When I wrote How to Write a MerchantCircle Review, the Merchant Circle Marketing Advisor D. Marcus Keith whom you may know as ADMAXX at Twitter DMed me. He suggested that what my readers really needed was how NOT to write a MerchantCircle review. Since he has far more experience at MerchantCircle I invited him to write this Guest Post.

How NOT To Write a MerchantCircle Review

~ Guest Post by D. Marcus Keith ~

Early on in its development, MerchantCircle distinguished itself by being “business owner centric”. Other business review sites such as Yelp and Insider Pages are “consumer-centric.”  The Web 2.0 community has been split on this issue. Sites like Yelp posit that reviews must be real and they actively monitor for abuses – phony positive reviews that smack of disingenuous platitudes.

In fact, on sites like Yelp and Angie’s List, a poorly written (or even well written) POSITIVE review can easily be removed. (We know because we’ve seen positive reviews on those sites that we wrote for clients get tagged, removed, and we received a stiff warning – and we thought we were good at it.)

On the other hand, getting a negative review removed – even when the negative review has all of the earmarks of being phony or possibly written by an unscrupulous competitor – can be next to impossible.

And therein lay the rub: We have seen numerous examples of prominent business owners being smeared unfairly by phony negative reviews. The idea of a business-centric review site like MC giving members more control over review content has some merit. There is no single perfect solution, i.e., one that would maintain full integrity of both positive and negative review content.

While the Web 2.0 bloggers debate the merits of business-centric vs. consumer-centric protocol, there has been some unexpected controversy – specifically on both Yelp and Angie’s List.  These sites that trumpet the pristine nature of their consumer-centric basis have been rocked with allegations of “advertising extortion” and disingenuous review manipulation working both for and against business owners who either opt for or against the advertising purchase proposals floated to them by ad sales reps.

According to Kathleen Richard writing for East Bay Express (Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0, February 18, 2009): Local business owners say Yelp offers to hide negative customer reviews of their businesses on its web site for a price. During interviews with dozens of business owners over a span of several months, people told East Bay Express that Yelp sales representatives promised to move or remove negative reviews if their business would advertise.

In other instances, according to the article:

…positive reviews disappeared — or negative ones appeared — after owners declined to advertise on Yelp.

So clearly the consumer-centric model is not all it’s cracked up to be. It can be prone to abuse motivated by both an advertising sales model and sneaky unscrupulous competitors.

So what about MC and its business-centric directory model? It deserves some criticism:

Can the reviews be relied upon if business owners can delete a bad review on sight?

Well perhaps not entirely, but it is certainly no less valid than the flawed current consumer-centric model, and in fact much less prone to the worst kinds of abuse as typified by Yelp and Angie’s.

The MC model is vulnerable to a different sort of abuse, perhaps more benign, wherein members are encouraged to write reviews for fellow business owners – a sort of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours  environment.  This gives rise to a distinct degradation of quality where members who are not pro copywriters come across often with cheesy-sounding commercial hype typified by this one:

The Glass Guy provides a Mobile Glass Replacement Service for residential and commercial properties including town homes, schools, apartment complexes and private homes, as well as storefronts, office parks and complexes. He has been in business since 1991.

The Glass Guy takes pride in his fast friendly service. He offers very competitive pricing with the highest level of quality. Most service providers must charge for a temporary board-up, and then add a follow up charge for return and installation of the proper glass. The extensive inventory he carries in his mobile shops usually enables him to complete the glass installation on the first service call. He even does shower enclosures!

If you need any kind of window, shower or glass needs, give Ken a call!

The above review was written by a well-intended fellow MC member who has never used the business that was reviewed and comes across like a radio announcer’s advertisement.

Another variety of MC review misuse is this:

CheetahSigns.com is proud to have you connected to us! Thank you very much! If ever you are looking for signs or printed materials, feel free to drop me an email or give me a call! www.CheetahSigns.com

Above we have the fellow business owner who is oblivious that despite the words ‘Write a Review’ he writes a personal thank you and simultaneously plugs his own business instead.

And then we have this – a hybrid of phony positive review combined with a spammy plug:

HAVE PETS? WILL TRAVEL is the best of the best! THEY ACTUALLY REALLY CARE ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THEIR WORK AND SERVICES. Thank you for connecting with CALIFORNIA CUSTOM SOLAR. We wish you all the success you deserve. If you or anyone you know is interested in solar electric please contact us. Let our 20 years of solar experience show you how solar pays. WE WERE GREEN BEFORE GREEN WAS COOL! LET THE SUNSHINE IN 777-777-7777

Above we have a business member who basically posts the same repeated message to MC member reviews, hundreds of times over. Also note the excessive use of all caps.

And finally the worst kind of offender – pure spam in the review section – without mention even of the particular member’s business:

Celebrating Home (Formerly Known as Home and Garden Party and Home Interiors) is a great new party plan with home decor. We have wonderful fundraising opportunities for groups and individuals. I would enjoy working with you. My website is www.xxxxxxx.com., Jeannie Xxx, Now Hiring!

The four examples given are typical of what we consider How NOT to Write an MC Review. To MC’s further credit, the community discussion forum for MC members routinely identifies the abusers of the review process – members policing members in a very positive way. This is a good reflection of MC’s CEO Ben Smith who is a cosummate user – not just developer/promoter – of Social Media and is quite active and accessible via Social Media channels.

So what us the “correct” way to write a legitimate business review? Below are some general guidelines:

HOW TO WRITE GOOD BUSINESS REVIEWS:

What to include:

• Be honest and be interesting
• Focus on what you think your friends would want to know to make a decision about whether to use this business
• Reviews should be as specific and detailed as possible
• Reviews must be based on firsthand experience
• Use descriptive words; be clear and concise; avoid writing in all caps

What not to include:

• Offensive language
• References to illegal activity
• Personal information, such as phone numbers, addresses, etc.
• Messages that are clearly advertisements or commercial in nature

The most important thing about writing reviews is to tell the truth about your experience with that business. Never write a business review based on the secondhand experience of someone else.

Here’s an example of a good review (that could be positive or negative):

Amazing school, Professional instructors, and Great environment to learn!  I’m currently a student at this school and was referred by a close friend of mine. I was always interested in learning a type of “Martial Arts” and after looking at many types I never have once regretted my choice. It is a great learning experience for people of all ages whether it is for exercise, self defense, stress relief, or something just to take your mind off the day. Class times are extremely flexible and work around all types of schedules. If at all interested in martial arts, try it out and I’m sure you’ll be hooked like me

And what if you are on the receiving end of a bad review?  Lynnea Bylund addressed that in a recent blog post How to Handle Negative Reviews of Your Business.

—————-

D. Marcus Keith oversees interactive content and marketing strategy for the Catalyst House group of companies and heads up its ADMAX Local Search and MerchantCircle Advisor unit.

We would like to thank Merchant Circle for publishing our guest post How to Turn More Visitors into Buyers. We would love to assist more small businesses to grow and hope that Merchant Circle members will become regular readers here. If you don’t already have your business listing at Merchant Circle you may be interested in our post How to Add Your Business to Merchant Circle.

We have also posted about The Importance of Online Reviews and How to Add Reviews at Merchant Circle. We will be adding to our posts about how to get the most out of your Merchant Circle listing. Each post will be placed in the Merchant Circle sub-category under Local Search (categories can be found in the right column).

We will also share success stories found elsewhere. Once you see the benefits you’ll invest more time and reap the benefits. For those who aren’t sure yet, we invite you to read the true experience of one Merchant Circle user who wrote How I Made $15,000 with a Free Merchant Circle Business Profile. Do listen to his video explaining how Merchant Circle works, how his blog there landed his best keywords on the first page in the search engines, and how that free listing generates sales for his $2000+ product.

While you’re here why not take a look around, skim the right column for our Most Popular posts, Recent Posts, and Categories or use the search box to hone in on whatever you most wish to know. GrowMap is a dofollow blog so any comments you make here provide quality incoming links for your Web site. Questions are always welcome and we encourage bloggers to leave related links in either the Website field or within comments. (Akismet may grab those but we will rescue them.)

Welcome to GrowMap. We hope you’ll become a regular visitor here.

Taking the time to write reviews for your favorite businesses – and to warn your friends which businesses not to use – contributes to making a better world for us all. It rewards those who provide great service and helps others avoid wasting their time and money. Online Reviews help consumers find trustworthy businesses.

It is very likely that if you take the time to review businesses you frequent that they in turn will patronize and review your business. Merchant Circle is one of many local directory sites that provides a review function. Use How to Add Your Business to Merchant Circle to get started there.

Merchant Circle Review Process: 

1. Go to the Merchant Circle signin page to log in
2. Click on the Merchant Marketplace link
3. Type the “name of the business” in “location” and click “search”
4. Find the business and click “Write a review”
5. The form shown below will pop up.
6. Select an author
7. Type in a Title for your review
8. Select a rating of 1 to 5 stars where 5 is best
9. Type in what you would like to say about this business (up to 1000 characters)
10. Click Submit review

Merchant Circle Review Form

That is all there is to it. The more reviews you share the more likely others are to return the favor and review you. Remember to be honest and act with integrity because you will also be judged by others on what you write.

OFFICIAL MERCHANT CIRCLE RATINGS and REVIEWS FAQ

NEW:  Read some great tips in the guest post How to Write an Effective Review by Merchant Circle Marketing Advisor D. Marcus Keith whom you may know as ADMAXX at Twitter.

Merchant Circle is more expansive than many of the other options for listing your business in Local Search. Listings can include coupons, add photos, other Merchant Circle users can add reviews of your business, and you can create blog posts within your Merchant Circle account. If you have your own blog you could use posts in your Merchant Circle blog to drive traffic to different posts in your own.

It is not always obvious what features at Merchant Circle are free and which incur additional charges so do read the fine print. To get started simply enter your primary business phone number on the Merchant Circle Submission page and click submit. This is a screen capture of that page:

Merchant Circle Add Your Business

If your business is not already listed you will get the form below with text reading “The phone number you entered does not match any business in our system.” Fill out this information and click Submit.

Submit Business Listings at Merchant Circle

Merchant Circle will send a confirmation link to the email address you used. Click on that link to continue the process. If you want to start out with just the free Merchant Circle account, click on the link in the top right corner of the Merchant Circle Pricing page that says No, thanks. Set up my profile as shown in the screen capture below:

Process to Submit Business to Merchant Circle

If you want to start out with just the free Merchant Circle account, click on the light gray link in the top right corner of the Merchant Circle Pricing page that says No, thanks. Set up my profile as shown in the screen capture below:

Fees for Merchant Circle Accounts

You will see references to verifying your Merchant Circle listing. There is more than one process for Merchant Circle Account Verification for doing so:

1. Pay $2.99 per month, billed in one year payment of $35.88
2. Free if you can to provide two out of these three: Sellers Permit Number, Business License Number, or DUNS Number
3. Although it first appears that supplying the business name and email of five businesses that will verify yours would allow you to verify your account without charge, going through that process brings you to a checkout page asking for the $35.88 annual fee.

It appears that unless you provide two of the three numbers mentioned above that if you want your business verified you will have to pay the annual fee.

Merchant Circle is one of the most ambitious of the Local Search Directory sites.  You may want to spend some time getting familiar with what they offer and then decide which of the directories with advanced functions is the best fit for your business.  You may want to keep notes on your activities and measure the amount of traffic you receive when you are active and when you are not. Let your results determine how much time to spend on each site.

Not convinced yet? Watch the video or read how one business made $15,000 with their Merchant Circle listing. He says “Merchant Circle is like a MySpace for business owners plus a lot more.” He also said “I started to show up on the first page of Google for specific keywords about my business and yes all for free.” and “My phone started ringing.”

MERCHANT CIRCLE HOW-TO RESOURCES:

• Official Merchant Circle How-to Guides
• How Do You Use Merchant Circle

MERCHANT CIRCLE GUEST BLOGGER SERIES:

• Andrew Shotland – Local SEO Guide – @AndrewShotland – How to Do Local SEO in 5 Minutes or So
• John Jantsch – Duct Tape Marketing – @ducttape – How to Listen in the Age of the Customer
• Dane Carlson – Business Opportunities Weblog -  @danec – Small Business Branding Online