Yelp How-To Guide From Spork Marketing

I can’t help but crack a smile when someone compliments the work my company performs. Call it pride or call it vanity, but I love it. Compliments energize me and the people I work with, and the benefits don’t stop there. Compliments from satisfied customers also help us sell our services. So, when we get a good compliment, we really like to publicize it on our website.

But like everything else, praise needs to be transparent to be truly effective. While we can publish all our great compliments on our website, how can we expect to trust all the nice compliments they find on our website?

That’s where Yelp.com comes in.

What Yelp.com is: A website where people can review any business under the sun from the family doctor to the local dry cleaner. Yelp is also a social network where individuals can meet, exchange messages, and compare reviews.

Why Yelp.com is important: Yelp is experiencing phenomenal growth. According to QuantCast.com, Yelp has almost doubled in popularity between between October 2008 and March 2009 (about 5.9 million visitors). Nuff’ said.

Why Yelp.com is successful: The social aspect of Yelp is, in my opinion, the key to the website’s success. Whenever I read a review on Yelp, I can quickly and easily check all of the reviews that particular reviewer has created. This makes it easy for me to “judge” reviewers and decide if their opinions and perspectives are in keeping with my own. If I find a reviewer that leaves good reviews, I’m very likely to follow their advice and recommendations.

How Yelp.com can help your business: Many people are using Yelp to find places to do business, and you can add your business (including a link to your website) to Yelp’s directory free of charge. But free advertising is just the beginning – if your business listing on Yelp.com has some positive reviews, you can expect some new customers. Of course, you can also link to your Yelp profile and show potential clients that you’ve earned some good reviews on an independent and reputable website.

How Yelp.com can hurt you: Why bad reviews of course. Reviews aren’t moderated on Yelp, so if an unhappy customer leaves you a scathing review, you’ll have to deal with it. Yelp does give you a chance to respond to reviews, however, so make the most of it. Be honest if your business made a mistake, and do your best to fix the problem for the future. Take the high road no matter what you do when responding to a bad review.

Here are some strategies and tips for using Yelp.com to promote your business:

Step One: Get your business on the list. Start by registering on Yelp.com and searching the directory for a listing for your business. If you find one, claim it and set up your business’ profile. If you don’t find a profile, you can also create one. The best part? It’s free.

Step Two: Get your Yelp on. Yelp to your heart’s content by reviewing your favorite grocery store, favorite hang out, etc. It’s important to spend some time Yelping so you can get a sense of the Yelp community. You should also read reviews that others have left for your favorite local establishments just to give you an idea of what Yelp is all about.

Step Three: Get ready for feedback. After joining Yelp, it is essential that you have your friends and colleagues post positive comments for others to see. Be careful with these solicited comments, though, since Yelp.com has a system in place that’s pretty effective at deleting “solicited” comments. Here’s how it works:

Yelp.com’s platform works against spam reviews by deleting reviews from users who don’t “act” like regular users, i.e. leaving only one review, never visiting the site more than once, only leaving positive reviews, etc. If you’re going to solicit reviews from people close to you, make sure they act like “normal” Yelpers – ask them to review half-a-dozen or so other businesses (along with your business) over the course of a couple of weeks. This will likely keep Yelp’s system from deleting reviews.

Step Four: Build a good profile. Many business owners are too busy to take the time to create a good, interesting, and informative Yelp.com profile, yet that’s exactly what they should do to be successful. Simply providing your business hours and listing off your products won’t do.

Step Five: Be active in the community. Your business profile allows you to recommend 5 other businesses. While it’s most logical to recommend the businesses of your own acquaintances, it’s actually a better practice to use your recommendations wisely and recognize other active Yelpers who would might reciprocate with a link or a good review.

Step Six: Solicit customer reviews. The best people who can review your business on Yelp are your customers, so let them know at every opportunity that you’re now listed on Yelp and that you’d appreciate their review. Put a quick sign over your cash register, write a short blurb about it your newsletter, etc. Your happiest customers always want to help you.

Step Seven: Use the network. Take advantage of Yelp.com’s social network by building and maintaining a network of friends. Build relationships with other business owners and help each other out by exchanging good reviews and becoming each other’s fan. Not only will you maintain a good profile, but you’ll also be using networking at its best.

Getting on the Yelp.com bandwagon now while it’s steadily growing can lead to more customers (and more business) for years to come. Participate, get those positive reviews, and grow your business with Yelp!