Yelp for Great Reviews
Don’t know what Yelp is? You should. I love Yelping around town. When I am traveling it’s an incredible resource for finding truly great places. Sure there are tons of “review sites” like Citysearch, Google Local, blah blah blah. What Makes Yelp different is that they support the “Real” community as well as the Virtual community
Yelp has community managers that consummate Yelp’s online presence (See The Six Rules Of Social Media) promoting events, organizing get togethers and keeping real peeps yelping. This means that those giving the reviews have a responsibility to stay honest with them. Yelp also encourages conversation by encouraging great writing and funny posts, make it fun as well as informative.
For business owners, It’s a great way to get real feedback as well as encourage “sneezers“, those people that will talk about a business’s services and products on a continuous basis. When it comes to Social Media, sneezers are the ones that you really want to target and engage.
Yelp is ubiquitous on the Left Coast. I have friends that review everything from dog care to mattress companies. Yelp has moved into Orlando, hiring an awesome Community manager, Colleen B. and setting up yelp Elite Events.
Yelp Elite Events are Yelp’s way of getting together the best “Yelpers” as well as rewarding them for being exceptional Yelpers. There have been quite a few great events held by Yelp in Orlando, but I have yet to make it to one because of my travel schedule.
So where does this leave you?
As a business owner, besides making sure to encourage people to yelp and claiming your yelp listing, you can contact yelp about advertising as well as events.
For individual and Non-Profits, Yelp is hosting its first Yelp Helps in Orlando. It’s a great way to learn about all of the awesome charitable organizations and meet some of the Orlando Yelpers.
http://www.yelp.com/events/orlando-yelp-helps is the place to RSVP for the event.
It’s November 5th at the Science Center. It should be a great time for a lot of great causes. Unfortunately for me, I will be in Minneapolis. Make sure to let me know how the event turned out.!