About Social Sonar

Privacy & Security

About Yelp

About Facebook

Google Local Business

About Yahoo Local

 About Social Sonar

What is Social Sonar?

Word of mouth has always been the most important way to grow a business. With the advent of social media sites like Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Google Local, and others, potential customers have found a way to take word of mouth and put it online. Businesses today do not have the time or expertise to manage the overwhelming number of social and review sites, but these sites are the key to growing your business. Your business can have an active online presence and grow business through social media – without any effort on your part with the help of Social Sonar – a social media management service for your business.

What does Social Sonar do?

The top services we perform are:

  • Writing content for Faceook and Twitter optimized for interaction
  • Monitoring and responding to comments on Faceook and Twitter
  • Writing blog posts optimized for natural search
  • Monitoring and responding to Yelp reviews
  • Creating email newsletters

For a complete list of services, check out our Services page.

How do you know what to write for my blog posts, newsletters, and social media messages?

When you first sign up, you fill out a customer profile with information like the voice you’d like to use, your typical customer demographics, and industry-specific sites we can use as resources. Our software also allows you to send us requests for things you’d like us to post, like upcoming events or discounts.

People are using Facebook and Twitter to have fun, so we have to be really careful to make sure they don’t feel like they’re being marketed to. We balance customer interest with brand awareness by mixing messages about your business with content we know will interest your audience. This mix allows us to give people more of what they really want to see when they’re looking through their Facebook and Twitter feeds.

How do you know how to respond to my customers?

Social Sonar can respond to customers in a few different ways:

  • We use our best judgment and experience from similar businesses to tailor a custom response.
  • We develop a list of possible responses with you and use those exclusively to respond to customers.
  • We craft a custom response and send to you for approval before responding.
  • If there is a very specific question or comment that is outside of our knowledge base, or requires a personal response, we will notify you and respond as instructed.

When we are setting up your account, we will ask you which styles you prefer. Sometimes you may have more or less time to devote to approving comments. We can always change your preferences at no cost.

Where do you find your writers?

Almost all of our writers are referrals from other writers; it’s really fun to write for social media, so they talk to their friends about it. When a writer applies, we check out their writing samples, and if they look really good, we do a phone interview to see what kind of things the person is interested in writing about. This way we can pair him or her up with the right business.

Currently all our writers have English as a first language, but many of them are bilingual, as well, so that’s an option if you need content in another language.

How do I know if Social Sonar is a good fit for my business?

  • Do you post at least once a day on a social media site?
  • Do you currently employ or work with someone with social media marketing expertise?
  • Do you respond to every customer comment or review?
  • Do you spend more than 5 hours per month on your social media?

If you answered “No” to any of the above questions, Social Sonar would make a great addition to your marketing toolkit.

Why would I choose Social Sonar over another service?

There are a lot of companies who provide similar services, but we haven’t found anyone yet that offers as comprehensive of a marketing solution so inexpensively. You can find companies who write content for you, but they won’t post it for you, and they certainly won’t respond for you. You could have an employee do it, but he or she might not have social media experience and won’t be online 24/7. Agencies might be able to provide most of the same solutions we do, but they cost a lot more.

We’re one of the most inexpensive and reliable options out there. You can participate in your program as much as you want. You can send us lots of information you’d like us to post, and during the times you get too busy, you can let it go on autopilot and we’ll come up with the latest and greatest material for you. Either way, you always have consistent content, which is really important.

Can I use Social Sonar even though I’m using services from other companies?

Absolutely! Social Sonar makes a great supplement to other social media efforts. You retain access to all of your accounts throughout service, so you can post and tweet as much as you’d like in addition to the posts and tweets we send on your behalf.

Who’s responsible for the content you post?

You retain access to all your logins during service. Social Sonar does not take responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted on any social media sites.

How do I change my account information?

To change any of the information on your social media accounts or Social Sonar client profile, give us a call at (415) 230-0016 or send us an email at info@socialsonar.com.

How do I change my service?

To upgrade your service, remove unused features, or cancel your account, give us a call at (415) 230-0016 or contact us at info@socialsonar.com.

Do you ever review businesses?

Social Sonar as a company does not review businesses. We discourage our employees from reviewing any current or potential clients, but encourage them to review other businesses they have personally experienced.

How long do I have to commit to you?

We do not have any contracts. You are billed monthly and can cancel two weeks before the beginning of your next billing cycle. It takes time to build a program; we ask that you stay with our service for at least three months to allow cumulative growth to appear.

What do I do if I need to cancel?

You may cancel two weeks before the beginning of your next billing cycle. Just send us an email and we will send one back to confirm. You can remove our access by changing the passwords to your profiles and removing our account’s admin access on Facebook.

Who owns the content you create?

You retain ownership of all blog posts, newsletters, and original social media content we create for you.

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 Privacy & Security

How do you handle payment information?

Your credit card information is stored securely in our system. Each month, billing is done automatically, without the need for an additional set of eyes on your important numbers.

You can shop at Social Sonar with confidence. We have partnered with Authorize.Net, a leading payment gateway since 1996, to accept credit cards and electronic check payments safely and securely for our customers.

The Authorize.Net Payment Gateway manages the complex routing of sensitive customer information through the electronic check and credit card processing networks. See an online payments diagram to see how it works.

The company adheres to strict industry standards for payment processing, including:

  • 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology for secure Internet Protocol (IP) transactions.
  • Industry leading encryption hardware and software methods and security protocols to protect customer information.
  • Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

For additional information regarding the privacy of your sensitive cardholder data, please read the Authorize.Net Privacy Policy.

Social Sonar is registered with the Authorize.Net Verified Merchant Seal program.

How do you collect sensitive information like credit card numbers and passwords?

Email is never 100% secure; your inbox could get hacked. In order to protect your credit card information and the passwords for all your social media accounts, we prefer to take them over the phone or via online form. This minimizes the chances of someone stealing the digital keys to your business.

How did you find my email address to send your original email?

Like your customers, we search Groupon, Living Social, and Yelp for businesses at the forefront of online marketing.

We will never sell your email address or lend it to our marketing partners for their own communications.

We want our emails to be welcome. If you don’t find our communication worthwhile, please email info@socialsonar.com and we will remove you within 10 business days.

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Yelp logo About Yelp

What is Yelp?

Yelp is a website which allows people to rate and review their experiences at local businesses. Every business has a Yelp page, which gives basic information on hours, location, website, price point, and more. Members of Yelp can add this information, and even create pages for businesses that have not yet been reviewed on Yelp. Business owners can create their own web page, or claim one that has already been created by Yelp members in order to edit the information. Business owners can not delete reviews, but reviews are removed it they violate Yelp policy. Business owners have the ability to contact Yelp members via email.

Why is Yelp important for my business?

There are a lot of reasons to use Yelp as a consumer. By having accurate information on Yelp, like your hours and/or website, you are helping people visit your business.

  • People often search Yelp for a business to fulfill a need. Yelp is basically word-of-mouth online, so people searching have the benefit of members’ past experiences.
  • People search for your business specifically in a search engine. Often when people type your business name in a search engine, like Google, your Yelp business page will come up as a result.

How is there a Yelp page for my business even though I didn’t create one?

Yelp licenses basic business information from third party data providers who gather this type of information from public records and other sources. They also get business information from their users, who are helpful enough to correct the info, or let them know about a new spot that just opened.

How do I create a business page or claim my business on Yelp?

In order to take control of your Yelp Business page, you will need to register: https://biz.yelp.com/. Once you’ve completed the registration process, you will receive an email with a special link. Click it to verify your account. When the verification message arrives in your email in-box, click the verification link, or copy and paste it into your browser. Your account will be verified at this point.

Is Yelp just a place for rants? How do the reviews break down by rating?

Here is how the Yelp reviews broke down as of August 2010.

As you can see, the vast majority of the reviews on Yelp range from neutral to positively glowing.

How do I remove a bad Yelp review?

Businesses can’t remove a bad Yelp review. However, if a review if libelous, we can help you bring this up to Yelp and they will examine it.

Have more Yelp questions? Give us a call at (415) 230-0016 or contact us at info@socialsonar.com.

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Facebook logo About Facebook

What is Facebook?

Facebook is an online community with profiles for people and businesses. Profiles include information and pictures about the user. Facebook members have the ability to message each other privately and publicly, as well as play games and shop.

Why is Facebook important for my business?

Facebook makes is easy to share information about your business instantly with large groups of friends and customers. Links, videos, and images can all be shared with a click or two. Depending on their settings, after someone clicks the “Like” button on your page, each action you make to your own page will show up on their page. This means their friends can see what happens on your business page even if their friends have not “Liked” your business page yet.

Businesses have the ability to collect customer information and sell products on Facebook, as well as create pages that capture customer information, like email newsletter signups and sweepstakes.

How do I create a Facebook page?

You can create a Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Pages are created with the following categories:

  • Local Business or Place
  • Company, Organization, or Institution
  • Brand or Product
  • Artist, Band or Public Figure
  • Entertainment
  • Cause or Community

You can upload information in your profile like your logo and website address.

What if there is more than one Facebook page for my business? Can I consolidate the pages?

Yes, you can merge duplicate Pages so long as they represent the same thing. Please note you can only merge the Page with fewer likes into the one with more likes. To do so:

  1. Go to the Page with the most likes. This will be the one you’ll keep.
  2. From the top of your Page, click Edit Page
  3. Select Update Info
  4. From the left sidebar, select Resources.
  5. Click the Merge duplicate Pages link. This link will only appear if you admin two Pages with similar names.
  6. A dialogue will show Pages you admin that qualify to be merged. Select the Page(s) you wish to merge. If you’re merging Pages with a location, they must have the same address information.

Merging Pages combines all your likes and check-ins, but all other content from the Page with fewer likes, such as wall posts and photos, will be permanently deleted. The Page with fewer likes will be removed from Facebook and you will not be able to unmerge it.

Unfortunately there is no way to claim pages where you are not the admin. However, there are a lot of things you can do to make your page the “official” one. Include as much information as possible about your business. Use your logo as your profile picture and keep all links very relevant to your business. Encourage people to “Like” your Facebook page on your website and in your store. The more people who “Like” your business page, the more official it will look.

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Google logo About Google Local Business

What is Google Local Business?

Google Local Business enables you to create a listing for your business that shows up in searches in Google. It includes your basic business information like address, hours, and location, as well as any photos you upload. Google Local Business listings show up in Google Maps. Customers are able to rate and review local businesses. These ratings also show up in Google searches.

Why is Google Local Business important to my business?

When people search for your business name online, your Google Local Business listing shows up as one of the results. This helps ensure more of the results on the search page are your business, and not a competitors’. Your listing also shows up when people search in Google Maps, making it easy to get directions to your business, find your website, and read reviews.

How much does Google Local Business cost?

Adding your listing to Google Places is free, and Google doesn’t accept payment to include particular listings or sites in our search results.

What if I don’t have a store or office?

Every business listing must have a mailing address. If you work from home or you are a mobile business you can specify a “service area” in the sign up process and choose to hide your physical address.

Can I add multiple locations?

There should be only one listing per physical location. Even if you cover multiple towns, you should instead use the description of your business or categories to explain the different services for your business.

How Do I Create a Google Local Business Listing?

Just sign up here. Google will ask for some basic company information. There are a lot of optional fields, as well.

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Yahoo logo About Yahoo Local

What is Yahoo Local?

Yahoo Local enables you to create a listing for your business that shows up in searches in Google. It includes your basic business information like address, hours, and location, as well as any photos you upload. Google Local Business listings show up in Google Maps. Customers are able to rate and review local businesses. These ratings also show up in Google searches.

Why is Yahoo Local important to my business?

When people search for your business name online, your Yahoo Local listing shows up as one of the results. This helps ensure more of the results on the search page are your business, and not a competitor’s.

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