Floristry is an unusual industry, essentially for many florists someone else entirely manages your online brand on your behalf.
Whether this is a Petals Site or a directory site are you actually really in charge of your own online brand?
NO YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF YOUR BRAND!
The answer is no if you have a micro-site from petals you are NOT in control of your orders or your own brand. I’ve written about this way back in 2014:
https://www.flowerstoreinabox.com.au/blog/petals-micro-websites/
As the domains have been registered in your business name they are owned by you and you have the legal right to request that they hand over the domain name for you to use instead.
What do I need to be in control of my brand?
If you want to make sure that you are in full control of your brand you need to spend some time pulling together all the instances of your brand.
Domain Names
Start with your domain names, do you own them? What about the:
.com.au and .com versions?
If someone else has control of these contact them and request they give access to you.
If the .com version is available, purchase the domain name and have it pointed to your website.
Website
Is your website managed by yourself? Is it your website or is it a petals or other aggregator's website.
If it’s not your website you need to get a proper custom website for yourself.
Social Media
Have you set up your social media accounts? If not create an account on:
- Twitter (yes even through you might not use it it’s important YOU have control)
Google Business Listing
Make sure you are the owner of your Google business listing, for more details read our article here:
https://www.flowerstoreinabox.com.au/blog/most-important--seo/
Email Addresses
What is the email address they you use for your business, if it’s a Gmail or Interflora or other non business related email you need to swap your own “vanity” email at your business domain name.
Google your Business Name
When was the last time you googled your business name? Go to google now and start searching. If your find information about your business make sure it’s correct and up to date.
Check things like business hours, reviews and ratings
Set up a Google Alerts
Did you know that you can set up a Google alert in google that will email you every time a new page lists you or your business name? You can do so here:
https://www.google.com.au/alerts
Conclusion
It doesn’t take a lot of time to do these things but it’s important that YOU are in control of your own brand
