Your business listings are likely the first encounter a potential customer has with you so its a high priority to look good there. Listings are what feed your location on local maps. They are the critical piece for your business to be found on local search. Business listings are managed by the service: Google, Apple or Bing therefore you must log in and prove your authority to make any changes to the information. The process of claiming your listings protects your information from being changed by anyone outside your organization.

In order to claim your listing you may receive an automated phone call or postcard. If neither of these methods work because you have an auto-answer phone service or you receive mail through a post office box, you can make other arrangements with the service representatives. For instance, Google may approve your ownership of your business listing by setting up a google meet where you can show proof of your business such as your logo on your vehicle and business related items around your office.

The limitations with a business listing are that you have a set amount of space to fill and the format will look exactly like the format of every other business listing.

Your website is the online equivalent of your brick-and-mortar office or store. You get complete autonomy of how you want it to look and operate. Whether you want one page or 1,000 pages on your site; what colors and layout you want to use, whether you want to process transactions, or provide map directions.

You get to determine who has access to visit your site.

You are not at the mercy of a service provider or behind some other service’s log-in. With great privilege comes great responsibility though. It’s up to you to keep information current and to make sure images are sized for use on the web. It’s up to you to update the background code of the site to make sure it is secure and stable as the web itself shifts and changes. A well-maintained website is a big opportunity for a great first impression to potential customers.

Social media can be a great way to circulate your message. You can share up-to-the minute info and photos/videos the help your audience get to know you. This personal kind of communication is helpful for building brand loyalty and creating a collection of people who will refer your business to others in their network who may need what you are offering.

What you can NOT expect from social media is that everyone will see every message you post.

The limitations of social media are the algorithms that favor organizations that are paying for their content to be circulated. Social media is also not ideal for holding all the pertinent info about you in every post. So you must choose between creating excessively long posts that alienate your audience from engaging with you or creating shorter post that are more appealing to your audience but will not have complete info about you.