Local Viking

[kathleen.rhodes]

Does anyone have experience with Local Viking, Google My Business Post Scheduling & Management The webinar they recorded in September or October looks interesting.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Kathleen,

I don't know too much about it but I believe one of the owners (Mark) is the guy who was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article who talked about how they can create 3800 fake listings a day.

 

[TheDailySEM]

Yikes Joy! I will have to check that out. I do like Local Viking mainly for its GEOGRID local search feature. I use the tracking as well and some weekly reporting, but for the rest I like to do everything in GMB manually. I will tell you this, I have gotten a lot of clients by doing video reports using the Geo-Grid section. I go over here in a video Local Viking Review and it really is an awesome feature! Basically it will show a specific grid size over their location and where their GMB is ranking. So that good thing is if they are ranking say 10 for a specific term you can click on it and it will show who is ranking above them. Once they see their competition above them it is game over! They want to win and now you sell them on your service!

 

[JoyHawkins]

I agree that feature looks very cool. I've never used them but we use Places Scout and they also have this feature.

 

[Conor Treacy]

I believe HootSuite has something for doing Post Management on GMB profiles too. I remember looking at it a long time ago, but I never implemented it.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Their GEOGrid feature looks pretty similar to what Localfalcon has. If you're just using the Geogrid-type feature for sales/spot checks then I think Localfalcon is a little easier on the wallet. I'm not tracking day to day fluctuations, but just spot checking a few of the more competitive terms each month.

 

[Jackycham]

They talk a lot about their posting strategies ie. using EXIF location data and keywords to help rank. They seem to put a lot of weight on certain posting strategies that they have built functionality for (daisy chaining events and posts + EXIF Data). Does anyone have an opinion on whether they think that will work? Does anyone have any data on whether posts are worth it?

 

[hajnasiewicz]

We're using DBA Platform. Super fantastic for our needs!

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Jackycham in my experience, stuff like that sometimes can have short-term gains (you see minor ranking improvements) but it's not something I've ever seen stick long term.

 

[Tyson Downs]

I believe HootSuite has something for doing Post Management on GMB profiles too. I remember looking at it a long time ago, but I never implemented it.

Pretty sure they don't. We use Hootsuite and haven't ever seen that option in there. When I contacted them, they were clueless about GMB Posts, and thought I was referring to the old Google + Posts. I had to explain to their support the difference, and they said they don't do that.

 

[Rich Owings]

Looks like they do: App Directory - Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard - Hootsuite. It appears to be a free app add on.

 

[CarrieHill]

To test this out, I just connected the Sterling Sky GMB account with Hootsuite - I can view, and manage reviews, Q&A and Posts (and can post directly) from within my dashboard.

You have to add it as an APP to Hootsuite, but it's free - just go to the app directory in the sidebar and click install. Wade through the permission things you'll see with any management tool, and authorize the correct account. You can add multiple accounts - depending upon your Hootsuite subscription level.

One note - you cannot SCHEDULE posts. Also, you cannot manage chain location posts as Google doesn't allow that via the API (during COVID is an exception and everyone anticipates that will go away).

Here's what it looks like:

 

[chadkimball]

advantage of local viking is they can ranktrack in a grid (like localfalcon) for SABs

 

[CarrieHill]

advantage of local viking is they can ranktrack in a grid (like localfalcon) for SABs

I believe Local Falcon does this or will within the next few days/weeks:

New Local Rank Tracking Features for Local Falcon

Local Falcon's local rank tracking tools will be expanding to include SABs, white-label reporting and more. Read about the extensive feature upgrade here.

www.localfalcon.com

 

[bruce@brucejone]

I use Local Viking a little. The schedule a post or image, notification services and geogrid reporting features are nice.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Places Scout also does the grid tracking. Most major rank trackers do it now I imagine.