Yodle, a leader in local online marketing, announced results from its first “Small Business and Online Reviews Survey.” The study polled 300 U.S. small business owners across a large array of industries for their opinions of online reviews.

The survey asks SMB owners if they think online reviews are important, the extent to which they ask for and get reviews, if they monitor for and respond to reviews, and whether they think reviews are fair.

Survey highlights include:

— 50% of respondents think that it’s important or very important for their business to receive positive online reviews.

— 55% of SMB owners don’t receive any online reviews, while one in five (19%) attract between one and five reviews per month. Despite the low number of reviews small businesses are receiving, only 13% of owners ask their customers to post reviews.

— 68% of SMB owners don’t spend any time monitoring online reviews. Most of the remaining SMB owners (29%) spend just one to five hours per month on this activity.

— Only 20% of survey respondents respond to online reviews written about their business. Of those that do respond, more than 3 in 4 generally respond to all reviews.

— Only 14% of survey respondents post customers’ reviews to their websites. The remaining SMB owners that have received reviews and have a website (37%) do not post this content.

— 61% of SMB owners think that review sites favor businesses that pay to advertise with them, while only 10% don’t believe that to be the case. Half of SMB owners believe small businesses are more unfairly impacted by negative reviews than larger business; only 20% disagree.

— More than four in 10 survey respondents (43%) believe that online reviews are unfair because they do not verify that people who leave reviews are actual customers. A similar number, 41%, are “Not sure” if they’re unfair.

BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ shows SMB advertisers are increasing their engagement with consumer reviews. Currently, 65% of SMBs surveyed monitor comments about their business, with another 15% planning to do so in the next year. Among those that do monitor reviews, 56% use a free or Do-It-Yourself service. Of those that do spend money on review monitoring, half spend between $25 and $100 per month.

While there’s no clear cut answer to whether or not online review sites being fair to SMBs, these statistics speak for themselves. Regardless, review sites are here to stay and force businesses to surrender their power to the consumer. They must rethink how they treat their customers.

For more information about Yodle’s Small Business and online review study please read the press release.

The post Yodle Releases First Ever “Small Business and Online Reviews Survey” Results appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Yodle, a leader in local online marketing, announced results from its first “Small Business and Online Reviews Survey.” The study polled 300 U.S. small business owners across a large array of industries for their opinions of online reviews.

The survey asks SMB owners if they think online reviews are important, the extent to which they ask for and get reviews, if they monitor for and respond to reviews, and whether they think reviews are fair.

Survey highlights include:

— 50% of respondents think that it’s important or very important for their business to receive positive online reviews.

— 55% of SMB owners don’t receive any online reviews, while one in five (19%) attract between one and five reviews per month. Despite the low number of reviews small businesses are receiving, only 13% of owners ask their customers to post reviews.

— 68% of SMB owners don’t spend any time monitoring online reviews. Most of the remaining SMB owners (29%) spend just one to five hours per month on this activity.

— Only 20% of survey respondents respond to online reviews written about their business. Of those that do respond, more than 3 in 4 generally respond to all reviews.

— Only 14% of survey respondents post customers’ reviews to their websites. The remaining SMB owners that have received reviews and have a website (37%) do not post this content.

— 61% of SMB owners think that review sites favor businesses that pay to advertise with them, while only 10% don’t believe that to be the case. Half of SMB owners believe small businesses are more unfairly impacted by negative reviews than larger business; only 20% disagree.

— More than four in 10 survey respondents (43%) believe that online reviews are unfair because they do not verify that people who leave reviews are actual customers. A similar number, 41%, are “Not sure” if they’re unfair.

BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor? shows SMB advertisers are increasing their engagement with consumer reviews. Currently, 65% of SMBs surveyed monitor comments about their business, with another 15% planning to do so in the next year. Among those that do monitor reviews, 56% use a free or Do-It-Yourself service. Of those that do spend money on review monitoring, half spend between $25 and $100 per month.

While there’s no clear cut answer to whether or not online review sites being fair to SMBs, these statistics speak for themselves. Regardless, review sites are here to stay and force businesses to surrender their power to the consumer. They must rethink how they treat their customers.

For more information about Yodle’s Small Business and online review study please read the press release.

The post Yodle Releases First Ever "Small Business and Online Reviews Survey" Results appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey’s DMS ’11 event is shaping up nicely as a summit of leading innovators in small-business marketing and advertising solutions. Anyone selling directly to SMBs or building solutions for those that do should attend this event.

The premise of DMS ’11: The Summit for Small-Business Advertising Solutions is that small-business advertisers need help navigating all the choices they face every day when deciding how to acquire and retain customers. And a combination of traditional and digital media players are scrambling to build those solutions. This summit explores the opportunity, as well as the challenges involved in selling a new set of products to SMBs in entirely new ways.

Our lineup of high-powered headliners and panelists is shaping up well. We’ve already booked more than 20 thought leaders from the worlds of small-business services, Yellow Pages, local search, mobile local search, social media and the technologies enabling all these. Here is a list of the speakers we’ve confirmed as of today, with many more to come:

Headliners

Bill Dinan, President, Telmetrics
Rita Fabi, Head of Market Solutions, Global Customer Marketing and Communications, Facebook
Clare Hart, CEO, Infogroup
Tom Higley, CEO, Local Matters
Nir Lempert, CEO, Golden Pages
Ben Smith, Founder, MerchantCircle
Joe Walsh, President and CEO, Yellowbook

Speakers

Jeff Beard, President and GM, Localeze
Mike Centorani, VP of Sales Training, Matchcraft
Dan Gilmartin, VP Marketing, Where
Craig Hagopian, CMO, xAd
Greg Hallinan, CMO, Verve Wireless
Warren Kay, CEO, iPromote
Brendan King, CEO, VendAsta
Paul Levine, COO, Trulia
David Lifson, CEO, Postling
Neg Norton, President, Local Search Association
David Read, Director of Sales, Pay for Performance, AT&T Advertising Solutions
Daniel Shaked, CEO, No Problem
Darby Sieben, Director, Business Development, Yellow Pages Group
Andy Steuer, CEO, MerchEngines

Additional speakers to be announced

The post DMS ’11 to Focus on Solutions for SMBs appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.