Due to widespread concern about negative customer reviews on Yelp, Propadoo.com is offering a way for businesses to take control of their on-line reputation.

Denver, CO, June 9, 2010 – Testimonial & search engine marketing firm Propadoo.com announced today that it is providing 6 month full-featured accounts for free for any business that believes it has been has wronged by negative reviews on Yelp or other review services.

Propadoo.com enables businesses to leverage positive customer testimonials as an SEO (search engine optimization) tool as customers place the positive testimonials on the Propadoo site. Powered by this user-generated content, the Propadoo profile gets indexed by the search engines offsetting negative search results.

Propadoo not only provides the vehicle for customer testimonials to rank in search engines, it enables the positive testimonials to be found on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook as well. “Our platform is a simple way for companies to improve their search engine rankings and get positive buzz about their business in the social media environment” says Mueller.

“Manage your reputation before someone manages it for you” says Mueller. “Send any existing testimonials you’d like to promote to the search engines, Twitter & Facebook to mytestimonials@propadoo.com and we will set up your free account. Please include a link to the ’review in question’ to qualify for the free account.”

About Propadoo
Propadoo.com turns customer testimonials into a powerful SEO tool making it easy for businesses to collect, manage and promote customer testimonials to your website, the search engines, and social networking sites.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

Here is a highlight:

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

With regards to Propadoo’s client testimonials service the FTC guidelines do not clarify any conflicts it might have with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1996.  Under Title II of DMCA internet service providers and other intermediaries (such as online forums) are not liable for the content posted using their services.  Web sites that allow customers to post their own testimonials (such as when using customer testimonials software) are likely exempted due to the safe harbor provided by Title II of DMCA however we advise readers to seek legal counsel regarding this issue.

See it here: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/A_new_way_to_measure_word-of-mouth_marketing_2567

Client testimonials software

Read it here.

GiantImpact is a leadership site by John Maxwell, a best selling author.

“Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE, is the president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc. An internationally recognized speaker and bestselling author, Mark is widely known as an expert on leadership and customer service.”

2. Transparency: Get as much information about the person giving you the testimonial. Name, company, photo, bio, location all contribute to increasing the credibility of a testimonial.

3. Do Unto Others: The best way to RECEIVE testimonials is to GIVE testimonials . Be sure to take time to give someone or some company the recognition they deserve.

4. Leverage Employees Relationships: How many times have we heard a company owner or executive say “our employees are what make this company”. Your employees have the special relationships with your customers, leverage these relationships by having them ask customers personally for testimonials.

5. Promote Everywhere: You never know what page your potential customers are going to land on or visit on your website so be sure to place a few testimonials on every page of your site. Try to match up the testimonial topic to the topic of the page you put them on. Your testimonials are a great conversion tool so make sure to have them showing in places your prospects are considering doing business with your company.

6. Systematically Request Testimonials : It’s best to have a process for systematically request testimonials from your customers. This creates a habit and becomes part of your everyday business practices. Be sure to ask for them after every project completion or after every trouble ticket closed etc.

7. Testimonial Page : It doesn’t do any good to collect customer testimonials and never share them. Create a testimonial page on your website and put a “Testimonials” tab on your navigation bar.

8. Sales Tool: Your customer testimonials make great references when you’re trying to close business. Make sure to include some testimonials in your proposals, brochures or any other sales literature.

strong>9. Spread The Word: Twitter & Facebook are great places to spread the great comments your customers are making about your company. This creates word-of-mouth and buzz and can not only lead visitors to your website, but some of your prospects might just be listening.

10. Offer Incentives: As much as we’d all like to think our loyal customers are ready and willing to praise us for our hard work, they may need a little incentive. Here are some ways to offer an incentive; discount on their next purchase, free shipping, membership into your VIP customer club where they get advanced offers etc., percentage off their next monthly invoice. Another great idea is to send out an email to all of your customers telling them you’re looking for some positive feedback on your company/products/services…offer a free iPod Touch for the most meaningful testimonial. Put “Win A Free iPod Touch” in the subject line. Remember, you’re not rewarding them for the testimonial, your compensating them for their “time” to give you a testimonial.

“Turn Your Testimonials Into A Powerful SEO Tool…FREE!”
www.propadoo.com

See the survey here:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007510

We now get to appear on the show in 6 months and show our site off!

http://thisweekinstartups.com/2010/02/twist-43-with-andy-smith/

http://thisweekinstartups.com/2010/02/who-deserves-to-win-the-bing-perfect-pitch-contest/

http://thisweekinstartups.com/bings-perfect-pitch-contest/