Who doesn’t love being nominated for an award, particularly when it’s in the innovation category? We’re in the final 5 of the Irish Web Awards Most Innovative Website and we’re smugger than the smuggest company in Smugtown.

The awards are on this Saturday in the Mansion House. Go now to the list of finalists in all categories and don’t just read the list, click through on all the ones you don’t know.

Last year’s Hotel Website Marketing Conference was a superb event. I spoke on the value of customer reviews but I learned 10x that from the other speakers on all of the online marketing (and other) challenges/opportunities being faced by hotels.

Ciarán and the team have outdone themselves this year with the speaker line-up. As we just couldn’t miss it, we’ve decided to exhibit there too. Keep an eye out for the LouderVoice stand and pop over for a chat. We can tell you how these businesses and others in the the hospitality industry are benefiting from customer reviews and how your hotel could too.

We have just added a new Facebook capability for all of our customers. They can now show all their latest reviews in a dedicated “Our Reviews” tab on their Facebook Page. Whilst our Facebook Connect implementation has always given reviewers the ability to post their reviews to their personal wall, this new feature enables our clients to showcase their reviews from all their products and services in one place.

Now a simple review written on a client’s site or submitted by SMS can appear on their Facebook Page within minutes, building confidence and guiding others who want to know more about that business. Fundamentally it’s about selling by word of mouth.

There is a fantastic block of stats about consumer reviews over on Search Engine People. If you are wondering why this is such a strong growth area, wonder no longer!

A few of their gems:

1. 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust unknown users, 27% trust experts, 14% trust advertising, 8% trust celebrities (Econsultancy, July 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics)
2. 70% consult reviews or ratings before purchasing (BusinessWeek, Oct. 2008)
3. 7 in 10 who read reviews share them with friends, family & colleagues thus amplifying their impact (Deloitte & Touche, Sept. 2007)
4. 45% say they are influenced a fair amount or a great deal by reviews on social sites from people they follow (46% say reviews in newspaper or magazine influence them.) (Harris Poll, April 2010)

Thanks to Richard Hearne, SEO god from Red Cardinal for the link.

Business books will be written about the amazing story of the new Fastnet Line Ferry to Ireland. This much needed service operating from Swansea to Cork is proving to be a major success for the region. So you can imagine our excitement at LouderVoice becoming part of this story by powering the customer reviews on their site.

Whilst reviews are important for any business, their importance to new businesses cannot be under-estimated. The response from travellers has been phenomenal since reviews were turned on last week. The unique direct feedback has enabled Fastnet Line to immediately discover what is working very well and what can potentially be changed or improved.

Head on over to Krishna De’s site to learn how you can get the LouderVoice Standard Package (normally €49+VAT per month) for free for a whole year!

Having customer reviews on your site has moved from nice-to-have or cutting-edge to something you simply must have to compete online.

We are often asked what types of business are most suited to reviews. Our answer is “all of them”! LouderVoice recently went live with a UK site called Parcel2Ship which offers a brilliantly simple but powerful service. They have aggregated all the parcel and document delivery services so that you just enter a destination and package size and they show you all the options and prices available.

If only we had known about the service when we were going to Internet World in London in May! We bounced from site to site to site trying to find the best price/delivery combination. Parcel2Ship would have saved us hours of effort and stress.

The hospitality industry is a big focus for LouderVoice at the moment. Hotels have long led the way in their use of technology to grow sales and build stronger relationships with their customers.

West Cork Hotel is based in Skibbereen in Co Cork and has been doing an amazing job with revamping every aspect of the business and then getting that message out to the world through Facebook and Twitter.

If you picked up one of our special Internet World show-offer flyers last week in Earl’s Court, you can easily sign-up with us now.

Just fill out this form here and quote the discount code and we’ll get you setup at the reduced rate.

Want to know what LouderVoice can do for your business? Got 2 minutes? Watch this speedy screencast by Karl Llewellyn, our Head of Sales, to get all the important facts.

LouderVoice 1,2,3 from Conor O’Neill on Vimeo.