Melih Oztalay

My Expertise

Area(s) of expertise: Internet Marketing Summary of expertise: Strong entrepreneurial ability that includes: - Innovation - Imagination - Creativity - Resourcefulness - Early Adopter of Ideas More than 20 years of successful business experience in entrepreneurial environment. Primary focus on business development, stategy, sales, execution and management. Secondary focus on new Internet technologies and a strong ability to apply these technology capabilities to business needs using creative and innovative methods. Business Philosophy: - “There is nothing a computer cannot do, that money and time cannot buy” - “There is a opportunity and solution for every problem” Specialties entrepreneur,innovation,imagination,creativity,resourcefulness,early adopter,research, analysis, planning, strategy for business growth. Work Experience Corporation has been in Advertising and Marketing since 1987. We started our Internet group as of 1994. Our uniqueness comes in understanding Internet connectivity as well as Internet Marketing. Our clients are larger national and global cor

porations including franchises. Our web marketing agency provides the following core competencies: Research and Strategy, Website Development, Website Per Page Optimization (SEO), Web Marketing Strategies, Organic Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Google Adwords Advertising, Analytics and Analysis, and Local Business Web Marketing. Our Local Business Web Marketing is designed for national franchises and national companies with local stores. We provide Store Level Marketing, Store Level Customer Ratings and Reviews Management, Hyperlocal Advertising, and our Mobile Locations Finder mobile app. Specialties entrepreneur,innovation,imagination,creativity,resourcefulness,early adopter,research, analysis, planning, strategy for business growth. Web Marketing including SEO, Reputation Management, Customer Ratings and Review Management, Local Business Listing Marketing Management. Please refer to Professional experience for more details.

Blog/Web site: http://www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing Twitter: www.twitter.com/smartfinds Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SmartFinds White paper/research: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/author/melih-oztalay/ http://melihoztalay.sys-con.com http://www.dailyseotip.com/?s=melih Books/articles published: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/author/melih-oztalay/ http://melihoztalay.sys-con.com http://dailyseotip.com/?s=melih Awards/associations/memberships: 2009 Companies To Watch Michigan 50

internet marketing, web marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, local business listings, local business marketing, geographic marketing, search marketing, Adwords, Google adwords, Google Places, mobile marketing, reputation management, Ratings and Reviews Read more at www.profnetconnect.com

Lead Generators For Local Automotive Stores Are Losing Their Effectiveness

We certainly agree with the comments made in LinkedIn groups wondering why car dealerships are not getting the volume of leads they used to or the quality of leads they used to from national lead generators. Our own experience with Penske car dealerships have seen very similar results from national lead generators. Leads from the OEM websites, the dealerships own website, Google Adwords far exceed that coming from national lead generators. We need to augment and expand on the discussions in LinkedIn automotive groups and break them up into three major groups. There is no one silver bullet to answer “why”, rather there are multiple elements that make up the total answer. 1. Search Engines Search engine maps and their listings have been evolving since 2007. By the end of 2008 they were in the first page search results. Unfortunately, the financial meltdown that caused many businesses to hold on their budgets in 2009 and most of 2010 kept them away from seeing the evolution and maturity of the Local Business Listings as a marketing tool to reach local consumers. At the end of 2010 major changes from Google pushed local results before national results. This includes geo-tagged web pages / web sites and local business listings (aka Google Places and aka the interactive yellow pages). An organic web marketing strategy has to focus more on local over national with websites, web pages, micro website strategies, and local business listings. Please note this is about “marketing” not “advertising”…web marketing has a shelf life of years! …web advertising has shelf life of a few seconds and only good as long as you put money into it. Two Google issues also play into using local business listings: A. Google Places is not about what you do on Google, but also Google validating your information on other websites, known as citations. Too many companies focus only on Google Places and can’t understand why it doesn’t work. B. Amongst various data point, one of the data point Google ranks local listings on is customer ratings and reviews. It is important to actively manage these, not only for negative ones, but securing positive ones and facilitating positive re-enforcement. 2. Mobile Marketing Mobile searches have not only been increasing in usage, but the searches are showing better quality of leads. We are seeing this in our managed Google Adwords campaigns in which mobile clicks are outperforming non-mobile clicks and are also costing less. An Google Adwords strategy that encompasses keywords, ad extensions, image ads, and also are all equally prepared for mobile, will show better results than national 3rd party lead generators. 3. Hyperlocal Advertising Hyperlocal Advertising is the next main growing element in reaching local consumers. Ex-newspapers journalists have been opening up their own city or neighborhood websites with local news and information. Larger entities like AOL have been growing their Patch.com websites and this industry also includes websites like Examiner.com. Amongst the local journalist and these national hyperlocal sites consumers are responding very well to them and in fact have browsers opening to them as their initial home page. Focusing on editorials and advertising (text, image or banners) becomes part of the web strategy in reaching local consumers for local stores. Particularly for national companies with stores nationwide whose business revenue is dependent upon the local consumer. If you look at all three elements (Search Engines, Mobile Marketing and Hyperlocal Advertising) we will see that there is no one single answer as to why national 3rd party lead generators are not as effective. Perhaps had the 2008 global financial bankruptcy not happened and business continued as usual, many businesses would have realized these changes much sooner. The ongoing evolution, maturation and technology changes/additions that takes place on the web create a very dynamic and fluid environment that is not necessarily comforting to business. Nothing is ever stagnant and one has to always adopt technologies early to take advantage of reaching consumers that have no problem adopting technology changes earlier than business. Unfortunately, business tends to take its time in making these decisions and also expect that their investment in “one thing” will continue forever. Neither which is true or good for the business. For this reason it all comes down to ongoing education and communications focusing on the marketing processes versus just executing silvers of technology tasks. The difference between a marketing agency versus a technology company is well apparent because of the communications. Marketing agencies are focused on pushing ideas and marketing strategies with ongoing communications with clients. Technology companies tend to wait for orders from their customers, who unfortunately, many not know what they should request or what they are requesting. Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use local business marketing for national company stores through monthly managed marketing services, broadcast data services for mass business data distribution, and our Mobile Locations Finder mobile app. Smartfinds Internet Marketing 330 East Maple Road #503, Birmingham, MI 48009 Toll-Free: (866) 501-5758 Fax: (866) 501-5758 http://www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing.com Read more at smartfinds.posterous.com

November 14, 2011 Geographic Marketing Local Business Listings Previewed In Google Search Results Google has been allowing for web pages to be previewed before clicking on a search result for quite some time since 2010. Equally we have seen a number of changes taking place during 2011 in Local Business Listings from Google’s Places and Maps. These changes have include the removal of third party reviews, layout changes to what information is viewable and a strong focus on securing ratings and reviews. Google Places results which provide local results before national results now received the instant preview feature too and are displayed on the first page of the search results. This is a new functionality that will further encourage and require businesses to take control of their Local Business Listings to insure local customers get the marketing information the business wishes to provide. What is probably more important is has been enhanced with multiple layouts and provides the searcher more information than the organic results of general websites. You can hover over a Google Places listing and see everything from Maps to Videos, Photos and more in the right column. What is probably more surprising is that the ads are replaced with the preview information. The implications of the Adwords Ads being replaced with the preview information certainly has other implications that we will have to discuss separately. The following information is provided by Google’s Instant help page: &nsbp; Before Google Instant, the typical searcher took more than 9 seconds to enter a search term, and we saw many examples of searches that took 30-90 seconds to type. Using Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search. If everyone uses Google Instant globally, we estimate this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second. 15 new technologies contribute to Google Instant functionality. &nsbp; Let’s take a look at the information included in the instant preview of Google Places Local Business Listing. Map While the general search results always show a map with all Google Places Local Business Listings, if you hover over a listing you will see only the listing you are hovering over. The map links to Google Maps where you can then obtain more details including directions. Customer Ratings and Reviews Recent studies have shown how 6 in 10 customers make their buying decisions based on what has been posted to the local business listings. Of course this goes well beyond Google and becomes equally important to insure satisfied customers have posted positive ratings and reviews while the business manages the process of tending to negative ratings and reviews too. &nsbp; Images, Photos, Videos, Coupons, Offers, Promotions This is where the marketing content a business provides within their Google Places Local Business Listings for their local store becomes very important. Whether it is products, services, advertisements, coupons, offers, discounts, etc. Taking the initiative to secure your local business listings by claiming them and then managing them with regularity. Street View Probably not as well known is the panoramic photo that is provided by Google for that businesses address. You can get a 360-degree view of the area by hovering over this panoramic photo. Some street view images have one for the interior while others only for the exterior. Eventually this will play into the integration of Google Places with Google Earth. Web Page Preview If Google can identify a web page for the business, the thumbnail of the business web page is displayed. This thumbnail appears to be a live snapshot and is directly linked to the web site. From a marketing perspective this the first impression a prospective customer will have with the business. Additional Details Included Prices, Hours of Operation, Public Transport, Reservations, Menus, Feedback to Google, Report a Problem, and links to additional third party ratings and review websites. Of course not everything here is applicable to all businesses and are displayed based on the information provided from the Google Places Business Management Console. As you can imagine the instant preview gives user the ability to “view” without having to click and this will directly impact the number the click through rate (CTR) of any individual listing. Most likely the CTR will go down in this case. &nsbp; With the ongoing changes by Google to the search results page along with the Google Places Local Business Listing, the industry continues to push hard for businesses to not only manage their local business listings, but to start focusing on store level marketing and store level reputation management (aka public relations). We can expect to see more changes and requiring businesses to add the appropriate policies and procedures to include this area as part of their web marketing strategies. Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution. Smartfinds Internet Marketing 330 East Maple Road #503, Birmingham, MI 48009 Toll-Free: (866) 501-5758 Fax: (866) 501-5758 &nsbp; http://www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing.com Read more at smartfinds.posterous.com

GEOGRAPHIC MARKETING AND LOCAL LISTING WARS

Home Contact Us Contact Us Local Business Marketing Local Marketing GEOGRAPHIC MARKETING AND LOCAL LISTING WARS October 25, 2011 Edit Geographic Marketing is an important tool not only for local businesses looking to attract consumers through local business listings, but also for the large online companies who host such listings. Have you noticed the number of commercials being run by high-profile tier one companies and websites that are in the local business listing industry? These companies are all trying to capitalize on the local business marketing industry, and are consistently fighting for top recognition and use. For example, you may have seen TV commercials for Angie’s List, Super Media, Yellow Book. If you add Internet advertising that includes but not limited to Google, Yahoo, Bing, Merchant Circle, Yelp, Citysearch and many others, you have to start wondering how all these websites can attract a finite number of businesses and visitors to use their website. The other more significant question is how a business will manage their local business marketing information at all the local business listings websites. History of Geographic Marketing and Local Business Listings As a business, if you have not kept up with the evolution of geographic marketing you will need a quick primer to know where things started and where things are today. The origins of local business listings go back to the early 1990s when search engines had directories listing businesses by categories in addition to their basic search results. These basic business listings gave way to business directories giving the business the opportunity to add more business marketing information. While this evolution was taking place, yellow page (411) websites were also emerging on the web. Business directories eventually gave way to the idea of rating a business with companies like Angie’s List and Yelp in social communities. In 2007 business listings began showing up in search engines and customer ratings and reviews also were available. In summary, geographic marketing is essentially based on an online business listing which consists of yellow pages information, business description, and local business marketing information, consumer ratings and consumer reviews. Geographic Marketing is Interactive in Nature Calling these listings a business directory does not do them justice considering all the local business marketing content, customer information and mapping information. However, geographic marketing is not just about getting your business marketing information into these listings. It is also about essentially creating mini-websites for your business, and more importantly allowing customers to quantitatively rate and subjectively provide commentary about their experience with the business, products and services. Local business listing websites that are social communities allow customers. Live social communities that provide location based services like Four Square, Twitter and Facebook create instantaneous feedback to friends, family and followers alike. This collaboration not only allows for ratings and comments, but the information is posted permanently. A smart geographic marketing strategy will require a business to ask satisfied customers to post commentary and manage those postings that are negative…..at multiple local listing websites, of course. Manage Your Geographic Marketing Process Everywhere! Unlike the traditional yellow pages, where business information was located in a single source, the Internet lets local business marketing information be found everywhere. With so many sources, it becomes imperative for a business to stay on top of its information, description, business marketing materials and consumer reviews at multiple local listing websites. Local Business Listing websites is defined to include search engines, social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites and business directories. If you wonder why the management needs to take place at multiple local listing websites, the answer is simple. Your business information shows up in search engine results, mobile search results, and is available to mobile application developers for mobile apps. Every time a consumer or customer enters a search term, the search engine or mobile app will return local business listings that are relevant to that search based on its proximity to the user’s location (latitude and longitude, city, or state). Since you don’t know what source your local customers or mobile application developers are using, you need a way to manage many sources simultaneously. Select a Company to Help Whether we are talking about website optimization, local business listings, mobile marketing, social marketing, or geographic marketing, a business needs proper support to succeed in this new era of store level marketing. You need a partner with experience and expertise in multiple digital marketing fields who can adapt to the progression of new technologies that will become available over the next few years. Some key elements for a company to provide geographic marketing services include: Claiming your local business listing at multiple local listing websites. Providing both data services and business marketing services (you need both data and marketing, not just data services). Updating your basic business data information monthly. Updating and managing your business marketing information to include photos, videos, coupons, offers, discounts, and events monthly. Monitoring and Managing Consumer ratings and reviews monthly. Reviewing analytics of local business listings and making the appropriate changes to your local business listings monthly. Offering expertise in Mapping Technologies and GPS that offer mapping and navigation services based on latitude and longitude, or city and state geography. Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution. Smartfinds Internet Marketing 330 East Maple Road #503, Birmingham, MI 48009 Toll-Free: (866) 501-5758 Fax: (866) 501-5758 http://www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing.com Read more at localbusinesslisting.wordpress.com

How to Successfully Manage the Consumer Ratings and Review Process

Google Places Experts Consumer ratings and reviews have become an integral part of every business’ public relations program, requiring many companies to develop a standard operating procedure to manage this process. Consumer ratings and reviews are posted on multiple local listing websites (search engines, communities, directories, etc.) and shared amongst these websites as well. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that this should be an ongoing process that occurs over many different online listing websites. Understanding Ratings vs. Reviews To help you get started managing this process, it is useful to have some background on the program. Consumers can rate a business from 1 to 5 stars quantitatively which will soon be used to rank relevant websites to a search. This numerical value can also be averaged over many ratings; therefore, it becomes important to seek out positive ratings in volume. Consumers can also post a subjective review about a business. This is positive or negative text copy about their experience with a business’ products or services. This subjective review is kept for years and is available for future prospects to view. Tips To Manage Customer Ratings and Reviews For every business, there are many parts to successfully managing these rating and reviews. These include: Encouraging positive ratings and reviews from satisfied customers Responding to positive ratings and reviews from satisfied customers Monitoring listings for negative reviews Responding appropriately to negative reviews to build a positive reputation Managing Positive Consumer Ratings and Reviews It is important to implement a campaign to secure positive ratings and reviews from satisfied customers. These positive ratings will in fact increase the average rating higher and effectively drown out negative reviews and minimize the need to manage negative reviews as urgently. It is also important to engage and respond to positive ratings and reviews from loyal customers. This type of interaction will reinforce customer loyalty and helps build a positive brand reputation. Managing Negative Consumer Ratings and Reviews Because these ratings and reviews have permanence, it is imperative for a business to at the very last respond to a negative review explaining the situation. This will at least show prospects that you care about your customers. You have three options when it comes to negative ratings and reviews: Dispute the Rating and Review and wait to see if it will be removed. Respond with an apology if the business was indeed at fault and explain the resolution to the situation. Respond with an explanation and course of action if the business has a differing opinion from the consumer. By effectively managing both positive and negative customer ratings and reviews, you can build your company’s reputation and effectively address customer experiences on a local and individual level, which customers and prospective customers will appreciate. Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution. Smartfinds Internet Marketing 330 East Maple Road, Suite 503 Birmingham, MI 48009 Tel: (866) 501-5758 Fax: (866) 501-5758 Read more at posterous.com

How to Successfully Manage the Consumer Ratings and Review Process

Consumer ratings and reviews have become an integral part of every business’ public relations program, requiring many companies to develop a standard operating procedure to manage this process. Consumer ratings and reviews are posted on multiple local listing websites (search engines, communities, directories, etc.) and shared amongst these websites as well. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that this should be an ongoing process that occurs over many different online listing websites.

Understanding Ratings vs. Reviews

To help you get started managing this process, it is useful to have some background on the program. Consumers can rate a business from 1 to 5 stars quantitatively which will soon be used to rank relevant websites to a search. This numerical value can also be averaged over many ratings; therefore, it becomes important to seek out positive ratings in volume.

Consumers can also post a subjective review about a business. This is positive or negative text copy about their experience with a business’ products or services. This subjective review is kept for years and is available for future prospects to view. Read more at www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing.com

What is geographical marketing and why is it important for local business? posted 5 hours ago in Internet Marketing  | Report question as…

I would like to add a different perspective on “Geographic Marketing”. While I understand how this term was used in the past (Shane’s definition), what we are finding is the following: 1. With search engines making local business listings available in the search results, along with Geo-Tagging web pages based on longitude, latitude, country, continent, state, city and zip code around the globe…I submit to you that the term Geographic Marketing’s definition is changing along with it. 2. We are finding that customers (whether local business, national businesses with local stores, or local franchise owners) are responding well to the term “Geographic Marketing” with their perception being that Geographic “Web” Marketing is about a marketing method that directly aids their local store to reach local consumers. Read more at www.linkedin.com

Geographic Marketing as a Key Business Strategy

Geographic marketing is a new method of marketing a business and its website through web searches, mobile searches and social media. Geographic marketing incorporates digital tools like local business listings, hyperlocal advertising, managing customer ratings and reviews in order to promote a local store through web searches or mobile searches.

In the traditional sense, the definition of geographic marketing is the association of data and maps, but the added convergence of local business listings, mobile business marketing, and social media makes this method of local business marketing more powerful than ever before. This local business marketing tool may come across as something for local business, but we have to remember that all business is local. National companies with multiple store locations also have to consider managing the marketing for individual stores at the store level now-a-days and not just at the national level. Read more at www.smartfindsmarketing.com

September 26, 2011 5 Smart Reasons To Outsource Geographic Marketing Services

Geographic Marketing is the key to making your business stand out to local consumers, but are you taking advantage of these great business marketing tools? Are your stores dependent upon the local geography for your revenue? If you’re not using the full power of Geographic Marketing as an additional business marketing tool to reach local consumers, then you are missing out on a significant local business marketing opportunity. Considering that local business listings show up on the first page of search results, in mobile searches, and in mobile applications, this is a local business marketing tool you don’t want to ignore. The only way local listings show up in these various search results is if you have managed your listings by entering your business marketing information for each store. If you’re wondering how to enter your local business marketing information, it begins by claiming your listing and seize the management of each store’s local business listing. By no means should you think the geographic marketing process starts and ends with Google. There are multiple search engines, social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites and various other business directories that are accessed by consumers and mobile application developers and provide business information for a specified search area (latitude and longitude or street address). It is equally important to keep in mind that geographic marketing is not a one-time process. You have to manage these listings by updating your store’s local business marketing information including keywords, photos, videos, coupons, and events on a regular basis. Local listings are an interactive geographic marketing tool that can be accessed and managed 24x7x365. If you’re wondering what I mean by “interactive” geographic marketing tools, keep in mind that consumers get to post their ratings and reviews about your store, your business, products, or services. As a corporate multi-location business, it is important to get satisfied customers to post their feedback in order to negate any negative reviews. If you do get negative reviews, there is a process that allows you to dispute them either as a rebuttal, an apology, or an acknowledgement. This process adds a new layer of public relations at the local business marketing level which large multi-location corporations are unfamiliar. Let’s take a look at the five reasons why you probably want to outsource your geographic marketing services to a company with experience and expertise who can manage this for your company across multiple local listing websites. 1. You Have a Business Marketing Need for Revenue You have to manage these listings by updating your: keywords, description and general text copy, photos (products, services, company), videos (tv commercials and others), coupons (discounts, offers), and events (promotions) …..on a monthly basis! And don’t stop at Google, keep going to Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Local.com, Citysearch, Mapquest and many others that are quickly becoming consumer favorites. 2. You Have a Public Relations Need Consumers have the ability to post their experience with your store, your business, products, or services to these local business listings. While it never requires a request for a customer to post a negative review, it is a smart local business marketing strategy to consider how you plan on asking satisfied customers to post positive ratings and reviews. Reviews have a quantitative component to them and thus are open to search engines using them as another data point in the future to rank your website. Anyone posting a review can indicate one star (negative) to five stars (positive). From a geographic marketing standpoint, it is important to push for as many positive reviews as possible. What do you do with negative reviews? You have to do something! You cannot let them sit in your local business listing on multiple websites for customers to interpret. Your options include: dispute, rebuttal, or apologize and you need an experienced local business marketing specialist to handle these responses on an individual basis. Keep in mind that customer reviews are syndicated around the web from one local business listings website to another. 3. You Have a Security Need Your local business listing is a free geographic marketing service provided by a variety of local business listings websites, search engines, social communities, 411 websites, business directories and more. So, what should you as a business expect for free? Probably not much, and that includes the level of security around these local business listings. The reality is that someone can hijack your listing and manage the listing either against you or in their favor. In order to avoid a local business listing hijacking you will need to ensure that you claim your listing at multiple local listing websites. While claiming your listing is a good starting point to your geographic marketing process, you also have to consider how you will monitor duplicate listings that enter into the information system and need to be continually claimed and monitored. 4. You Have a Data Accuracy Need Geographic marketing information about your stores on the internet comes from multiple sources and from sources over many years of selling data. We have seen many situations where business names vary, phone numbers are inaccurate, addresses and map markers showing the actual location (latitude and longitude) are not correct, and the list goes on. Once again, this is not something that stops at Google, but needs to be reviewed, monitored, and managed at multiple local listing websites in order to ensure customers have access to the most accurate business marketing information possible. You do not want to miss mobile application developers either, as they decide randomly whose database they will use. 5. You Have a Time Resource Need Hopefully you have learned from our discussions here that the time needed to claim, update, monitor, and manage your local listings at multiple local listings website is significant . Since the geographic marketing process does not end with your work being completed one time, it becomes a regular monthly process that has to be managed by a local business marketing expert. Furthermore, this process is in no way entirely automated and requires experienced local business marketing labor resources in order to make decisions. For example, you are required to ensure business marketing information consistency across multiple local listing websites; analyze monthly local listing analytics to take actionable changes to your listing at multiple local listing websites; respond to consumer reviews at their origin since consumer reviews are syndicated across many different local listing websites; and more – the list goes on and on. Ultimately, a large corporation will not have the time resources to manage the geographic marketing process effectively, and the support of experienced Internet business marketing professionals will be required. Certainly your time resources are limited and Geographic Marketing Solutions for multi-location companies are provided by Smartfinds Internet Marketing. Let the experts of over 17 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly through monthly management marketing services and broadcast data services for mass business data distribution. Smartfinds Internet Marketing 330 East Maple Road, Suite 503 Birmingham, MI 48009 Tel: (866) 501-5758 Fax: (866) 501-5758 Read more at smartfinds.posterous.com

The Detroit Metropolitan CVB includes Melih Oztalay of SmartFinds Internet Marketing As Guest Speaker On Customer Ratings and Reviews

What’s the Online Buzz?” is the third and final installment of the DMCVB membership educational series focusing on business ratings and reviews by local customers September 26, 2011 (Birmingham, MI): Smartfinds Internet Marketing (http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com ), an Internet Marketing pioneer for more than 20 years and leader in web marketing including geographic marketing has been invited as the guest speaker for the Detroit Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau’s (DMCVB, http://www.visitdetroit.com) educational series for their members. The event focuses on learning how to manage the business online reputation at the local geographic level. “As our Geographic Marketing Solution and Services has expanded over the past years, we have had to engage in helping businesses not just monitor, but also manage their ratings and reviews being posted by their local customers in the business’ local business listing,” said Melih Oztalay, Smartfinds CEO. “Geographic web marketing is a fast growing industry making it easy for local customers to post their positive or negative experiences with a local business store either through a web browser or through a mobile phone. Knowing how to approach the process of managing these ratings and reviews is an important factor to insure continued business to the local store by future prospects.” The DMCVB’s 2011 Membership Educational Seminar will end with “What’s the Online Buzz?” as the third and final installment in the membership educational series. In the blink of an eye customers can share their opinions and experiences online, and you need to be aware of what they’re saying about your business. Learn how to manage your online reputation with presenter Melih Oztalay, CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing. Melih and an all-star lineup of panelists will discuss the latest ways businesses are monitoring their social brand image, attracting new customers through favorable reviews, responding to criticism, turning negatives into golden opportunities, and more! Following the presentation a panel will convene for open discussion that includes representatives from Yelp, Motor City Casino, and WDIV. The event is held on Thursday, September 29, 2011, from 2 – 4 p.m., at the Best Western Plus Sterling Inn at 34911 Van Dyke Avenue, Sterling Heights, MI 48312. You must be a DMCVB member to attend. You can contact Angela Gillis at the DMCVB for further information by phone at (313) 202-1973. Geographic web marketing as a solution for multi-location businesses from Smartfinds Internet Marketing expands not only beyond Google Places, but also encompasses other elements that include Geo Tagging, Citation Marketing, QR Code Marketing, Consumer Rating and Reviews Management along with a Mobile Locations Finder mobile application. Geographic Marketing is a way to attract local customers online through strategies that leverage a business’ physical location. When a local customer searches online via mobile, web or GPS, a map appears with business listings related to the search criteria. When fully leveraged with the company’s marketing content, pictures, logos, videos, events, coupons, promotions, customer reviews and more, it helps to create a micro website for the client across each of the search engines. About Smartfinds Internet Marketing The most critical element of SmartFinds Internet Marketing services is the creativity and imagination to apply the technological aspects of the digital marketplace to the marketing objectives of a particular business. Initial research provides SmartFinds the ability to develop a digital strategy that can be measured every step of the way to insure business growth and revenue generation. Some of SmartFinds’ clients have included ComForcare Home Care, Delphi, Flagstar Bank, Guardian Industries, Soave Enterprises, McCann Erickson, Penske Automotive Group, Wendy’s, Ziebart and others. You can learn more about SmartFinds at http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com . About The Detroit Metropolitan Convention and Visitor’s Bureau The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau (DMCVB) is the only organization that promotes metro Detroit regionally, nationally and internationally as a convention, business meeting and tourism destination. To achieve this goal of soliciting and servicing the area’s second-largest industry, the DMCVB works with the Detroit and Windsor area business community, civic organizations and local government offices in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. You can learn more about the DMCVB at http://www.visitdetroit.com . New Release Contact Melih Oztalay, CEO Smartfinds Internet Marketing Direct: (248) 568.2241 melih@smartfindsmarketing.com 330 East Maple Road #503, Birmingham, MI 48009 Toll-Free: (866) 501-5758 http://www.smartfindsgeographicmarketing.com Read more at www.allvoices.com