On April 12, Microsoft announced its new Bing Business Portal, competitor to Google Place Pages for small businesses. The news got lots of coverage from traditional tech media who follow Microsoft. But the handful of small business bloggers who wrote "Complete Guides" are the real heros, in my opinion.
First, the news
The Bing Business Portal provides the tools to allow local businesses to claim their listing in Bing. Like Google, Bing will display these listings in its local search results, alongside a map showing the business location. Here are some things you can do for your business listing in the Bing Business Portal:
- Identify categories where your listing will appear
- Spruce up your listing with photos and videos
- Offer special coupons and promote them for free on Bing and Facebook
- Create a mobile version of your listing for customers to access from their mobile devices
- Create a mobile menu, if you serve food or drinks
- Authorize a 3rd party to manage your listings
Like Google Places, there are some things you cannot manage, because this is not your website, it's a template for information managed by Bing:
- Reviews. Bing will scrape other sites on the web (Yelp, Yahoo, Citysearch, etc.) and display customer reviews from those sites on your business listing
- Map & Directions. Bing will provide a map of the area and direct visitors to your physical address, using the capabilities of Bing Maps.
- Nearby businesses. Since they are sending people to your physical location, Bing will also point people to other businesses near yours, even if they happen to be your competitors.
Now, the role of bloggers
While coverage of this announcement by traditional press such as eWeek and PCWorld was informative, the really useful coverage came from comprehensive posts by bloggers who help small businesses make sense of the web with practical advice. Top of my list of favorites were Greg Sterling, who wrote a post for Search Engineland, Don Campbell from Expand2Web and Matt McGee who writes Small Business Search Marketing.
Here's the unique value they provided:
- All wrote comprehensive and insightful posts on what Bing Business Portal offers and - more importantly - what it means for a small local business.
- Provided helpful comparisons to put the announcement in context. Here's my favorite, from Greg Sterling: "One question is, how much human support will Microsoft provide to local business owners and their agencies? Many local marketers have been frustrated by Google's very mixed track record on Google Places support and customer service."
- Comments provided by their followers are priceless for anyone wondering whether to try the new service. Here are some examples that made me think twice about jumping on the Bing bandwagon:
I WAITED WEEKS TO GET MY PIN AND WHEN IT SHOWS UP, IT DOESN'T WORK. WHAT IS UP WITH THIS? EVERY WHERE I LOOK ON THE INTERNET IT LOOKS LIKE LOTS OF PEOPLE ARE HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS. I NEED HELP NOW!!!!!!
I had the unpleasant experience of waiting the 3 or so weeks to get a PIN by snail mail to activate a client account. Well, the PIN came but Bing Local Business Portal was down for about 10 days or so. When I went online to activate the client listing it was gone. Dissolved into the eternal Bing ether. Well, the work had to be resubmitted from scratch. And the prior PIN did not work. So now another 2, 3 or more weeks to get a PIN.
Matt's reply:
Reading coverage of this Bing announcement made me realize yet again the unique role that bloggers play. By focusing in on a small niche, understanding the readers in that niche through regular, interactive contact and comments, a blogger can serve up unique value that readers don't find anywhere else.
What unique value do you get from bloggers? Who are your favorite bloggers and why?