March 16, 2011
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Affordably Build Your Brand
FedEx Global Brand Management Director Monica Skipper shares a cost-effective way to build a bigger brand for your small business.
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Shelby Jacobs
Social media on smartphones empowers consumers to not only find local businesses, but to rate and review them. Raves can fire up your business, while a dissatisfied customer's rant can be a company's kiss of death.
Yelp is the 10th most-trafficked social networking site, according to Experian Hitwise, and, because of the strong influence reviews have on consumers' decisions, Yelp has begun to attract the kind of love/hate intensity that used to be reserved for Google.
For example, last year, a class-action lawsuit was filed by small business owners, claiming that Yelp may hide or downgrade negative reviews for businesses that buy ads on the site. Yelp's response is that its automatic Review Filter constantly evaluates and repositions reviews.
I decided to go to the source to find out more. Luther Lowe, Yelp manager of business outreach, filled us in on Yelp's latest updates and answered some of our burning questions.
Q: A lot of us think of Yelp as a place for restaurant and bar reviews. What are some of the more surprising things people look for on the site?
A: The gateway drug for consumers on Yelp is restaurants, but they soon learn there's a lot of other stuff going on here. Around 26 percent of business reviews are restaurants, and 24 percent are shopping or retail. But a lot of people search for health and fitness or medical services. One area we're great for is parks -- dog parks, a park to sit down and eat a sandwich. Sole proprietor services like videographers or real estate agents make up a lot of our listings, as well as home services like handymen.
Q: You recently raised the requirements to be a Duke or Duchess for a business to three check-ins. Why?
A: It raises the bar on participation. Before, if there were zero check-ins ever at this establishment, I could check in and automatically become the Duke. Also, because the geolocation on phones isn't perfect, you might have been able to stand on a busy corner, check into several places at once. We felt it made sense to up the default to three.
Want more on Yelp? Check these out:
Q: Why should business owners care about Yelp check-ins?
A: As these folks are raising their hands and pushing your business to their social networks and Yelp friends, make sure you're in communication with them. First, pull out a smartphone and see what your business looks like on the Yelp app, so you understand what the consumer's experience is when they participate in check-ins.
At Yelp, we discourage review solicitation, but we encourage check-ins. Put a big poster in your business that says, "Check in on Yelp here." When users log back into the site, we nudge them with a reminder to write a review, if they haven't already.
Q: What's the best way for a business owner to engage with its Dukes and Duchesses?
A: You can use Yelp's messaging system to send them private messages. The whole communication lives on Yelp. Say, "I appreciate your support." You can reward them with a free dessert, discount, or whatever.
It would also be cool to put some kind of placard, sort of like the employee of the month, recognizing your Duke and Duchess. It sends a visual message to other potential check-ins.
Q: What else is new for the site?
A: One exciting thing we launched two weeks ago is a service area business that allows a mobile service to define the geography they serve by entering up to five cities. For example, a locksmith in Brooklyn could say that he'll also travel to Manhattan and the Bronx. It also allows you to create pinpoints in cities and create radii around them to define your service area.
Q: What are some new features in the pipeline that SMBs should prepare for?
A: There will soon be more granularity in attributes. You can note, for example, whether you offer Wi-Fi. The attributes will be category-specific, and you can find them under the additional information tab in your free tools on Yelp for Business Owners. But, like photos and other content, they can also be plugged in by users. Customers can define a bar as noisy, for example.
We'll soon roll out additional analytics, and business owners can subscribe to a weekly update. Today, you can see how many people checked in or called your business; in the upcoming release, you'll be able to see how many people plotted directions from their phones, which makes it more likely that the person who looked for you on Yelp actually walked in the door.
Q: How does the Review Filter work?
A: We've provided a full explanation on the Review Filter on our official blog. Don't watch your reviews like a stock ticker. Every day, the system looks at each review and examines how established the reviewer is. The system gives more weight to a reviewer based on previous participation. The bottom line is, if you provide excellent customer service, customers will rave about you and that will bring more customers to your door.
Image credit: Yelp.com
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Shelby Jacobs 8 months ago
How do we get to this place on our business accoutn? A: One exciting thing we launched two weeks ago is a service area business that allows a mobile service to define the geography they serve by entering up to five cities. For example, a locksmith in Brooklyn could say that he'll also travel to Manhattan and the Bronx. It also allows you to create pinpoints in cities and create radii around them to define your service area.