Your Digital Footprint: Building Business Credibility Online

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Chamber Amplified, hosted by Doug Jenkins from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, the focus is on the significance of maintaining a robust online presence for businesses. Joined by guest Nabil Shaheen of the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the episode delves into strategies for businesses to effectively manage their digital profiles, emphasizing the importance of credibility and human engagement. Moving from an initial career in journalism to heading communications at a government agency, Nabeel shares his insights on how companies can enhance their digital footprint.

Utilizing platforms like Google My Business and exploring the world of AI for content creation are discussed as key methods for establishing a credible and engaging online presence. The conversation emphasizes not only the technicalities of web management but also the human elements that make a business relatable and trustworthy to its audience. 

Key Takeaways:

• Importance of Online Presence: Businesses must maintain a strong web presence to establish credibility and ensure visibility in a digital-first world.
• Utilize Google My Business: A robust profile on Google can enhance search engine rankings and provide customers with crucial business info.
• Humanize Your Brand: Share personal and relatable stories to engage audiences and build trust with potential clients and customers.
• AI in Content Creation: Leverage AI tools for crafting compelling social media content and improving communication efficiency.
• Adapting Career Skills: Transferable skills from journalism, such as storytelling and engaging audiences, are valuable in other fields like marketing and communications.

Music and sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Transcript

0:00:01 - (Doug Jenkins): Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Doug Jenkins from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. On each episode of Chamber Amplified, we're examining issues impacting the local business community. Whether it's employee recruitment and retention, marketing, it issues can be really anything that impacts your business on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. We're looking at it all right here on Chamber Amplified.

0:00:22 - (Doug Jenkins): Our goal is to give our members tips each week on at least one way they can improve operations and thrive in the current business environment. So we're doing a little bit of a new schedule here with the podcast. If you were looking for it Friday morning and wondered where it went, we've decided to release it on Tuesdays. Actually makes it a little bit easier on production and getting some interviews scheduled, things like that.

0:00:43 - (Doug Jenkins): So didn't mean to ghost you on Friday. We'll be here on Tuesdays. Going forward today, we're taking a look at businesses that don't necessarily take care of their online profiles. You need to have a strong web presence. I know you're listening to this on a podcast, which means you've been on the Internet. You understand the importance. But sometimes I think we forget how important it is and we neglect to maintain the web presence of our businesses. That's what we're going to talk about today. Nabil Shaheen of Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, a former co worker of mine, he worked in the media world with me and has had a lot of experience in helping businesses maintaining that online profile. We'll get his thoughts on that as well. It's really a companion piece to a small business workshop that we're holding the day that we release this here.

0:01:32 - (Doug Jenkins): And maintaining your online presence, it's really important. I've seen a lot of businesses who don't do this and it goes a long way into establishing your credibility. So a very, very important topic that we're going to get into today. Thanks again for tuning in. Remember, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can rate and review this show. Now let's get into it. Welcoming into the podcast on Chamber Amplified, Nabil Shaheen, a former coworker of mine from way back in the day with Findlay Publishing, Nabil now community outreach and communications manager at Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

0:02:06 - (Doug Jenkins): We're going to talk about all of that. Nabil, thanks for coming on the program.

0:02:10 - (Nabil Shaheen): Thank you for having me. Man, this was, this is exciting. And colleagues so long ago, some longer called Friendly Publishing. Right.

0:02:17 - (Doug Jenkins): That has been quite some time and but that's kind of what we want to delve into your expertise on because obviously you've moved into a new role in it. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about that later here in the conversation. But one of the things that we're talking about, as a matter of fact this week here at the chamber is managing web presence. And that is really something that you had done most of your career until your latest step. So we're going to tap into that knowledge and, and I think we'll talk a little career advice at the end too about when to know when it's time to move on to something else. Because you and I have both done that.

0:02:47 - (Nabil Shaheen): Yes, we have. Yes, we have.

0:02:49 - (Doug Jenkins): So, Nabil, the thing that got me started down this path was I was looking at, I was trying to get in touch with some, some members and just, I wanted to reach out to them on social media because, you know, give them a thumbs up, whatever, you know, get that engagement going for them. And I noticed they didn't really have much on their profile and then I noticed they didn't really have a website going. And I thought these are areas people need to be focused on.

0:03:15 - (Doug Jenkins): What in your experience are some ways that small businesses can manage that part of the business, which is very important.

0:03:25 - (Nabil Shaheen): Well, and I, I think, my guess is it's just overthought or over complicated and it's really a fairly simple process. You don't really need much to establish any sort of trust or credibility when somebody's searching you. I mean, you know, in, in the modern world, even if there's a brick and mortar spot, you are googling that place first. You are, as you, you know, alluded to Facebooking that place first, just establishing even the most basic presence on, on social media, which is, you know, obviously comes with a cost, I guess, but no financial one initially to set something up, just to establish your name, your phone number, your location, when people are googling you.

0:04:07 - (Nabil Shaheen): Googling, I guess it's a verb, right?

0:04:09 - (Doug Jenkins): Right. We all use it as a verb. I don't know if Google wants us to, but they're not here to boss us around right now.

0:04:14 - (Nabil Shaheen): Right? Right. No, it is a very essential piece. Like you said, it is the first place people go to when they see a business name or organization is finding them online first.

0:04:26 - (Doug Jenkins): And Bill, before we get further into it, one of the things I probably should have asked is let's walk through your experience in this avenue in terms of what you did when we worked at Findlay Publishing and then what you did beyond that in this realm, yeah, I was.

0:04:42 - (Nabil Shaheen): My longest time spent at the Courier there was as the online editor. So editing online stories and posting them on the website, on the Courier's website. And then certainly, you know, promoting those across the different social media channels, which, you know, for, for our newspaper, that's how we engage with readers was, you know, posting the stories, getting those comments. You know, certainly you and I crossed paths many times on, on Friday nights of high school basketball, high school football.

0:05:13 - (Nabil Shaheen): So that as, as time went on really proved to be far more essential than it previously was because you're no longer waiting till Saturday morning to get the newspaper and see what the score was. You are in real time that night able to see that. So from there evolved to the Blade here in Toledo, where I spent four years kind of doing the same thing on the web desk, managing online news, editing stories before posting them.

0:05:41 - (Nabil Shaheen): Text message alerts of, you know, breaking news headlines or anything like that. And then again, refreshing the website or the social media channels and posting stories and again just trying to engage comments at the Blade. It really grew kind of a citizen helped journalism. I can remember like a few times during the great Lake Erie water crisis. Oh yeah, in 2014, a few snowstorms that we had, you know, in 15 and 16 as well, just creating this page where we promoted this hashtag that people can use and then on their social media feeds they would use that hashtag.

0:06:21 - (Nabil Shaheen): We would find those and kind of bring those to our website. And it was kind of like a really a citizen journalism driven type of thing. Just seeing the very entertaining things that people were doing that, you know, we as professional journalists could not say, but was made it very entertaining. And then out of that, just as the way newspapers went and the way just, you know, my career went, I wanted to, you know, get out of newspapers, but really stay in the communication and content and writing realms. Moved into a digital marketing type of role at a local company here in Toledo that was doing national, national business. And that was, you know, especially in a competitive space.

0:07:05 - (Nabil Shaheen): So this place sold restaurant equipment. And a competitive space like that, really that's what's separating you is how are you engaging with customer, how are you humanizing the business and that there are human beings here ready to take care of your needs. So evolved into that type of role, did that another company as well before finding this job here at the board of dd, which has been just a perfect blend of those old journalism roots that I had with the marketing and branding element that I had just come from as well.

0:07:37 - (Doug Jenkins): So I think what's. I think an area where people get afraid to really develop their, their social media posts is managing it can be an issue because of the comments that can be left. And you especially having run the comments and an engagement for social media with the newspaper, probably know that way more than anybody else. But I think for the average business, you are not actually running into that type of negativity.

0:08:04 - (Doug Jenkins): In fact, the opposite is almost true where it's. Sometimes I think you can get discouraged because you're not seeing the likes and the comments on your posts. What type of mindset do you have to have when you go into it?

0:08:17 - (Nabil Shaheen): Thick skin, for sure. It is, it is. You're right. It is an echo chamber that the instantaneous likes makes you feel like you're, you're way better than you, than you probably are, than you think you are. And the instantaneous no engagement also is probably not as, you know, end of the world as it seems either, particularly when you're just getting going or just building that business. Certainly a place like the Blade or the Courier or these, you know, major, major outlets in town that have been around, you know, forever and have that branding, whether online or through the traditional medium, the engagement and the type of people and the type of stories obviously are, are soliciting different kind of conversations. But I think for, for a local business, really, it's just establishing yourself no matter what those, what those comments are. And a lot of times, even if it's a negative comment, really, it's just, how did you handle it as that business? How did you respond to it? What does that say about you as your commitment to customer service?

0:09:17 - (Nabil Shaheen): What does that say about you as your commitment to your own business, to making sure you're always in the best light? And I think again, adds a little humanizing element that, that, that is lacking today.

0:09:30 - (Doug Jenkins): One of the bigger issues, I think, is that if you don't have that social media presence, if you don't have a website, even just a small website, is there's a credibility issue. But there's also. Is this place open? I don't really, I don't understand as much about that business that doesn't have those things going as I do about a business that just. Even if they're doing like one post a week and they have just a small website, all right, there's a little bit more legitimacy to that. Whether it's true or not. That's kind of how our mind works.

0:10:03 - (Nabil Shaheen): Yep, 100%. And I think that, I mean, even, even if there Are no posts or you're not posting every day. Just if you have something that I'm googling your name and I can see it's a 409 area code. It's a local email. It's. I can. I can establish, okay, this place is legit. But furthermore I think through the Through Google and through Google My business you don't need to buy a major website platform. Just through Google My business will give you a basic website that you can set up.

0:10:34 - (Nabil Shaheen): And through Google My business you can get exactly what you alluded to. I'm closed on this day. I'm closing early on this day. My hours are this. Our place of business has these amenities that others don't or anything like that. It takes a little bit of light work I think at the beginning. But I think once those are in place it's really going to go a long way for your visibility online, for your visibility of those that are coming to your actual store when doing some research on you on their way there or even just finding where your store is through Google Maps or whatever GPS they're using.

0:11:09 - (Nabil Shaheen): Yeah.

0:11:09 - (Doug Jenkins): And the Google my Business is a very good point because that is one. They're going to give you that tool and it's way more legitimate than say back when the Internet first started. I'm going to have a business website and I'm going to put it on GeoCities or something like that. Yeah. Way back at the beginning of the Internet I've got my angel fire website with my flaming skull gifts. Back then having that free website was probably not. It didn't lend itself to credibility for your business.

0:11:40 - (Doug Jenkins): But if you're working through Google you're going to be in those search listings like you said, maintaining those hours doing those types of things. One it's great for search engine optimization but again I just want to focus on the credibility today. That's just a huge tool and it's. Yeah, it takes a little bit of legwork. But from the work that we've done with some Google things here, it's not as much legwork I think as people think. But if you overlook it, you really, really could be hurting yourself.

0:12:06 - (Nabil Shaheen): 100 obviously everyone on earth is using Google as their search engine. And so obviously Google is going to want to promote its product. And so when you're searching that name, I'm sure you know way more weight is going to be given to the. To the Google my business listing.

0:12:23 - (Doug Jenkins): Not everybody needs a podcast, obviously. Although it does feel like some people that everybody has a podcast. This Day and age. We were talking before we started recording here. And you're doing a couple of podcasts there at the Board of Developmental Disabilities in Lucas County. We have our podcast here. Obviously, at first when we were talking about the idea of a podcast here at the chamber, I'm like, it's probably a limited audience, but let's, let's give it a shot.

0:12:48 - (Doug Jenkins): But then as we got into it, I realized that it wasn't so much about having, like, I, you know, here's a news flash. We don't get quite as many listeners to say, like a Joe Rogan or something like that, but it is information that, one, it's just out there and it's available. But two, I can. If somebody asks me, hey, I'm just, you know, I'm struggling putting together a web presence. What do I need to know? I can just send them a link to this podcast that you and I are doing, and.

0:13:15 - (Doug Jenkins): And it's another tool that we're able to provide our members. When I started thinking about it that way, I started thinking, actually, I think more people might need a podcast. I'm curious on what your thoughts about that are.

0:13:27 - (Nabil Shaheen): I am all for it. And I, we were kind of talking just. I mean, it runs the gamut of what is available to make a podcast. And you can spend as much time or as much money or as little time, as little money as you want to make it. But to me, it's. It's another avenue. And I think, you know, whether in my days as a journalist, in my days as a marketer, in my days, you know, now in public relations, it's always, for me, the biggest thing has just been, how do you humanize, how am I going to humanize this story? How am I going to humanize this football game? How do I humanize this commercial refrigerator the restaurant needs? It's not so much the commercial refrigerator. It's like you have a pain point in your kitchen and this refrigerator. So people can relate to the pain point in the kitchen much more so than can relate to the $5,000, excuse me, refrigerator.

0:14:13 - (Nabil Shaheen): And so for us here at the board starting this podcast, I think just government agencies in general come with their own stereotypes, if you will, of what a government agency is or a government agency does. And I think this is just big time humanizing of you are. We are human beings. Yes, we are government workers, but we are also human beings that like to laugh and like to tell stories. And, you know, we're not just here when, when you're in trouble. Or, you know, we're not just here for compliance.

0:14:42 - (Nabil Shaheen): It really goes a long way in humanizing you. And certainly, you know, in an, in an age of limited human interaction, this really is a great way to have a face and a voice and, and a human engagement element to it. So, you know, for us, I, you know, we're kind of talking. We started this internal podcast, you know, for us, there's about 300 of us here across two buildings. Not all of us are here every day. Some people out in the field with individuals, some people are working from home, some people are in the office. So we don't really get to see each other. And so to spend 20, 30 minutes of just getting to know your colleague, getting to know their background, getting to know, you know, their hobbies that you might, you didn't know you shared that hobby with them really has gone a long way. And then, same thing with our, our external one.

0:15:28 - (Nabil Shaheen): We bring in different people to talk to, including, you know, individuals, disabilities that have had successes in the community and as a publicly funded agency, you know, again, humanizing this individual disability, humanizing our work, I think is going to go a long way in, when and if that time comes that, you know, we, we need voter support, hopefully they're. That's already top of mind of the successes that we're having and the, and the human elements of the humans that we're serving.

0:15:58 - (Doug Jenkins): So obviously, a theme keeps coming up here is humanizing things. And whether it's a government agency or whether it's I sell refrigerators or it's a restaurant, whatever it is, that seems to be a very, very important part of it. So let's get real practical here for a second. Let's, let's say I do construction. How do I say, okay, I'm building somebody a deck, and so I do light construction, maybe some handiwork, something like that.

0:16:26 - (Doug Jenkins): How do I take pictures of this deck project that I'm working on and make that more. How do I humanize that? How do I make that more of something that people emotionally get vested in.

0:16:38 - (Nabil Shaheen): I would start with the before photo or even if there's no photos available, just the story of a. Your deck's been worn out forever, you've been talking about upgrading it forever, you've been talking about wanting one, and now it's actually become a hazard that there's, you know, splinters in wood or, you know, your kid is running out barefoot on it. Now is the time. And I, you know, as the most reliable company here in town, I can guarantee you, my work. I can guarantee you I'll be on time, on budget, and I can deliver you, you know, the deck that you've always been talking about. So and.

0:17:14 - (Nabil Shaheen): And the conversation and move on to taking action with my company. You know, again, we've all had that conversation, right, of how you can improve your backyard or something someday. Be nice to sit and whatever. That's the humanizing element beyond what the product is, what type of wood it is, what type of, you know, machinery I'm using to install it. I think that's where I would start because everybody can connect to that. I can't connect. I don't know. I.

0:17:39 - (Nabil Shaheen): If I walk to Home Depot, my eyes glaze over because I have no idea where or when or how or any of that. But I can relate with having conversations with my wife about, boy, it'd be nice in the backyard to make someday make it, you know, like this.

0:17:52 - (Doug Jenkins): And you can do that for. Maybe you make ball bearings. You can do that for that. Maybe you don't need to tell a humanizing story about your ball bearings every single day. But if you put a post out a week, just about, hey, help this client out on this project. Here's how that type of thing and this is how we were able to use their paint pain points just that time to make one post a week is time well spent because again, shows that you were able to help them out. Two, it also shows, hey, we're in operation. You can see that there's a consistent pattern of putting out information here on our social media.

0:18:28 - (Nabil Shaheen): And you know, Doug, we're both communications professionals and I think this is a sensitive topic for some communications professionals. But the use of. Yes, no, no, no quotes, no quotes, no air quotes. We lost our hair getting to this point, so we don't need quotes anymore. No. But, you know, a huge, A huge bonus that I've initially was just made my skin crawl and now it's like, man, there is some real potential here.

0:18:55 - (Nabil Shaheen): Is any sort of AI technology that, that you can utilize just in making a post and you can even as simply as that, my business makes ball bearings. Help me write a humanizing post about it. It will knock out. It's not going to be perfect, but it will definitely do the job of what you need or at least give you a starting point to what your brain needs to be thinking about of how to present that case and whether that's an actual AI software, whether that's within the Facebook element of just helping with AI or whatever.

0:19:25 - (Nabil Shaheen): A lot of really Great options out there that can really help you at least get, get your feet, get your feet wet and get the, get that content posted.

0:19:35 - (Doug Jenkins): Most definitely. And I know that I've used that a lot of times. I always tell people that AI is like, I love it at the end of a long day. I need to get some emails out. I have the thoughts in my head of what I want to be in that email, but I'm really struggling to put the email together. So I just type the stream of thought into ChatGPT or Galaxy or whatever and have it come up with the bones of it. For me. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's pretty close to what I wanted to say. And then make some edits and, and then move on. I mean, you could obviously do that pretty easily for, for social media.

0:20:05 - (Doug Jenkins): So we're running into like, I don't know, the 17th minute of this interview. So before we go too long on it, I just. Let's talk career advice. We like to do that on the, the podcast as well. And, and you and I have both obviously made big career changes over the. Starting in media and ending up where we are now. What was your moment when you decided to make the change from being in that day to day journalism to, you know what, there's just something else I want to do. But then also being able to retain those skills that you had developed over years and years of practice.

0:20:40 - (Nabil Shaheen): Man, that's a good question.

0:20:41 - (Doug Jenkins): I aim for one good question. A podcast. We got there.

0:20:47 - (Nabil Shaheen): You know, I wish it was like, and aha, you know, in this moment, this one thought, this one thing for me, honestly, it was just particularly, you know, as, as information consumption evolved into a 24 hour, you know, you got to be first.

0:21:10 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah.

0:21:11 - (Nabil Shaheen): All of that stuff that I, you know, I'm sure, you know, went through in your previous life. For me, just, you know, having, having gotten married and like wanting to start a family, it's like this, the schedule is not sustainable. You know, the state of newspapers is not what it used to be. But I, but I still value the written word. I still value content. I still value that humanizing piece that I had as a reporter and then as an editor of, you know, how do you humanize those stories? And so I think that was a great skill set that I knew I could take elsewhere. Just how could I, how could I package that into like, yes, I don't have marketing experience, but I do have how to write, how to engage with the audience, how, how to use the voice, how to, how to do that. Kind of thing. And so, and growing up and certainly I'm sure it is way different now, but you know, going to college and you know, college, newspapers in college, all the, all the media I did for that and then coming out, it just seemed like it was such a, like you're going to be a print journalist for rest of your life and you're going to be a video journalist for the rest of your life and you're going to be a radio person for rest of your life.

0:22:20 - (Nabil Shaheen): Never being sold. Like you're gaining lifelong skills that if you can write or if you know how to communicate, like you're going to walk into any room, into any business and be of value to that business and that organization in some capacity. It's just how do you package it to be able to, you know, convince, convince that person. So when I made that switch, like it really did feel like, you know, betraying my past or betraying my fellow journalists or you know, things like that. But, but you get to it and then you realize you're, you're doing the same thing, right? You're trying to engage your audience, inform your audience, you know, keep them, keep them abreast of everything, everything happening and everything we, we have to, to offer. And you're kind of doing the same thing just in a, in a slightly different, different ways. So it was once like those initial pains went away.

0:23:11 - (Nabil Shaheen): You do realize that really you're, you're just utilizing your gift in a different way. You were utilizing it in a newspaper and now you're utilizing it to help tell the story of the board, to help put on a press conference, anything like that.

0:23:27 - (Doug Jenkins): Well, to be able. I appreciate your time today. Kept you for way longer than I probably should have. But, well, you and I get together and talking and this is what tends to be what happens. So thank you for joining us today. A lot of good advice and hopefully it gives people some jumping off points for maybe how they can better manage their web presence moving forward.

0:23:46 - (Nabil Shaheen): Appreciate the opportunity to be here, Doug, and you know, catch up with you again. And hopefully your audience gained something from my ramblings here.

0:23:58 - (Doug Jenkins): I cannot stress enough the importance, importance of having a well maintained web presence. That's your social media, that's a website, that's maintaining your Google profile. And I know it can sound like a lot and sometimes we don't have a ton of time to dedicate those. Again, it's a post a week, something like that can be very, very helpful in establishing the credibility of your business. So definitely something to consider after listening to today's episode.

0:24:24 - (Doug Jenkins): Remember, we're going to be here on Tuesdays going forward, so just subscribe. It'll show up in your podcast player of choice, Chamber Amplified. You hit subscribe. It'll be there. You don't have to worry about what day we release that way. Chamber Amplified Again is a free podcast for the community thanks to the investment of members in the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. Because of our robust membership, we're able to focus on providing timely information to the Findlay and Hancock county business community, run leadership programs for adults and teenagers, and be an advocate for the area.

0:24:55 - (Doug Jenkins): That's all while providing tools to help local businesses succeed. If that sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, well, let me know. We'll talk about how an investment in the Chamber not only strengthens your business, but the community as a whole. That'll do it for this week's episode. If you have any ideas for topics you'd like to hear covered in the future, just send me an email. Djenkinsinlahancockchamber.com

0:25:15 - (Doug Jenkins): thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time on Chamber Amplified from the Findlay Hancock County Church Chamber of Commerce.