A background in the Restaurant industry is not what you might imagine, but it did teach me how to deal with people! Now more used to developing digital marketing strategies, specialising in social media, for local and international clients.
After visiting a few clients lately who had not listed their business with Google Places i thought it might be useful to write out a simple how to instructions.
If you have already listed then its always good to have a re-check and make sure all of the information is up to date and relevant.
So…
Visit Google places – www.google.com/places
If you already have a Google account, log into it with your email and password. If you already have an AdWords account, you can use it to log in as well. If you don’t have a Google account, Create one. Google Places accounts cannot be transferred, so if you are planning to share, create a Google profile that you wouldn’t mind sharing with others.
Click Get started now in the home page of Google Places.
Check if Google has information about your business by searching for it in section Find your business with your phone number.
From the dropdown menu select the country where your business is located
Enter your business phone number
Click Find business information
Go through any results that come out to check if they describe your business. If this is your first time using Google Places, you will be redirected to a page where you will have to enter the details of your business.
Basic Information
Company/Organization: The official name of your business
Address (required): Enter the post address exactly as you would on a standard envelope.
Phone Number (required): Don’t forget to include the code in your phone number.
Website: The URL of your website can contain up to 255 characters.
Description: A short description of your business. Up to 200 characters.
Category (required): Enter some categories describing the type of business. This will make it easier to find. Add up to 5 categories.
Service Areas and Location Settings
You are publishing your business. You want it to be public. So, select the default option ‘No, all customers come to the business location’.
Operating hours
Enter opening and closing times.
Payment options
Tick off the payment methods your business accepts.
Photos
Upload pictures directly from your computer or use option „Add a photo from the web“ and simply paste the picture URL. Google allows up to 10 pictures.
Videos
Add here YouTube videos of your business. Up to 5 videos.
Additional Details
In this section add more information about your establishment. For example, the extra services you offer (car park, free Wi-Fi, laundry service, etc.)
Submit
Choose how you would like to verify your listing and click Finish
After you submit the information about your business, Google will ask for a confirmation before it starts displaying it. Each profile is allowed up to 100 listings.
After watching a couple of episodes of the re-booted Goof Food Show on BBC, i find myself thoroughly annoyed/disappointed. Whilst i understand that the BBC can’t mention one brand over another, just tell us the name of the wine or beer so that we can try them for ourselves. Surely they know wines produced in different vineyards in the same region from the same grape can have a very different taste.
What is worse is when they talk about beer…how the hell are we supposed to know which beer they are tasting from the vague description they give. Surely there must be a way of telling us or is it just a way for us to buy the BBC magazine????
I haven’t been overly convinced by Pixars latest offerings but it looks like they may be back to their best if the trailer for Monsters University is anything to go by. Cars was OK and i think that Toy Story 3 was good but there is potential for this one to outshine those…what do you think…
So i sit at work and explain to people how they should be listening to what their customers are talking about and then react. React in a way that entertains or educates, in a way that their customers will enjoy and understand.
I am therefore rather embarrassed that it has been so long since I last wrote anything on here. I feel i need to re-focus and discipline myself to regularly post.
SO a couple of things i am going to attempt to talk about, generally the things I feel I know most about…digital marketing strategy and eating out!
My recent trip to New York has supplied me with a couple of eating out opportunities to talk about and some of my local places will get a mention too. Tournesol on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, New York will get my first review over the next few days so hopefully someone will read it and find it useful.
Whilst sitting here writing this I also think I would like to find the best Fish and Chip restaurant or takeaway I can…..i am trying to lose weight though, so that one may take a while.
There has been a lot of talk and discussion about the EU Cookie Law that the ICO are going to begin to ‘enforce’ from next week.
Whilst most, if not everyone, in the web industry believe the law to be nonsense, businesses will have to make it look as though they are making an effort.
It would appear that the cookies used for tracking are low down on the priority of those within the ICO, but just leaving a site that only uses these with no information probably wont be acceptable. A page detailing what cookies you use on your site may be enough for now, and also perhaps advising people how to alter cookie settings within their browsers.
Here is a list of ways you can change your browser cookie settings. (Courtesy of aboutcookies.org)
Windows Users
Google Chrome
Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Options”.
Click the “Under the Bonnet” tab and locate the “Privacy” section, and choose the “Content settings” button.
Click the “Cookie settings” tab and choose your preferred settings.
Google Chrome allows all cookies by default, but you can restrict the behaviour of first-party and third-party cookies or even block them completely.
Click on the Close button when you’ve finished.
Internet Explorer 8.0
Choose Tools and then Internet Options
Click the Privacy tab
Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
For more specialised cookie settings click on Advanced, check the ‘Override cookie handling’ button and modify the settings to suit your requirements.
Internet Explorer 7.0
Choose Tools and then Internet Options
Click the Privacy tab
Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
The default setting is medium and the menu allows you to select the level of “filtering” on the basis of (a) the source of the cookie and (b) whether the source has a privacy policy.
For more specialised cookie settings click on Advanced
Internet Explorer 6.0
Choose Tools and then Internet Options
Click the Privacy tab
Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
The default setting is medium and the menu allows you to select the level of “filtering” on the basis of (a) the source of the cookie and (b) whether the source has a privacy policy.
For more specialised cookie settings click on Advanced
AOL 9.0
From the AOL Toolbar, select Settings
Select Internet [Web] Options
Select Use your Internet Explorer Settings to set advanced browser options
Select the Privacy tab
Select Advanced
Deselect override automatic cookie handling button
Click OK to exit.
AOL 8.0
From the AOL Toolbar, select Settings
Select Preferences
Select Internet Properties (WWW)
Select the Privacy tab
Select Advanced
Deselect override automatic cookie handling button
Click OK to exit.
Mozilla
Choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
Select Privacy & Security, then select Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings.
Mozilla Firefox 2.0
Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux)
Select the Privacy icon in the left-hand panel
Click on Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings.
Note that the option to block third-party cookies has been removed from Firefox 2′s user interface. Firefox 2 users who wish to limit allowed cookies to those set by the originating website can use about:config to modify the preference network.cookie.cookieBehavior to “1″. To modify this property simply type “about:config” (without quotes) in the Location Bar, press Enter and modify the value in the resulting page.
Other options for the network.cookie.cookieBehavior preference are set out below:
“0″ All cookies are allowed. (Default)
“1″ Only cookies from the originating server are allowed.
“2″ No cookies are allowed.
Mozilla Firefox 3.0
Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux)
Select Privacy
Select Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings (You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies.).
Netscape Navigator 7
Choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
Select Privacy & Security, then select Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings.
Opera (Windows and UNIX)
Go to Tools in the main menu
Go to Preferences at the bottom of the File menu (or press Alt+P to access them directly).
Click Privacy and select one of the available options.
In addition to choosing different settings for first-party (“normal”) and third-party cookies, you may edit cookie settings on a domain/server basis or even edit individual cookies by clicking the “Manage cookies” button.
Mac Users
Internet Explorer 5 (MacOS X)
Choose Preferences from Explorer menu
Select Receiving Files options
Select Cookies
Choose your preferred settings
Internet Explorer 5 (MacOS 9)
Choose Preferences from Edit menu
Select Receiving Files options
Select Cookies
Choose your preferred settings
Mozilla
Choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
Select Privacy & Security, then select Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings.
Netscape Navigator 7
Choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
Select Privacy & Security, then select Cookies.
Choose your preferred settings.
Safari 1.0 (MacOS X)
Choose Preferences from Safari menu
Select Security icon
Cookie settings are shown in window
Choose your preferred settings
Opera
Go to Opera in the main menu and select Preferences (or press Alt+P to access them directly)
Select Privacy
In addition to choosing different settings for first-party (normal) and third-party cookies, you may edit cookie settings on a domain/server basis or even edit individual cookies by clicking the Manage cookies button.
Blimey, i have not posted on here for ages….
My excuse is that i have been busy trying to build a website for my hockey team. rotbags.co.uk is the website.
Rotweillers Hockey Club and Baggies have merged and we now have two healthy teams. Both teams are in division 3 of the Leicestershire Mixed Hockey League.
I need to get more pitch time as i was a little rusty last time out!
I will be back a lot sooner with more stuff that i hope you will find interesting.
Travelling to the Isle of Mann this weekend so maybe i wil have something to say about that!
We received our wedding album the other day from Emily Quinton Photography, what an amazing collection of memories. It made the whole day come alive again, seeing all our family and friends celebrating with us. (There could have been a tear in my eye too!)
Emily took some amazing photos of us both that really captured how we were feeling on the day. The shots of the flowers and venue were great and will mean that we can relive the day at any time. You can see some of our wedding photos here.
The quality and construction of the Queensberry Album is phenomenal and something we will treasure forever.
If anyone is looking for a wedding photographer who can capture that special feeling of love between two people then I would have no hesitation at recommending Emily, absolutely amazing.
A background in the Restaurant industry is not what you might imagine, but it did teach me how to deal with people! Now more used to developing digital marketing strategies, specialising in social media, for local and international clients.
