Posts by author:

Taughnee Stone

Is a Blog Right For Your Business?

by Taughnee Stone on October 7, 2010

in Social Media,Social Media Marketing

I recently met with some clients of mine — two enthusiastic and bright young entrepreneurs who will use their website as a hub of communications and eventually sales for their new business. As we talked about site architecture, usability concerns and marketing objectives, one of the gals said casually, “Oh and we want a blog, [...]

{ 0 comments }

How do your customers experience your website?

by Taughnee Stone on September 24, 2010

in customer experience,Web Design

Happy Friday everyone! I was updating a site for one of my wonderful clients this morning, and stumbled upon this fabulous (hilarious) video. It demonstrates the competing priorities of an organization and its customers, and there is a lesson here for virtually everyone with, or planning, a business website. I’m going to be sharing  some [...]

{ 0 comments }

Changes coming to Facebook page layout (again)

by Taughnee Stone on August 9, 2010

in Facebook

As I was going through my in-box this fine Monday morning, I just happened to notice that Facebook is planning changes for their profile and page layouts, to be rolled out August 23rd. And a good thing I noticed when I did (phew!), because a client of mine just hired me to build a custom [...]

{ 0 comments }

Google Places now allows businesses to respond to reviews in local search

by Taughnee Stone on August 6, 2010

in Local Search

What is Google Places? In short, it’s a way for a business to take control of its business listing on Google. Beyond that, there are advertising and marketing components, but let’s start with the listing. Imagine: Google has your phone number wrong, or shows a closed location as still open … yikes!  At Serving Social [...]

{ 0 comments }

Local search for restaurants: more than just a matter of SEO

by Taughnee Stone on August 4, 2010

in Local Search

Local search has replaced the yellow pages as the source for consumers to do restaurant research, and similarly influences buying decisions. I’d venture to say more so, considering search results are not limited to controlled advertising messages. On the modern web, user-generated content prevails: articles, reviews, photos, videos, discussions, Tweets, status updates and so on [...]

{ 4 comments }

In the age of Facebook, does your restaurant even need a website?

by Taughnee Stone on July 27, 2010

in Facebook,Social Media,Web Design

Facebook is arguably the most important player on the web today for restaurants — those spending time on Facebook are enjoying kickass customer engagement. It isn’t even enough that you have a Facebook page anymore. Savvy restaurateurs have begun expanding their presence to include branded welcome pages, embedded videos, menus, yelp reviews, blog feeds, reservations, [...]

{ 0 comments }

Customer Service Recovery for Restaurants in the Age of Yelp!

by Taughnee Stone on April 25, 2010

in Customer Service,Loyalty

“It costs five times as much to gain a new customer as it does to retain an existing one“  is a mantra that all good customer service professionals know by heart.  In these challenging economic times it makes a lot of sense to focus first on keeping existing customers happy before spending advertising and promotional [...]

{ 0 comments }

Simple ways your restaurant can begin using Twitter

by Taughnee Stone on March 23, 2010

in Customer Service,How to,Loyalty,Social Media,Twitter

If you’re a restaurant manager, you’re either already on Twitter or are feeling the pressure to begin using it. You know the reasons why: Your competitors are using it Your customers are on it You’ve heard the stories of restaurants driving traffic and increasing customer loyalty with it (at a fraction of the cost of [...]

{ 0 comments }