This week’s episode comes live from SES Chicago just catching Jim Hedger fresh off the stage; a brave man considering the variables that come into play after hours of any high profile convention.
Rantology
What the What!?
A group of professional reviewers claim that Yelp is violating the fair labor Standard Act and refusing to pay wages to its reviewers. Get this, the fair wage asked from the lawsuit is $273 per review – a far cry from minimum wage and is ridiculously evident of an attempt to extort money from Yelp.
Get over it!
A review is done straight from the mouth of a consumer and is voluntarily – given from the consumer themselves. What if a civil action like this did make it through the court system? The obvious answer to this repercussion would shut down much of the internet from almost everybody pushing to receive pay, and ultimately kill any trust to be had from any review source. Jim finely put this into summery; “Working on the internet is like working in the theater of the Absurd.”
Social Repercussion and Burn Rate
Dave Davies brought up a great point on social media and the repercussion of consumer upsets when directed on live feeds. As a consumer it’s often hard to receive an answer when contacting a company directly and this is why more people revert to using Social Media for an answer. With this fast paced world more people expect an answer immediately.
Dave brought up some interesting stats he dug up from Search Engine Watch that reveal the length of expected response time from a consumer. 53% of consumers expect an answer within one hour and 14% immediately. I would assume that this 14% is the portion every business should pay extra attention to as these are the consumers that will use social media to get a company’s attention.
So what is the aftershock of a client not feeling fulfilled?
29% People will share with their friends and family
26% Will share with others via phone or other such devices
24% Buy less
21% Don’t recommend the product
15% Will socially shame you on social media
This proves that if you have a line of communication open for customer response, that line of communication better have a business’s full attention. If a business finds a situation with the irrational 14% there’s a responsibility for a business to understand ways to handle situations properly while retaining brand reputation.
A Thought from Chicago
Jim reports on the conference and proves that it’s still one of the best SEO conferences around. What was most interesting to hear was how many in the industry have created solutions in light of the recent (not provided) changes and have adapted their reports so that they have become more revealing as well as accurate. He also mentioned that many SEO’s are becoming more intimate with their clients as well as delving deeper into Web Master Tools and Anlytics to reveal correct, pertinent data to report on.
As a fresh and learning SEO it was interesting to hear Jim’s report and how the majority of veteran SEO’s have accomplished positive reports on client campaigns enabling them to move forward. Jim mentioned how we now have to educate clients with data fused with old school metrics as well with new approach. I would promote this segment to any learning SEO’s as it will help them progress with their reporting and relationships with their clients.
Sumcology
SES conventions can be wild
Pay close attention to your consumer across all digital platforms
Hold on to old Jedi metrics to reveal new possibilities in an SEO report.
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