more interactive than Citysearch. So what gives? Why don’t Houstonians use Yelp?

What gives with Fayza E.? Real Yelper? Paid Yelp staffer? Best of both worlds? She rallied last month:

We’re having our first Unofficial Houston Yelp Event!

Yelp is determined to turn Houston into a city of Yelpers, one way or another. The recent Yelp “help wanted” in Houston campaign solicited “marketing assistants with a flair for writing”:

If you are a great writer, if you love to blog and connect with others online, if you know Houston better than anyone else…WE’RE HIRING. We’re looking to hire a witty, humorous and intelligent Houston hipster who knowws the city inside and out. IS THIS YOU?

We’re now looking for a well-written, highly social and entrepreneurial Scout to grow our review base and community in Houston.

The “Marketing Assistant” job duties of its “Houston Scout” include:

Writing witty and insightful reviews of all the places you frequent,

Photographing your neighborhood businesses and adding these images to the site.

Yelp’s call out for a paid Houston Yelper appeared in Monster AND Pro Job Fair.

Along with Yelp’s ad for a “marketing assistant” Pro Job Fair features an ad for About .com paid “writers.”

Why Pro Job Fair? It posts “blogging jobs for bloggers” and is an “ideal” place for “companies looking for bloggers to hire.”

Yelp touts it offers a “competitive hourly wage” for “10-30 hours of weekly contribution.”

Fayza E. is apparently still not satsfied with Yelp’s Houston traction: She posted on Tuesday, “Reviews, reviews anyone?”

Yesterday, she lamented “nobody is popular in Houston,” in a plea for Houston Yelp reviews.

Pay Per Yelp to the Houston rescue? Perhaps Yelp needs to hire more “marketing assistants.”

UPDATE: SUBSEQUENT TO INSIDER CHATTER’S INVESTIGATION OF THE INTEGRITY OF YELP HOUSTON, THE INTEGRITY OF YELP’S CHICAGO OPERATIONS ARE INVESTIGATED BY THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:

Brad Inman, Founder & CEO of TurnHere online video production and distribution service, is having a good time “revolutionizing” the marketing of books on the Web with his ”authentic, mini-docs” of authors’ “back stories.” A really, good time!

Last evening, Inman brought together Manhattan publishing execs with TurnHere’s filmmakers to share an authentic New York City experience: Dining, dancing and drinking at the one and only “Sammy’s Roumanian Steak House.”

Why did an Irish Catholic choose a Lower East Side institution famous for old world style Jewish food and humor for his celebration? Because Sammy’s old fashioned authenticity relfects the TurnHere video production style of real world, heart felt story telling, Inman told his guests. What’s more, one of the first TurnHere videos ever produced told the Sammy’s story.  

Can video make reading sexy? I headlined in May, announcing bookvideos.tv, an online book channel developed by TurnHere and sponsored by CBS Corporations’s Simon & Schuster publishing arm.

“Videos will humanize authors,” Sue Fleming, VP, Online & Consumer Marketing for the Adult Publishing Group told me:

Now readers will have a way to view and share compelling content about our authors, available on a 24/7 basis. BookVideos.tv will allow readers to easily use the internet to replicate, for the digital age, the critical and time tested word of mouth excitement that comes from talking about a good read. Tapping this huge potential audience is an exciting new way of marketing for us, and we expect to find legions of new readers while at the same time giving a new experience to dedicated fans of our authors.

Now the question is: Can online video help sell books? YES, according to last evening’s chatter. Lovers of the written word are using the power of the spoken word to pitch their books. Taking a cue from Oprah Winfrey, book publishers are embracing personal, direct-to-readers communication between authors and their fans, via video.

In other TurnHere bookvideos.tv words, “watch the story behind the story.”

So far, so good, for Simon & Schuster and TurnHere. Fleming told me in May she was starting with a 40 TurnHere video trial; Now, there are 100 more author videos in the works, Inman told me last evening. What’s more, additional publishers are on board to join the bookvideos.tv lineup.

What is the bookvideos.tv appeal to publishers? The Turnhere value propostion:

TurnHere produces professional digital videos, accessible on the Internet, for clients across the globe.  Each TurnHere digital video is driven by an individual filmmaker’s vision in lockstep with client goals, translated into compelling storytelling, authentic perspective and high entertainment value. TurnHere clients all have one thing in common – they each have recognized the power of quality filmmaking to convey important messages both externally and internally.  And they have been able to accomplish this quickly and inexpensively.

The bookvideos.tv network offers readers and book clubs a one-stop shop for videos and other content and functionality to learn about all their favorite authors and purchase all their favorite books onlline. It is the place where favorite books and authors come to life, and it’s also where readers engage with the literary community on a whole new level. Using the site’s variety of social media tools, author videos can be embedded on Web sites and blogs, emailed to friends, or shared with book clubs. Readers are also encouraged to subscribe to to the videos with RSS, as well as adding them to del.icio.us and Digging favorite new titles.

The book marketing party was in full swing last evening in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. TurnHere aims to foster an ongoing social celebration of books at bookvideos.tv.

MORE: Why Use Video Online? TurnHere Has 2000 Reasons

PLUS: Web 3.0: From AOL to TechCrunch, NYC Takes Center Stage and FeedBurner VC Smart Money on the Cheap: $4 CPM

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN