Facebook Privacy Issues- See where it says “automatically share my information with identity thieves, criminals offenders, and all of my psycho exes” Yeah you're gonna wanna unlock that box.

New to Google local business center…

So google wants to be updated? Whatever for…???

This new feature is going to force… umm… allow you to be more interactive with google and your customers.  Absolutely a great tool for local restaurants, clubs, and such.  Still a good tool for services, as you can run promotions and events here.  What google is asking for is interaction.  What they want is your time… and time is money.

Great tool to add to your onslaught of Google Maps.

On the down side…

Here is a glimpse of the the before and after Google maps recent service area changes.

Google had results by service area… and then they didn't

So this is a shot of my trend… what happened?

Google changed their results to show service companies by the service area… My Phoenix pest control location, which is located in metro Phoenix but addressed in Peoria AZ, was granted the service area of Phoenix.  So if you searched Phoenix Pest Control, Bulwark showed up in the maps.  Yahoo!….. (no pun intended)…. And google then snatches it away almost as quickly has they had given it… #fail

So now they are back to only listing businesses addressed in the city searched… a search for Austin pest control shows only locations within the city of Austin…. urghh.  I mean I love it in Austin, as we rank #3 but I am not about to buy up property within every city limit to land in the maps.

The Awkward Google Map Dance Continues….

So you know when you are walking down a semi crowded corridor and you end up face to face with someone going the other direction, and then you do this little shuffle left to right to left… feeling awkward… and hoping the dance will end as you each establish which way you are going to take…. Here in lies the Awkward Google Maps Dance…

On using an employees address that works a route from his home… Matt Cutts… “Grey hat.  How can we let guys that work from home do it and not a legit business?”

Google stance on P.O. Boxes… “NO!”

On getting a mailing address in the city… the Fishkin… “Setting up a DBA and a mailing address is totally legit white hat. Its like getting .AU to do “local” business with the Aussies. I don’t see a problem with that.”

So the mixed messages…. Left… Right… Left… the Awkward Google Dance Continues.

I am starting the New Year off right by actually saying something nice! (yes, I know I am always nice…

Bing has actually impressed me today with their new feature… “Ask your friends to recommend …pest control.” See image below…

Props to the Bing!

So the new feature is pure genius! It adds a personalized flavor to your search and helps the users get recommendations from friends. Overall it encourages further online conversation… which is what the internet is all about!

Sneaky?… just a little. The function actually post the Bing url on twitter, facebook, or in your email.  Smart though it titles your email for you and gives the results.  I love it because if you lived in Vegas and emailed this list to your friends asking for recommendations… Bulwark pest control would definitely win!  And of course the consumer would win… which is what the SERP should want.

So hats off to Bing on this one!

… of course they may want to remove that spam guy in position #5, A Executive Pest Control Insurance??? P.O. BOX???

Still, Bing is moving in the right direction.

It’s the supermap, not a wannabe superman…

It’s a home, it’s a house, it’s a business its… SUPERMAP! Yes all this and more can be found on google maps, and now they are moving into a top position as the “Directory of choice” or “the Only Directory”.  I am not sure if I should be chanting the SuperMap praise or not.  They are quickly becoming… well invincible.

What is Google’s Kryptonite?… oh that would be all the errors they are still working to fix, like their local maps still not showing correct information after all of the database cleaning and merging.  And thing like their Charlotte NC maps not listing by user reviews properly. But with so many greedy villains out there who can Google trust.  And if I were Superman then would I even care to trust anyone else?  I mean look at what happened between Clark and Lex?  Yep, the Supermap does come with some baggage.

But I think Supermap is a hero.  I mean… look at it is are killing off.  Old dinosaurs that still boast themselves as relevant phone directories just so they can steal money from the innocent and naive while creating huge amount of trash. How many landfills do those books fill up each year?  Go Supermaps Go!

This just in from WebProNews.

Google will be adding tweets to search results…

Love you guys, but this is a little delayed!  I posted a new website purely for the fun of it… Yes I love my job!… about 3 weeks ago.  Then I tweeted it.  Well the tweet showed up on google long before the website ever did.  And the only location you find a link to this new website is on my tweet.  Check it out… Google BlackShirtSapulpa.com… By the way… the only thing black about it is the shirt. I bought it purely so I could make a T-Shirt. I am sure it will be one of the most expensive T-Shirts I have ever bought.

Your results will show the actual domain now and then tweet under it.  If you didn’t think Google was interested in your tweets then you are falling behind. Tweets on the other hand, are typically not going to rank well.  They are supplemental to good Sapulpa.  I like twitter, but I would never build my optimization plan centered around Twitter, or Facebook or any other social media.  Including google’s new Wave…  If you haven’t checked into the wave then go read up on it by someone who’s taking a test drive on it now… GOOGLE WAVE.

With that said, YES YOU SHOULD TWEET.  NO YOU SHOULD NOT SPAM TWITTER.

Tweet Tweet, but please be Sweet…

PEST CONTROLLERS- Don’t just send out endless ads about your company.  You won’t make many friends on twitter that way.

I hate to bring up past experiences that I would rather forget, but I can’t ignore the lessons I have learned.  I once was involved in a MLM – Marketing Pyramid.  I tried to sell everyone I knew and everyone I didn’t know.  Perhaps it was just my leadership who told me to go steal hourly employees from the mall, but I chased people away.  I looked at everyone as if they were money bags.  That is absolutely a horrible thing to do.  I have since repented… I was very young and naive at the time…. sorry making excuses… I told you I didn’t like to bring up the past!

Morale of the story, Don’t just tweet to sell your service.  Tweet to connect and communicate.  Sure, I support sending out a reminder on occasion about what you do, but every 5 minutes is not an occasion.

… If I could only control the pests on twitter.  =)

-Thos003

Phoenix Pest Controller for hire.

Interesting read today from Fox news on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  This is something that would effect Sapulpa companies as they are prone to adding links and building blogs to get more traffic.  The FTC has voted to regulate blogging and fine those that are posting product reviews for money.  They believe that these reviews are misleading in that the consumer is unaware if the review is a organic unsolicited review or if the review is paid for by the product company.  Further, many of these sites and reviews sign on as affiliates and receive a commission if the product is bought through their site.

The law will require that bloggers must make it known that they are being paid in a “clear and conspicuous” manner and the law goes into force December 1st, 2009. The law does not require notification for “free” products, meaning if I where to offer you free pest control service in exchange for a review then you are not required to disclose that you are receiving free service. While these regulations may make many bloggers nervous, the FTC says that they intend to target the companies and advertisers.  This actually makes me more nervous as a pest control company.

Let’s say that I am paying an Sapulpa company to build my site and back links.  How can I be sure that the Sapulpa company I hire is adhering to this law?  Who then is responsible, the Sapulpa company or the pest control company?  Further, this law seems very inadequate.  How do you define a “review” of a company or a review of a product?  How will the FTC distinguish between legitimate customers reviewing a product or service versus the paid reviews? And what about blogs that benefit indirectly from their reviews (i.e. Google adsense)?

Or better yet define “clear and conspicuous”. How do I know if this site “clearly and conspicuously” show that I am a Bulwark employee.  Is the facebook profile on the left sufficient or do I need to disclose this in every post?  Beyond that this blog isn’t purely a Bulwark blog, its my own blog and thoughts as well.  Bulwark does not sanction everything written on this blog and I am not really getting paid directly for my content.

Overall, however, I applaud the FTC’s attempt to regulate this gross flood of solicited reviews. It is unfortunate that so many companies and individuals are cashing in on the naive public.  Having worked on the internet for sometime I myself spot the propaganda reviews and comments regularly. In fact, there are entire blogs that look like just a single user reviewing everyday products, but in fact are a paid blogger.

As far as I am aware Bulwark has not overstepped these requirements.  But, again, I am unaware of every attempt hired Sapulpa firms have undergone to boost my web presence. Further, I don’t know how they define “clear and conspicuous”.  Hopefully a site that is owned by Bulwark is clear. But, it does sound  like I will need to check in on my Sapulpa team, and I would advise all internet advertisers and business owners to do the same. Don’t get caught with your pants down.

From your Pest Control Sapulpa guy.

This post was not directly paid for by Bulwark Exterminating, however the writter is biased as to which pest control service is the best.

In attempting to diagnosis the accuracy of the recent Healthcare Facebook Poll I have launched a new poll to determine how the facebook users classify themselves.

TAKE FACEBOOK POLL – CONSERVATIVE or LIBERAL?

It would be fascinating to know how facebook users classify themselves.  Are facebook users conservative?  Are facebook users Liberal?  Or are they neutral?  How good of a sample are the facebook users?  Perhaps the polls started are reflective on the individual’s bias since facebook is a social media network and therefore individual typically associate with like minded individuals.  And since polls and comments are only shared within that network the results are going to be skewed.  For that reason, when I launched the above poll I did nothing to promote it.  Currently there are not enough pollsters to be accurate, but the scale is tipping to one side. Take the Poll.

Conservative or Liberal?