Are you missing out on revenue opportunities by not helping your offline clients Yelp?

Can't wait to hear more after you do some investigation. I like the yelp model and as business owners begin to realize that PR either good or bad can go viral on the internet they are going to need people to show them the way.

Look forward to your insights on Yelp, Michael

Thanks for bringing this up

Good stuff, be interested to hear your results.

I read awhile back they they caught Yelp employees leaving bad reviews, or maybe only calling people with majority bad reviews?, and then telling them they needed to sign up or something...almost like a blackmail type deal. I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure the source was very credible, basically just exposing some of the inner "shadyness" going on over there.

They are HUGE in NorCal areas and even some SoCal areas out here too. Any restaraunt in a major metro BETTER be in there or they are for sure losing some business. Not sure about the smaller communities though, but hey it sure doesn't hurt.

- Jim

Yeah, that is EXACTLY the type of stuff I read in my web/marketing mags and blogs about them all the time, just kind of being "shady". At the end of the day, they can drive enormous amounts of local traffic in metro areas over time though, so they DO have some SOME "wagering" power I guess, just a very unprofessional approach IMO.

And I think that maybe that is what I read mostly about Bonnie, them convincing businesses with bad reviews to sign up for their paid stuff.

- Jim

Well I don't know about the marketing practices that they used to get started. They do address the negative review issue and even have stats on the community at large being weighted towards moderate to positive reviews.

Putting on my business analyst hat, I am really intrigued with their methods of "tribe building".

Major metro communities have an "Elite" core group that can only be joined by inside invitation. You are only asked to join after you've contributed to the community in meaningful ways with entertaining and engaging reviews. I was a member for about a month before I was invited to become an Elite member directly by the local community manager. Not necessarily going to get me anything special per se, but I have gotten a free meal from a local establishment that I already frequented regularly that got a good review from me.

Now this is where the interesting marketing comes into play. Each major metro area has a "community manager" that is a paid Yelp employee residing in the city. That manager coordinates the Elite core, and puts together events at local nightclubs, restaurants, etc... The events are invitation only to the Elite core, but each Elite member may invite 2 people to the event. In most cases there's free food and even free drinks... even alcoholic beverages! Other events include things like free tickets to comedy club events with A list acts... for example, in Cincinnati this weekend, the community manager is giving away free tix to see Pauley Shore at the Funnybone Comedy Club.

Thursday night we're having an event at a local, trendy coffee shop with a full food spread, premium beer provided by Christian Morelein, and a live folk/bluegrass band. All free... of course the venue gets the benefit of hosting the active sneezers who will say nice things about their establishment.

So now we have this "elite" group of people who get to do cool things as a "member's only" club, and all we have to do is review local business establishments. It's not limited to restaurants and clubs either... professional services, retail, even attractions and news media outlets.

Interesting way to build the membership base on the contributor side... seeding word of mouth through cool parties and events.

I do know that in my local market, the advertisers are the premium players in town who all get pretty good reviews anyway.

You know, I remember hearing about some Yelp scandals regarding some questionable business practices about reviews and such.

Eh, these things happen from time to time. It's the risks we take to enjoy a free market.

;-)

There's nothing to keep a competitor from panning a business hard on there under a troll account. No different than someone registering a troll account on WF and panning a competitive WSO offering (nawwww THAT never happens... lol).

I think what's in question is whether or not this was a company policy? Or the actions of a specific sales rep? Or even an effort by a business owner to capitalize upon an opportunity to create a transfer of wealth through legal action?

There are millions of businesses on Yelp. If the problem was so widespread, you'd think there would be more stories. But all it takes is a couple in print on the internet to blow things up a lot larger than they really are.

I don't know for sure either way - that's what due process is about. What I do know is that 1) trial lawyers are generally ****birds; 2) there are always two sides to a story; and 3) the last place you'll ever find the truth in a matter is a courtroom.

Anyway, I think it's still a solid resource for local business that merits a lot more exploration... and I'm enjoying the hell out of free beer.

What's the old saying?

You're not making any real money if someone isn't suing you.... or something like that...

I think the best policy is to use them to your advantage. Make sure all your clients have a complete profile, let customers know they can post reviews and ignore their sales staff when they call. Shady or not they are incredibly useful when used right!

Bonnie

Also, didn't Google try to buy Yelp a year or so ago? I'm wondering if they tried this because of the "social search" thing heating up, with the possibility of including "reviews" directly within the local SERPs and such...

I agree though, that they are obviously doing well and have basically trounced any of those other "review site" competitors in major metros I heard and saw a bit about over the years....idgoback, etc.....

- Jim

Okay here are some of my ideas...

1. Create a Yelp-based customer satisfaction program that gives a bonus or incentive to someone for posting a review on Yelp. The review can be verified, and requirements established like the reviewer needs to use their real photo on the account, etc... This could be developed for the business client and administered as a 3rd party with monthly reporting for a nominal fee.

2. Don't rely upon a Yelp community leader to hold a Yelp function. Hold a Yelp party anyway and invite Yelpers on the site, starting with those who have reviewed the establishment already. They also have a forum with topic threads that could be used to announce the party... BUT this is important!! Strict care must be used that it's all established and engineered by a 3rd party as Yelp is very strict about businesses self-promoting on the site. This, of course, creates revenue opportunity for consultants to function as an event marketing coordinator.... for a fee of course.

3. Use the Yelp business page to send people to a landing page instead of the site for a Yelp-specific promotion/list. This one is super easy to implement.

4. For existing businesses with negative or even average reviews, create a PR / customer satisfaction program to help them improve their service based on the complaints and reviews. This could involve a quality improvement program that is coupled with a marketing campaign to promote the improvement strategy... "You spoke... we listened..."

I'm sure I will think of 3 or 4 more.

I am going to make a couple of phone calls today and see if I can drum up a couple of case study opportunities.

But you can see, just this one site can spawn an entire chain of income opportunities for consultants who look at internet marketing as it really is... far more than selling backlinks in some questionable SEO program.

Awesome contribution Michael! I can definetly see those approaches helping A LOT of businesses.

Along with Yelp and others, I often use the collective social mentionings of the business / relevant mentionings on all of the local directory review sites to help formulate a plan for your #4 for my clients (basic online reputation management), I'd recommend every one at least going over "what's being said online" with their clients and prospects. It can certainly open their eyes. This is extremely easy to do with Google Alerts and such. I discuss how I personally set this up in the war room "rep management" in my signature.

Also, here's what I was referring to earlier about Google / Yelp: Google/Yelp Deal Falls Through - Technorati Business

I'm actually glad to hear cities in Ohio are at least using Yelp, lived in the Youngstown area there for 23 years. Though I noticed you're down south in Cincy. There and Columbus are probably great places to work with Yelp and a lot more "educated" areas as well....I'd be weary of anything northeastern though....they are pretty "traditional" up there in Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, etc.....

Curious to hear about your future case studies!

- Jim