Contrary to what you may have heard, when it comes to small and local business marketing, Twitter is not for the birds. And it certainly is not a waste of time – as long as don’t become a social butterfly and you actually get down to the business of getting new customers. Let’s explore some ways to do that. This first blog on the topic will be on how to find your local prospects in Twitter first.

Find your target market in Twitter

If you haven’t defined your target market, then you’ve been amiss because it should have been one of your first objectives when you started your businesses. So let’s assume you have that, and let’s say for illustration sake that you are a local vegetarian restaurant. Your target market then might be everyone within 5 miles of your establishment who might be health conscious or have heart disease, or who might be a member of PETA. How do you find them in Twitter?

I’m bummed. I had a client who probably spent an hour writing a glowing review at Yelp about what I did for his business with my KickStart consultation program. It was a full page filled with all the details of how I helped him and the embarrassing results he got – embarrassing because he commanded 8 positions on the first page of Google. He was aglow and went on and on and on. It was the kind of review that every business wants to get.

Sadly, I’m guessing that Yelp considered it too good to be true, so they removed it. That’s not all that uncommon. They do it in an attempt to keep out spam. Unfortunately, though, it may appear that they are over-zealous, some say unfair, and then come the conspiracy theories about Yelp.

I don’t want that to happen to you, so I want to share two pieces of advice with you and give you a REVIEW TOOL for FREE that might help you get and keep the great reviews you deserve – it’s just not going to be on Yelp.

Why is that? Because it’s against Yelp’s policy to ask for reviews.

“But I’m not prompting them what to say and I’m not only asking those who had a good experience,” you may argue.

Doesn’t matter. Requested reviews are just not as credible as those that come spontaneously by your customers.

Also, Yelp knows that businesses will actually incentivize reviews with things like, “Leave a review and get a free latte on us!” And then how authentic are those? NOT!

For the good this does for consumers and for businesses who have to compete against the unethical review practices of their competitors, I stand behind Yelp’s decision on this. I think they are doing a great job keeping the platform trustworthy even though to the business owner like me who gets their authentic review filtered from time to time, it may not feel so fair at times.

(Honestly I wish Google would be so stringent.  Fake reviews are easy to fake there. Just go google “how to buy fake review on Google” and you’ll see. In November 2023, Google announced that they are revising their review algorithms so we’ll see if this changes.)

But don’t despair, I’ll also be giving you a tip on how you can drive new business from Yelp even without asking for a single review.

Watch out Yelp! Here comes Thumbtack! YEOW!

Getting listed in local directories is a must for all local businesses if you want a good place in Google Places, but here’s one that gives you more than just a listing. Thumbtack actually vets and verifies your listing which adds credibility to your business. AND it personally connects you with customers requesting your services through their site.

I’m impressed!

Shortly after I wrote the post on how to use QR for getting reviews, someone commented that they thought it was too early in the game for QR. While it’s true that most people still don’t know a QR code from a snowflake, I tend to disagree that it’s too early. QR codes have already taken over Japan and Europe and they are cropping up all over the U.S. in major name brand promotions today.

I think the time is now and the following video from CBS agrees. Watch and you’ll also learn what QR is, how to read QR codes, and who’s using them how.