Market Smart: Google gets interactive with local businesses

Attempting to boost the small business mindshare of consumers, the search engine giant recently released "Google Favorite Places," which allows window-shopping consumers to instantly access a business' information such as hours, activities, brands, reviews, promotions and more.

The information transfer is completed using a smart-phone application to scan a barcode decal (with the phrase, "We're a favorite place on Google) that is displayed in the business' front-store window. More than 100,000 businesses, covering more than 9,000 towns and cities in all 50 states, are already implementing this technology, including a few businesses in the Fox Valley.

Google's tool benefits small businesses and consumers alike by providing valuable information and creating incentive for couponing or other promotional offers — all while promoting business and consumer interaction.

How does a small business participate? To determine who should receive the barcodes, (known as QR codes) Google compiled a list of the top 100,000 most-searched, small businesses across the country in December. Businesses were selected based on their search engine rankings, and more specifically, the number of times users clicked on a business through Google or Google Maps.

Google plans to expand the number of participating businesses in the near future.

Google's new tool plays into today's marketing trend — that the consumer's voice is more powerful than ever.

This poses an important question for business owners: What are you doing to keep your business top-of-mind? Do you have a static Web site, or are you updating content and keeping your online presence fresh? And is that up-to-date content focused on your primary keywords and keyword phrases? Are you implementing social media strategies for consumers to interact with your brand?

The answers to these questions will affect the ability for a small business to become a Google Favorite Place. For more information on becoming a Google Favorite Place, visit google.com/favoriteplaces.
While Google Favorite Places is a relatively new concept, its introduction demonstrates that interactive media is not just for big corporations to explore.

Technology solutions to connect local businesses with their customers are evolving — in this case, giving a new perspective to the phrase, "Thanks, I'm just browsing."

Dana Kohlbeck is a public relations specialist for Coalesce Marketing & Design Inc. in Appleton. She can be reached at 920-380-4444 or dana@coalescemarketing.com.