What Yelp Means For Small Businesses
The New Way to “Know Before You Go”- – Welcome to the Arena of Yelp
So what is Yelp? Here’s the news on this growing online social media phenomenon and the impact it may have on small businesses and their local marketing efforts.
Yelp.com is a city-specific internet site where anybody can enter an online review (1-5 stars, with commentary) in different categories that range from trattorias to nail salons to churches. Want the inside track on that pet store, web page designer, or window-washing company just around corner? It’s all here on the social media site Yelp.com, served up like a zesty type of Zagat’s-Angie’s List-Facebook masala.
Yelp could be a social media gimmick or a power-to-the-customer phenomenon; frankly, no one really knows just yet. Since its start in 2004, Yelp.com has grown to 8 million online reviews from 26 million monthly readers in 33 cities, and Inc magazine notes it’s quite possibly “the most well liked reviews website in the world.”
Now that we know what Yelp is, will it change the way smaller companies operate? Is it an advantage or disadvantage for small businesses and their local marketing initiatives?
The Disadvantages of Yelp: Providing Too Much Power to the Crazies & Malcontents?
My first reaction to Yelp was concern- – what’s to stop some half-witted twit or random hothead from slamming an innocent small company in their online reviews? What’s to stop an unscrupulous competitor (or your Mom and all her bowling buddies) from posting fallacious reviews? And what sort of time can a super-busy business owner dedicate to relaxing unhappy shoppers online, in any case?
Regardless of these ostensible downsides of Yelp, these sorts of issues are barely new. There have constantly been misguided shoppers & rule-breakers for businesses to work through. Yes, Yelp.com adds a modern twist in both its immediacy & opportunity to reach a large group of possible customers, especially in a local marketing context, but there are natural checks for that: while the “social proof” of others ‘ opinions can play a role in the decision-making process, we appear to reconcile 1 or 2 bad reviews in a sea of good ones by “taking things with a grain of salt.”
The Personal Touch Trumps the Anonymous Review
My parting thought is this: attracting new buyers is vital for the survival of small businesses, and Yelp.com may eventually impact that to an as-of-yet undetermined degree. However, nurturing a core group of loyal, satisfied customers- – the very ones who can be the best marketing evangelists for your product or service- – is more crucial. Of course, if my friend Chris raves about a favourite diner, I do not care what some random stranger has to write on Yelp.com or any place else; I trust Chris.
We’ll learn the answers to these small business marketing challenges as Yelp keeps expanding on a local and national scale. Let’s stay tuned!
Marie Elwood is an Atlanta marketing consultant who runs a strategic marketing consulting firm that helps large firms develop new products and understand consumer perceptions.
