Help with Yelp

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Before reading Jason McDonald’s “Social Media Marketing Workbook,” I knew very little about Yelp. All I knew it was for reviews, but I did not know how it worked. After learning more about it, I find it quite interesting.
In order to review a business, it must be listed, but how do businesses become listed? I assumed business owners would create listings for their businesses, but this is not the case. In fact, a business listing can be made without any involvement of the business owner! If a business is not listed a Yelp user, or Yelper, can create a listing for the business and review it. The business owner cannot delete the listing either. Is this fair? At first, I did not think is was, but it does make sense. The whole point of reviews is for prospective customers to verify if they are spending their money on a good product or service. If only business owners could make business listings and manage reviews, reviews would be worthless. Of course, business owners would hide negative reviews or may not even list their business at all. Therefore, the reviews given would not be trustworthy and customers would be required to try a product or service without any knowledge of its true quality. So, it may seem unfair Yelp works this way but in reality, it works best for the sake of the customers.
Even if a business owner does not make its own listing on Yelp, they can claim their listing in order to optimize it. Why is this important? A random customer could make a listing for your business, but may know very little about it. McDonald’s explains by claiming your listing, you can improve the business description, upload photos and respond to reviews. This will not guarantee you will not get negative reviews, but it surely will help! Doing this shows you care about the reputation of your business and care about what your customers think. Shouldn’t all business owners wants this?
One huge shock to be about Yelp is Yelpers can build a reputation on Yelp as well. You may have heard about famous food critiques in New York City, now imagine a famous Yelp reviewer!  No, your reviews may not be published in the New York Times, but your reviews could appear at the top of a business listing. Given how powerful reviews are, this could be a whole new level of publicity. The more you review, and the better you review, the better your Yelp reputation. I find this really interesting and odd at the same time. You hear of famous social media users on YouTube, Instagram or Twitter but now Yelp? Maybe I should give Yelp a try!
I am glad I learned more about Yelp through Jason McDonald’s “Social Media Marketing Workbook.” I have talked about the power of reviews before, but I never thought about the process behind it. Looks like I will give Yelp a try next time!

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