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What is Google Base?

Setting up a Google Base account is the first step you must take to have your items for sale to be shown in Google Products. What exactly is Google Base? Let’s explore that a bit is easy terms.

First here is the link to set up your Google Base account.  When you load your products and you will do this in a very special syntax your products will then have the opportunity to be shown on Google Products pages as well as in the organic results under a listing called Shopping.

Sometimes a pay per click customer will see a competitors item shown with an image in the organic results and think that this is an AdWords vehicle and that if they set up AdWords image ads there images of products will show in the organic results of Google.com, this is not the case. Google Base is unique and another free search vehicle and is not associated with participation in Google AdWords, although Google AdWords text ads may show on the Google Products shopping page but only as text ads.

You can submit your product listing to Google Base as either a tab delimited text spreadsheet or as an XML data feed. I personally like the XML data feed. For more information on the specifics of how to do this and the format, please visit this Google Base information page on data feeds.

Once your feed is created, you will load the feed using FTP to a special location that Google provides. After that it is up to Google if they will show your products, images, pricing and information when it matches a search.

For e-commerce sellers Google Base provides another great way to showcase your products using Google.

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Have You Been Twitter Hacked?

This has just happened to three of our client accounts and I wanted to share the information with you. First be very careful what applications you give Twitter access to on your account.

This is the situation. On one account a user actually direct messaged us and said did you know you sent me a money making scheme tweet? We never tweet about things like that either personally or for clients. In several of the applications we use for Twitter like TweetDeck and HootSuite this tweet from us never showed. But when I went to www.Twitter.com to the account tweets I uncovered links to videos and other tweets that I know we did not do.

Here’s what you should do if this happens to you to.

1. Change your Twitter password immediately. As I could do this, it told me that an individual had not hacked the Twitter accounts, but rather an application which I had allowed access to was using my Twitter account to sneakily send out their own self serving links and tweet. Hmm, this is very bad.

2. In the Twitter account connections tab, I disabled all connections and shut off the access for all applications. When you do this you break the connection for all applications. Make sure if you use HootSuite, Social Oomph or TweetDeck, make sure to update your account with the new Twitter password or you will not be able to use those applications.

I am not sure but I suspect either TwitterFeed (hate to think this may be true) or more likely Twellow. All accounts were not spammed seriously but even one tweet that we don’t write that promotes something we have not approved is not okay.

The bottom line is be very careful with Twitter. I love the application, the reach, the viral opportunities, but do not allow others to access your Twitter following and sabotage what you are doing for their own sneaky and selfish use. If I find out which application has done this, I will for sure post the information so we can encourage their blacklisting. For more information from Twitter on what to do if you have been hacked visit the Twitter Hacked page on Twitter.com.

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It’s How You Resolve Problems That Make You Great

Everyone can have a problem or a business difficulty arise. It happens, but after it happens what can make or break your reputation is how you resolve a problem. Consider problems a learning experience.

When a problem arises, for you as the business owner your best tactic is to listen actively to a complaint and then to find out what it is that the customer feels is fair to resolve the issue. Sometimes to offer a refund is the best approach and sometimes it is best to redo whatever was an issue. Either way a prompt and honest response is needed. There is nothing worse than a customer who has had an issue and then waited and waited for a phone call. Quick assistance can put out a fire rapidly.

Having a signed letter of agreement before you start work is also extremely helpful as this prevents situations where a customer states you said you would do this and you did not. If you spell out what you do in the agreement and both parties sign the agreement the additional request is handled as a change order with an additional charge or a comped charge if you are so inclined.

If you have made a mistake in handling a customer complaint, sometimes there is no way to go back and fix the problem once it has happened, but you can make sure to learn from it. Several times in my career I have said to myself “well, that didn’t go so well. Note to self, don’t do that again!”.  Use these situations as opportunities to learn from a mistake and move forward building new customer focused strategies for the future.

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November Newsletter Published

We invite you to review our November e-newsletter online today. In this issue we talk about several topics of interest:

1. Blogging and SEO – Working Hand in Hand

2. Twitter Made Easy with Social Oomph

3. Personal Information on Google – Can You Ever Remove It?

If you have not subscribed to our monthly e-newsletter you can subscribe here. We only mail once a month and have chatty interesting articles, reviews, and tips that you may find of interest. We never spam you and you can unsubscribe at any time.

To review past newsletters please visit our archive.