Although anyone can write on Bizwiki, all entries are held for approval by editors and many have to be edited by the editorial team before being published. Submissions are usually reviewed on a “first come, first served” basis but that doesn’t mean they are published that way.

If you want to ensure your Bizwiki submission, be it a new listing or a revision to an existing listing, is approved quickly it helps to present the editor with little or nothing to correct.

You have added your company to Bizwiki (or someone else has) and people using the site can find your address, telephone number and read a little bit about your company.

Does it end there?

Absolutely not!

Sometimes all people need is the facts.

I was struck by the truth of a paragraph in a recent post by Brian Wool discussing the local search offerings presented by the major players at the Santa Clara Search Marketing Expo last week.

In regards to ‘cool’ photo options for local-listings Brian says, “If you’re a dentist in Omaha, Nebraska, what impact will a photo have on a potential new patient? ……. Providing information on the services, procedures, and insurance plans you accept would probably work better.”

In the last post we discussed ways in which companies can encourage satisfied customers to post positive reviews (along with some tips on how to make sure they are satisfied customers).

Now we come to the difficult task of dealing with negative reviews. In a recent post Chris Linnett says that companies have three alternatives for dealing with negative reviews: flame the publishers, simply let it play out or get directly involved, to which I have added a fourth option below.

Bizwiki has added new features that allow our users to review companies and services, as well as adding information about them. Allowing users to submit reviews of businesses, restaurants, clubs, schools, venues and just about anything is becoming more popular on the web, and I’m sure most business owners and managers have seen reviews of their own or another company online. Sometimes they’re positive, sometimes neutral and sometimes a customer is so unhappy with the service or product that they feel compelled to write a negative review.

Started in 2006 and open as a public-beta since June of last year, Bizwiki is finally officially live today. We’re cutting the ribbon (or more literally, removing the Beta ribbon that’s been on the top left of all pages since last June) and announcing the site more widely to the general public.

We are very happy to be able to say that Bizwiki has already had over two thousand people sign up to help add content and edit the site, with many more expected now that the site is officially live. Now is a good time to thank everyone who has contributed to making this site what it is, thank you.

It’s all passed in a blur of new features being added, people signing up, improvements being made and a large amount of contributions to the information on the site, but believe it or not Bizwiki has now been live to the public for six months.

And what an eventful six months they have been, too.

We have continuously been impressed with the quality of information that has been added by the general public. Yes, there has been the occasional piece of ‘self-promotion’ or advertising-copy masquerading as a review, but that’s par for the course on the modern internet and most of these have been removed within hours. What is far more impressive is the amount of businesses that have been added, contributions submitted and genuine reviews we have received from people who are trying to help improve the quality of information available for others.