Claiming Your Business Online

Claiming your business on sites like Yelp, FourSquare, and Google My Business gives you more control over your business' online profile. By claiming, you can create paid promotions on the sites and control all of the information. Yelp has a few paid options like profile enhancements and promoted offers. FourSquare gives you the chance to grab nearby customers looking for an incentive to try a new place with a discount. Google My Business is increasingly important in your SEO efforts. 
Claiming is easy for all three sites and an important 1-time exercise so all of your business information is forever available online. Below we've listed the steps to claiming your business on each site and links to more helpful recourses. 
FourSquare 

• Visit your business's Foursquare Page. 

• Scroll down to 'Claim this Listing' 

• Enter your phone number.

• Verify.

• Pay $20.

 From Foursquare...For Business: https://support.foursquare.com/hc/en-us/categories/200071594
Claiming your business: https://support.foursquare.com/hc/en-us/articles/201063930-How-to-claim-you…
FourSquare Tools: http://business.foursquare.com/your-customers/
Metrics: https://support.foursquare.com/hc/en-us/articles/201064250-How-to-view-anal…

Tip
Many FourSquare users sign up using their Twitter accounts, so when they check in they share on Twitter. FourSquare gives you access to their Twitter handles. If you also manage a Twitter account, reach out to those checking in through FourSquare's Analytics. 


Yelp 

• Search your business here. https://biz.yelp.com/signup

• Create your owner account. 

• Answer your business's phone when Yelp calls. 

• Fill out the information, add photos, respond to user reviews. 

From Yelp..
Yelp Ads: https://biz.yelp.com/support/advertising
What to do with your Business Account: https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Case Studies: https://biz.yelp.com/support/case_studies

Google My Business
Edit your business info on Search, Maps & more. 

• Request verification by mail (sent to business address) or phone (business location phone) 
• Enter verification number

• Edit info & respond to reviews

Tip 
Google is the #1 search engine in the world. Search engines crawl the internet for relevant information based on a user's search history, keywords, and more. Be sure to fill out all information using words unique to your business and location so more people can find you.


Before You Go Tips..
Use sites like Yext to claim your business on indexes across the internet. 
Often times Yelp will not show reviews from dissatisfied customers. If you'd like to see all of your reviews scroll down and select 'hidden reviews'. 

Pinterest Group Boards and Local Business Collaboration

Pinterest allows you to share the input on boards with others. It's difficult to add a lot of pins for an individual business, and it's really not that fun at all. We recommend joining forces with other local businesses to reach more locals and have more interesting boards. For example, a group of restaurants could create a few boards on food, recipes, or any other topic they feel their community would welcome. The idea is simple: help build awareness for each other. 

1. Create a Board 
2. Select the board and click 'Edit Board' just under the title 
3. In 'Who Can Add Pins?" type the name or e-mail of contributors 
4. Share the board on your collective networks

What Can Social Media Do?

How are the networks impacting the models?

LEGO ® Group: From Wooden Toys to Business Consultants

Only the best is good enough. 

-Ole Kirk Kristiansen, Founder

A wooden toy. A wooden brick. 

A plastic brick. A plastic figure. 

A billion plastic bricks. A million plastic figures. 

480 billion plastic bricks. 400 million plastic figures. 

Movie stars. Business Consultants. Astronauts. Educators. Theme Parks. 

A Universe. 

All rooted in a single value, that "only the best is good enough", LEGO Group operates in 130 countries, selling 7 LEGO sets every second. Has any other brand challenged the imagination of so many children? Disney? No way. There are 915 million ways to connect 6 eight-stud bricks. Nine hundred and fifteen million possibilities for a kid with 6 plastic bricks. They're universal, meaning the Star-Wars sets will connect to the Marvel sets, and Marvel to Hobbit, and Hobbit to Space, and Space to Minecraft, and so on. From the same brick that was created using ABS Polymer in 1959 LEGO has built educational opportunities for kids to advance in science in math, a business consulting strategy and a movie that's grossed over $100 million in its first 3 weeks. 

How is it possible?

Top-Notch Manufacturing Efficiency: Just 18 bricks out of every million fail the process. 

Good Friends: LEGO Group sold its Parks segment and is a popular licenser of its figures and brand name to game developers, film studios and other experienced designers of developing digital opportunities. 

No Identity Crisis Here: Since introducing the plastic brick LEGO has sold only 1 other product: plastic figures complementary to the plastic bricks. LEGO Group has worked to milk its successful lines rather than develop new products altogether. The strategy has resulted in a universality of creativity. 

Customer Relationships 

Community of Imagineers 

LEGO.com: Games, stories and experiences. Digital HQ.
LEGO Club: For the 6-12 Customer Segment. Share pictures of inventions.
LEGO Design byME: Build virtual LEGO Models.
LEGO Inside Tour: Twice a year exclusive visits to LEGO Group Headquarters.
Adult LEGO fans: Fan-created groups to share their LEGO hobby. 55,000 registered members.
LEGO Ambassadors: Improve relationship between LEGO Group and LEGO mega-fans.
LEGO Education: Learning tools for students of science and math.
First LEGO League: Kids 9-16 compete in a tournament to create robots that solve problems.

Reading the LEGO story was a jaw dropper for myself. The family knew what they wanted to do for kids. They knew quality had to be the best. They set values (no military figures because "war is not child's play") and never let them go. The result is a new language of creativity shared by kids in Japan and retirees in Cabo. Worldwide collaboration.

Read the Story
http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/AboutUsFactsAndFiguresContent/otherfiles/download98E142631E71927FDD52304C1C0F1685.pdf

Social Media Truths

1. Users have different habits. 

2. Networks have unique environments. 

3. The true value of an organization is exposed on social media. 

For high value enterprises, defined here as those that have a daily involvement in activities instrumental in living a desired lifestyle shared by its customers, the key is to be a recourse. A beacon and participant in a recourse fueled by the input of concerned individuals and managed by a qualified enterprise. (SAP)

For low value enterprises, defined as dispensable parts of the customers' lives shaped mostly by our individual limitations (time & money), the key is to understand the small role you play in our lives and be damn proud of it. In short, loosen up. (Taco Bell)

A Teachers Guide to Millennial Learning Power

We don't need to leave our comfort zone to advance our learning experience. 

1) Google Drive: Invite students to share notes and outside recourses. Uploaded readings found free on the internet. A document for students to post questions, Professors answer right beneath the question for all to see. The Cloud, Drive, Box etc. needs to play some role in the classroom. It's just too incredible and too easy to use to ignore. 

2) Amazon Reading List: After the class, once the foundation is laid, a list of recommended readings. Where to next? You've read them all. What's a good start? Why? Fiction, non-fiction. Anything. 

3) Amazon Textbook List: How much money could you save your entire class if you e-mailed a list to all the required books listed on Amazon? The only advantage the bookstore has is convenience. Getting online and seeing 'Buy my Books' is an easy click. This list is that same level of convenience. Add to Cart. Add to Cart. Add to Cart. Delivered to your door. Buy and resell for a fair price. 

1) Enable us to collaborate. 2) Advance our learning. 3) Save us money. 

Tsiferblat (Clockhouse Cafe) : "Time is Money" Cafe Business Model

The pay-to-stay coffee shop model. 

More reading..
Are the rules of what is an office being rewritten by this Russian pay per minute coffee shop?
NPR : Rubles for minutes, not mochas at Russian cafe chain