Business Owner's Guide (FAQ)

How can I get my business listed on The New Hanoian? What does it cost?

Any business that respects our site policies and is located in Hanoi can have itself listed on The New Hanoian. In fact, you can list the site yourself. In the footer of any page, you will see an "Add a Business to the Directory" link. This link will take you to the business entry page. Here, you can add all the essential information about your business, including its name, contact information, map location, and a business type. After submitting this information, you will be prompted to add images to the page. These are the images that will appear in your page's slide show. You can enter as many as you wish and add a caption to each. Finally, you will be taken to a "review" page. As the owner/manager of this business, you will probably want to skip this step and proceed to the newly entered page. If, however, you decide that you want to write a review of your own page, then you need to carefully read the site's review writing policies and guidelines before doing so. This can be a very risky choice, so make it carefully. Once this is finished, you are now listed on The New Hanoian. This basic listing is absolutely free. Welcome, and good luck.

As a business owner or manager, am I allowed to review my own business?

We DO allow a business owner or manager to enter ONE review of their own business, but you must proceed with caution. Just because we allow you to do so, it does not mean that you should do so. In fact, our general recommendation is that you resist the temptation to do so. When weighing your options, there are several things to consider:

The New Hanoian community of users may not appreciate your choice to review your own business. Even though you are formally allowed to make such a post, many users in our community will feel that such an entry has little positive impact on their feelings about your place, and may, in fact, lead them to feel that you are trying to pad your overall rating. They may feel that other community members either do not feel your business worth reviewing or that they would review it at a much lower level. Consider this possible interpretation carefully before deciding to post a review.
Should you choose to post a review of your own business, you must fully disclose your relationship to the business in question in the text of the review. When writing your review, you must fully tell the community exactly who you are and what you do for that business. If you own it, say that you are the owner. If you are a PR Manager, say as much. Simply providing such information on your profile page or referring to the business as "we" in the review is not sufficient. Make it very, very clear. Say it directly.
Do not try to covertly review your own place yourself or have staff, friends, or family do so. Of course your friends and family probably patronize your establishment, but know that the sort of vague platitudes they may write in praise of your efforts are likely to be interpreted as shilling by our users. You may think it will be a clever way to get some good reviews on your page, but they backfire the vast majority of the time. In fact, they frequently backfire quite spectacularly. Taking this approach can lead to your business' reputation on the site being irreparably damaged.
Encourage your regular customers and patrons to visit your page on the site and leave their thoughts about their experiences there. This is the best way to get some reviews flowing onto your page. Encourage them to be completely honest and thorough. If they write well about both the upsides and downsides of your place, people are going to take the review seriously and give real consideration to whether or not it is a good place for them. If it's all glowing talk with little detail, they're likely to ignore it or worse.

I have followed the business entry process, but now I can't find my business on the relevant category's page. What did I do wrong?

Nothing. When you or any other community member enters a new business into the site, it does not immediately become fully visible like all other businesses. Initially, it will be listed with an "unverified" status. This is an indication to our community that the business has been entered by someone other than a New Hanoian staff member. While having this "unverified" status, it is accessible through site searches, and members of the New Hanoian community can write reviews of it. However, it won't appear on its respective category pages or be eligible for Top Spots ranking until a New Hanoian staffer has had time to visit the business and verify all the essential details of the listing. If your business' listing on the site is a particularly urgent case, you can email us at sales@newhanoian.com in order to set up a meeting where a staff member can verify your entry and help you understand your options on the site.

Somebody has enter my business onto the site site, but some of the basic information is incorrect. How can I update it?

For simple changes to your page, you can contact the site administrators at info@newhanoian.com with your request. However, if you'd like to take a more active role in managing the content of your page, then a premium commercial account might be the best option for you. To sit down and discuss our premium commercial accounts and how they might work for you, please contact us at sales@newhanoian.com.

What does a Premium Commercial Account allow me to do and how much does it cost?

A premium commercial account has many advantages over the basic free listing on the site. Those advantages can be divided into two main categories. The first concerns an upgrade of your business' visual appearance on the site. The second takes you from being a passive entity listed on the site and makes you an active community member capable of managing your relationship with those community members who have shown an interest in your business.

Appearance Upgrades

Logo Inclusion: Those businesses with premium commercial accounts will be allowed to attach a logo to their business' entry. This logo will appear whenever your business appears on a list, such as search results or a category page. The inclusion of this logo is both eye catching and an indication of the professionalism of your operation. It allows users to make a quick, subconscious association of your listing with whatever other marketing campaigns you develop, as well as helps you to immediately distinguish yourself from other text listings that may appear adjacent to your own.
Sponsored Link Placement: Your premium commercial account will give you additional site exposure by placing sponsored links on the pages of those businesses which do not have such an account. A link with your business name, address, phone number, user rating, and a short description will appear (with other such businesses with premium commercial accounts) on the pages of businesses within the same categories as you are listed. Additionally, having such an account will prevent other businesses from being listed on YOUR page. These two factors work to give you a significant advantage over those businesses without the premium commercial account.
Additional Map Information: Our interactive map of Hanoi appears at various points around our site. When users move their cursor over a particular map point, a pop up window appears that gives information on the business represented by that point. Businesses without a premium commercial account will only have their name, address, and user rating appear. Those businesses with a premium commercial account, however, will have their name, address, and user rating appear along with their logo, a short description of the business, and written directions to their location. As the map becomes more and more integrated into the site, it is essential that one's business appear on it in as appealing a way as possible.

Page Management Upgrades

Business Info Editing: With a premium account, a business can make quick and easy changes to the basic information listed on their page. This includes changes of contact information or business description. It will all be in your hands.
Event Posting: With a premium account, businesses will be able to post events both to their own page, and to the general event calendar. Get the word out about what you've got going on.
Image Management: Each business entered into The New Hanoian has a slide show of images that appears on its main page. Businesses with premium accounts will have the ability to manage their own images and distinguish them from those images uploaded by general users of the site. This can be crucial for you to establish the business image you desire on the site.
Business Log Posting: Businesses with premium accounts will be able to post regular business logs ("Bizlogs") that provide information updates about recent developments around your business. This adds a personal touch to your page, and allows you to get the word out about those things which don't necessarily have a place elsewhere on your page.
Updates for your Adoring Public: Based on previous site activity, The New Hanoian is able to determine which users have shown significant interest in your business. This allows us to automatically update those site members whenever you post new information in the form of bizlog or event. This ensures that those New Hanoian members most inclined to visit your business will always be kept aware of your activities and developments.

Additional Perks

Businesses with premium accounts are also eligible for participation in other New Hanoian community activities like the sponsorship of User Contribution Prizes and the hosting of our regular Meet Ups of site users. These activities are great ways to get the word out about yourself in Hanoi, but only those businesses with premium accounts will be considered.

Those businesses looking to take command of their New Hanoian experience can get their premium account started in a matter of days for as little as 40 USD per month. To get your account set up, contact The New Hanoian at sales@newhanoian.com.

What are the User Contribution Prizes and how do I go about sponsoring one?

The User Contribution Prizes are our way of giving back to the community of users that make this site go. As a collection of user contributed information, The New Hanoian would be nothing without their outstanding work. Accordingly, we want to reward those site members who best exemplify the sort of community member who help to make the site great. These prizes come from area businesses who would like to both reward the community and get the word out about their business. To begin, any business who is interested in sponsoring a prize must first have a premium account on The New Hanoian. Next, they need to contact us (sales@newhanoian.com) to set up a meeting to discuss their potential prize. If a prize is agreed upon, we will then announce its availability in both our bi-monthly newsletter and on the site itself. This is typically done in the middle of the month for which the prize will be given. The winner is announced just after the end of the month. This newsletter goes out to all registered members of The New Hanoian and provides a great way to gain exposure for your business. No payment to The New Hanoian is required, but we only accept those prizes which we feel will be a benefit to both the community and the business sponsoring the prize. A few guidelines can help you get started on thinking about what kind of prize you might want to offer:

The prize package must be 100 percent free. We do not accept any discount vouchers as prizes. In order to qualify as an acceptable prize, our winning community member must be able to walk into your business and claim the prize without spending so much as a single Dong on that visit. Of course, should they choose to purchase additional items or services over-and-above what the prize entails, they may do so. The prize itself, however, will be free.
Though there will only be a single winner for the prize you sponsor, it should be for multiple people. A quality prize allows the winner to brings friends and colleagues along for the experience. The joy of winning and the number of people they will tell about it (and thus your business as well) is greatly reduced if the prize experience is a solo one. Treat the winner and his or her friends to a great experience, and the excitement for the prize will be far greater.
Don't focus on cash value. We've had prizes that ranged from $200 to $20 and that number is never what made them an effective or ineffective prize. You have to come up with something that is creative and exciting for the community to take notice of. Of course, as a business owner, you have to determine the value of this prize relative to the amount of exposure you will get. However, it is key that you find a way to accentuate what you are giving and not the budgeting you are doing.
Be sure that the prize effectively expresses what is unique and attention worthy about your business. This and the previous point are the main reasons that we discourage the offering of simple gift certificates as prizes. Sure, they would allow the winner a great deal of flexibility in their choice of prize, but they do little to express the nature of your business, and, frankly, they are boring. Your prize should be a wide ranging affair that covers all the aspects of the products and services you have on offer. Think of them as a guided tour of your business and lavish the full experience on the winner. This is the sort of thing that grabs the eye and gets people talking.
Don't be stingy. This is your chance to make a splash. We don't not accept payment for these prizes because we want you to invest all the funds you've set aside for this particular promotion into the prize itself. If you come to us with a weak prize, we will reject it because it will neither create enough excitement in our community to encourage the continued level of contributions that we are so thankful for, nor will it draw enough attention to really help your business. It would be a waste of time and money.

Keep these things in mind, and make us an offer. We're always happy to entertain such offers. But remember: once you have sponsored a prize, we're not likely to be offering you a chance to do it again for a very long time. We like to keep things fresh and give as many businesses as possible a chance to add some spice to the New Hanoian experience. It will likely be more than a year before you have another such chance. Make the most of it.

What is a New Hanoian Meet Up, and can I host one?

New Hanoian Meet Ups are our regular gatherings of site users. We all get together, eat and drink a bit, put a face to the username, and generally have a great time. Any registered member of The New Hanoian can attend these functions, and we frequently have computers on hand to sign up new members. These events are a great way for all of us to get to know each other and to reinforce the significance of being a New Hanoian member.

As a business owner, they are potentially a great opportunity for you as well. If you have a venue capable of holding between 200 and 300 people, you might be a candidate for a Meet Up. To qualify as a Meet Up host, you need to be prepared to offer the New Hanoian community of users three hours of complimentary fun. The minimum for this is three hours of free beer and soft drinks for all attendees. The way things are going however, the minimum is not likely to be enough to get a Meet Up at your place. The demand for these events is growing. The reason the demand is growing is that they are a one-of-a-kind way to announce that you are serious about being a big time destination in the Hanoi nightlife scene. Not only is the event announced at least twice in installments of our newsletter, but you have an opportunity to bring Hanoi's most active community of party goers to your place. It can be a make or break opportunity to show them what your establishment is all about.

If you're properly prepared and pull off a smooth-running night of revelry, the word will be out that your place is one to check out. To do this effectively and to compete with the many other places that are interested in hosting a meet up, you may want to go beyond the minimum of three hours of free beer as your offer. Here are some guidelines to consider that can both help you ensure you will be selected as a host and that will aid you in getting the most out of your big night.

Show off. While you've got this massive crowd of fun loving folks in your place, show them all you can do. If you're a wine and dine sort of establishment, you don't want to brand your experience with just beer. Think of ways to incorporate your primary attractions into the event itself. From both the point of view of attendee experience at the event and for how we describe the upcoming event in the newsletter, you want people to understand what it is you really do in Hanoi. If you're a cocktail bar, get the spirits flowing. If you plan to be a live music venue, you would be greatly remiss to not have a band on the night of the event. Make the proper impression.
Show respect to elite members of the New Hanoian community. In setting up the event, we will provide you with ways to distinguish those members of the site who are the most outstanding contributors. Go above and beyond for them at the event. We recommend giving them a higher class of complimentary service and product on the night of the event. If the general attendees get beer and finger food, for example, offer the elite users open bar or perhaps some wine options. This has several advantages. One, it allows you to make more of your overall services and products seen during the event by offering them to a highly visible group of attendees without incurring the expense of providing them for all. Two, it also allows us to describe this aspect of your offer (and thus your business) in the newsletter announcing the event. Finally, these elite users are also the very New Hanoian members that you want visiting and reviewing your establishment. Due to their past contributions to the site, people pay attention to what these users write. They are more than just your average individual in Hanoi. Show them a great time, get them back to your business, and give them a reason to write about you.
Use the evening to promote future events and activities. Remember that you've got this group there like a captive audience for the night. Have some future events and activities planned that you can be promoting. Pass this information on to them while you've got them in your place and predisposed to thinking positively about it. Sow some seeds for why they should return.
Make sure your other for-pay services and products are still plenty accessible amidst an overflow crowd. Those Meet Up hosts who properly plan their event often find that they can manage to break even on the night, or even make money, despite having offered so much to so many for free. If you're giving out beer and cocktails on your big night, have a menu of food specials for the evening in plain sight around your place. You'll find that many people are eager to order some food as things go. Make sure the menu is of things that can be easily served and enjoyed in the crowd you're likely to have. Don't expect your usual service routines to be appropriate. If you can get things ready to function quickly and effectively in this context, you'll find yourself doing a roaring trade all night. If you do this well, and all your other things are taken care of, the gathered crowd will end up sticking around and paying for drinks well past the end of the complimentary drinking period. If there's truly a party atmosphere in place, nobody is going to want to leave. Don't give them a reason to need to.

If done properly, this can end up being one of the least expensive and most effective promotions you have ever organized.

We will be moving our business to a new location. How do I change the address of my business?

The addresses for a given business entry on our site are not changed when a business is moved. Rather, the entry for you business is given a "moved" status. The entry will remain on the site in case anyone with outdated information is trying to locate your business and can't understand why it is not where they heard it would be. This will give them a definitive answer as to what has happened. Once the business' entry has had its status changed to "moved", a new entry can be created for the new location. The review for that old entry will remain with the previous entry and the new entry will be starting fresh. It is a good time to encourage your regular customers who have followed you to the new location to visit your page and review it. Once word is out about the new location, people will be eager to check it out. If you have a premium account with us, that subscription can be transferred to the new location.

Now that my business is listed on the site, I'm beginning to get some reviews. What is the best way for me to respond to those?

Getting those first reviews can be a nerve wracking time, be they positive or negative. The main thing to remember is to stay calm and take a broad view of things. No single review for no single business will every be the difference between success and failure. Different people have different expectations and standards, and thus, they will have different feelings about your place of business. While everybody loves to get positive reviews, the most important thing that can happen in a review is that the reviewer provides future visitors to your page additional information about what your business is all about. One person's two star review can end up being another's five star experience if that first review provided enough information for them to judge the place in terms of their own taste. The key is not to overreact. When you're feeling a bit tense about user impressions that are out there for anyone to read, keep a few simple things in mind:

Don't overreact to any single review. Of course every customer's experience is important to you, but when considering the impact of a review on your potential customers' feelings about your place, take a deep breath. Our users are smart people. They understand that not everybody is impressed with the same things. They expect differences of opinion and are more interested in the information the reviews provide. One user's two star review will read like a five star review to somebody else.
Don't argue with users who have reviewed your business. One of the most devastating things a business owner or manager can do is lose his or her temper in a "counter-review". It only makes you look defensive and immature. It will not help your image. It is, in fact, more damaging than any negative review could be. Show some class.
Make ample use of our private messaging system. The New Hanoian has its own internal messaging system that allows users of the site to communicate with one another. This is a potentially powerful tool for any business owner in Hanoi. First, you need to sign up for a user account that clearly states you are the owner/manager of your business. Then, use that account to interact with the users who have reviewed your business. Thank those who had kind words to say, and find out more from those who were disappointed. Just be sure to keep your tone professional. Again, take a deep breath. Lashing out at a reviewer, even on our private messaging system, will do more harm than good. Treat them with respect and they may give your business a second chance. If you feel that a user's review violates the site's reviewing policies and standards, contact us. You can do this by either flagging the review by clicking on the "inappropriate" link above the review (while you are signed in), or by email us at editor@newhanoian.com. We will look into the post and get back to you about the best way to proceed.