I love spring time. With its blue skies, apple blossoms and baseball games, spring is a time of renewal both outside and within our companies. That’s why I encourage you to sign up for the Diamond Certified Program. If you qualify, you can immediately start taking advantage of all the ways we can help your company blossom!

2012 Diamond Certified Directory
On April 2, more than 800,000 of these popular directories were mailed to homeowners with $75,000+ in household income, select local business owners, property and apartment managers, and insurance and real estate agents throughout the Greater Bay Area. If you qualify for Diamond Certified, your company’s full-page Diamond Certified Profile will presented in your county’s 2013 edition.

New Digital Program Introduced at Workshops for Company Owners
It was great seeing 100+ Diamond Certified company owners at our digital workshops in late March. We introduced attendees to a number of new components of the Diamond Certified Digital Program, which are absolutely free and designed to help improve digital performance. You can learn more at info.diamondcertified.info/digitalprogram.

Diamond Certified Company Report: If you qualify for Diamond Certified, you’ll turn more shoppers into buyers when this report is presented on our highly trafficked website. We’ll interview you, write articles about your company, and help you upload your photos, brochures, press releases and more.

Facebook & Twitter: Although you know you should be doing more to present your company in social media, we know you’re busy running your business and don’t necessarily have the expertise to consistently use Facebook and Twitter to grow your fan base. If you qualify for Diamond Certified, we’ll help you do that by setting up your account and automatically posting a Tip of the Day on your page!

Your Website: Consumers seek out and trust websites that contain expert advice. If you qualify for Diamond Certified, we’ll help you boost your website’s power by adding daily expert tips and an improved presentation of your Diamond Certified top-rated status.

Your Digital Checklist: Most company owners are too busy and don’t have the budget or expertise to evaluate their digital activities. If you qualify for Diamond Certified, we’ll advise you on how to set up analytics, conduct a review and create a custom digital checklist for your company.

Dave Flemming Talks Diamond Certified in all Giants Baseball Games
Last week, I met with Dave Flemming at KNBR studios to record new Diamond Certified spots for all San Francisco Giants games. I’m a big fan of Dave—he has the ability to eloquently describe live action and conjure up vivid images of the drama as it unfolds on the baseball diamond. So, instead of writing scripts for him to read, we sat down and he spoke extemporaneously on how he uses the Diamond Certified Directory and website to find top-rated local companies. More than 1 million Giants fans will hear the resulting commercials and sponsorships (more than 300 of each!) during every game this season.

Record TV Coverage in Q1, Website Gets Record Traffic From Google
We ran a record 2,919 Diamond Certified television spots on KTVU, KICU, KION, KCBA, and through Comcast: ESPN, Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area, USA, TNT, TBS, HGTV, Discovery, Fox News, MSNBC, History, Bravo, Comedy Central, AMC, Food Network, CNN, FX, Lifetime, TLC, A&E, E!, SyFy, Travel, Animal Planet, CNBC and Golf. The commercials have been very well received—they show families using Diamond Certified to find top-rated local companies, feature the Diamond Certified ratings charts and emphasize the Diamond Certified Performance Guarantee. You can watch all three commercials at www.diamondcertified.info.

Google loves Diamond Certified! In the past year, we’ve spent thousands of hours creating new expert articles on hundreds of consumer topics. Our average search ranking has since improved on more than 10,000 key search terms, and our ratings now show up as Google Review Stars on most company report searches. Organic search traffic from Google set a new record for diamondcertified.info in the first quarter with 140,253 page views.

By: Jim Stein, Founder/CEO of American Ratings Corporation, creators of the Diamond Certified Program.

You should follow me on twitter here: http://twitter.com/jimsteindc