Josh Greene, How to Improve Your Online Presence Using Wikipedia and Google My Business – InnovaBuzz 482
Josh Greene, The Mather Group
In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Josh Greene, the CEO of the Mather Group, a digital agency that solves marketing challenges for companies of all sizes. With over twenty years of experience creating and implementing digital strategies, Josh empowers top brands and individuals to shape their online presence to support their bottom line. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and industry events, including the Public Relations Society of America, PR Summit, and Channel Advisor’s Catalyst conference.
Before The Mather Group, Josh managed online and digital TV programs for industry leaders such as Discovery Channel and Time Warner Cable.
In our discussion, Josh talked to me about:
- Why a Wikipedia page can be an important element in your online presence
- How you can contribute to topics in your field to build a Wikipedia presence
- Keeping your Google My Business page up to date
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Listen to the Podcast
Wikipedia is a trusted resource for most people. It provides lots of good information to help people make good decisions. Josh Greene on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
Show Notes from this episode with Josh Greene, CEO of The Mather Group
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- Wikipedia is a trusted resource for most people. It provides lots of good information to help people make good decisions.
- You can’t add your own information to Wikipedia yourself. Wikipedia pages are written by independent editors and go through a tremendous review and approval process.
- Accuracy is a huge factor for Wikipedia. All Wikipedia content can be back tracked to its original source. Editors weigh in to correct, clarify, and challenge information that is there. You can’t simply delete or add chunks of texts unless you have sources to demonstrate their accuracy.
- Wikipedia information is syndicated throughout the web. It’s usually one of the top 3 search results on any topic. It powers the top right Google search results and knowledge panel.
- Start contributing to topics in Wikipedia that you are an expert on. By publishing information that is verifiable and truthful, not only are you helping Wikipedia to organise its world of knowledge, but you can be cited as a resource, and that helps improve your online visibility.
- The Talk Page (button at the top of every Wikipedia page) is where people discuss additions to particular pages. It’s where you can suggest changes to a source or a page, as well as your work that could be well-suited for that page.
- Be proactive. Follow topics that are important to you and contribute to the conversations there.
- When writing something about you or your business, make sure that the first few lines really highlight what your business is about and what its proposition it.
- Always keep an eye on the information that’s out there and make sure that it’s accurate especially if it’s something important that potential customers are going to look at.
- Be very active in managing your Google My Business content. Make sure you’re updating it frequently and that fundamental shifts in your businesses are reflected.
- Always acknowledge the reviews given to you regardless of whether they are good or bad. Thank the people for taking the time to give you a review and always be positive.
- Have documented processes and procedures for responding to reviews and dealing with negative reviews.
- Encourage your good customers, references, and people who really like you to post a review.
- There will always be a negative review somewhere. Likewise, if you have lots of positive reviews, there will always be people who won’t trust you and assume that you are gaming the system. The more you can present the best side of the story, the better you’ll be.
- Asking a person to leave a review on the spot or make a mental commitment to it vastly increases the odds of getting a review.
- The more there is transparency or two-way interaction, the more accurate the reviews you’re going to get.
- Wikipedia and Google My Business are key parts of your SEO strategy. It’s important to make sure that they are up to date and that you are being proactive in how you engage with customers to get more reviews.
- Fresh content is hugely important to Google’s algorithms. The more you can update with fresh content, the more Google likes it.
- Google tend to prioritise and give more weight to it own tools especially when they’re new. The sooner you can jump on one of Google’s new tools/features, the better.
Always keep an eye on the information that's out there and make sure that it's accurate especially if it's something important that potential customers are going to look at. Josh Greene on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Josh’s answers to the questions of our innovation round. Listen to the conversation to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Find the time to talk to your customers and really understand what they’re trying to do. Listen to them.
- Best thing for new ideas – Give your people the opportunity to create things. Give people with different backgrounds and viewpoints the freedom to innovate when they see an opportunity.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Google Suite and Redbooth
- Keep project/client on track – Frequent communication. Schedule things in your email and calendar. People tend to ignore project management systems but not their inboxes and calendars.
- Differentiate – Have a unique viewpoint that people can find. Be helpful.
To Be a Leader
Don’t be afraid to experiment. A lot of these platforms to get your information out there that people are looking at are constantly changing. So continuing to experiment is extremely useful especially if you’re trying to figure out where your customers are and where they’re going to interact with you.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Josh through their website.
Suggested Guest
Josh suggested we have a conversation with Christopher Lochhead from The Category Pirates. So Christopher, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz Podcast, courtesy of Josh Greene.
Links
Cool Things About Josh
- He’s the author of Wikipedia for Business: Supercharge Your Business and Wikipedia for Business 2021: The Rules & Latest Developments that Businesses & Communicators Need to Know to Succeed.
- Prior to The Mather Group, he was the VP for Marketing at Zippy Shell USA.
- He holds a degree in Management Information Systems from the State University of New York in Binghamton.
Always acknowledge the reviews given to you regardless of whether they're good or bad. Thank the people for taking the time to give you a review and always be positive. Josh Greene on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet