Had a great weekend taking Saturday off to visit a friend’s country house two hours outside of San Francisco for the day which was a lot of fun.  She and I are funny together, she’s like a tall blonde version of Bette Midler, so funny and so irreverent……like me!  We have so much fun!

And she mentioned something that could help us secure listings in the future which is easy and costs nothing.

Getting testimonials from your clients.

You know, Yelp isn’t only for coffee shops and hotels. All kinds of service professionals leverage online ratings and review sites to buoy their reputations.

If you haven’t created an account on the popular business rating destination, consider it a good place to start.

However, there is much more to the rating game than stars on Yelp. It’s ultimately about stars on multiple platforms.

Know that you don’t need to have a presence on every review resource to earn referrals, but it will help to have your name on a few of the most common ones.

Your leads want what’s called “social proof.” We seek the approval of others — it’s psychological. That’s why online reviews have become so incredibly popular.

Your own website is also a terrific place to use as a central hub of client testimonials.

Facebook is also crucial these days for online reviews. Maybe kids and some big advertisers have abandoned the social media giant, but people who want to know who you are sure haven’t.

The social network makes it easy to add a platform for reviews on your business page.

Online reviews are critical to the referral business, but you can’t ask your clients to copy and paste what they say about you on every possible review site — because there are so many of them.

You have to strike a balance between where your customers place them and where you do it for them. Make it as easy as possible and know that you’ll have to ask multiple times.

I make it a habit to always ask each client for a testimonial and then post it in Yelp, my website and on my Pre-Qualification package.

Clients are generally happy to do it and it could give you the social proof you need to get that next listing!