If you do business in your own community, start participating on Yelp, the popular social media site that helps people share the best (and worst) of businesses like dentists, hair stylists and car mechanics. If you’re a PR person whose clients are small business owners, incorporate this site into a publicity or marketing campaign.
But don’t try to persuade customers to write positive reviews about you or your client, or you could be sabotaging yourself.
Yelp allows users to contribute different kinds of content, including reviews, photos, events, private messages and more. It’s a powerful way to pull local customers into your store, build a loyal following and promote your events. Yelp is one of the Top 10 sites I designated during the webinar I hosted last month on 50+ Places Online to Promote Your Live & Virtual Events to Reach Your Target Market & Pull Sell-out Crowds.
Three times in the last week, Publicity Hounds have asked me about the best ways to solicit good reviews for their businesses.
My answer: Don’t, or you’ll be violating the Terms of Service. I’ve explained more about that in this quick guide on how to make the most of Yelp.
1. Create your profile.
This shows Yelp users who you are, where you’re located, etc. Don’t include your birthday and make it easy for thieves to steal your identity.
2. Unlock your Business Page.
This video shows how business owners can use the business tools. For example, you should add photos to your listing. If you’re a coffee shop and you use an antique coffee grinder, say so, and include a photo. Is your cafe a popular meeting spot for Meetup groups? That’s worth mentioning.
If you’re a local restaurant and you’re sponsoring a “meet the chef” event, let people know. Don’t forget to take photos of as many in-store events as possible for sharing on Yelp and other sites.
4. Add your bio.
Keep it fun. What’s your dream for your business? What’s the one thing that persuaded you to do what you’re doing? What’s the most rewarding part of the job?
5. Choose a personal URL for your Yelp profile.
People can easily get to your Yelp profile without remembering a long, complicated URL.
6. Offer special discounts.
Encourage people to check out your listing by offering special discounts, special events, or limited time offers on your page. Consider a special discount if a customer says “I saw you on Yelp.” This week, Yelp is rolling out check-in offers, similar to Foursquare.
7. Recommend other businesses.
Don’t just wait for the reviews to start rolling in for your own business. Review other businesses. (No wheeling and dealing: “You write a good review for me and I’ll write a good one for you.” See next item.)
8. Don’t solicit good reviews.
Yelp has a filter that weeds out suspicious reviews. Besides, consumers are very wary of reviews that don’t sound authentic. There’s nothing wrong with a sign in your shop that says “See us on Yelp for special discounts and other events” or something like that. But don’t even suggest that they write a positive review. If customers have something good or bad to say, they will.
9. If you get a good or bad review, respond to it publicly.
A public response, particularly one that acknowledges problems and promises to make things better, shows that you appreciate the feedback and are committed to improving things for customers. It also gives you a chance to set the record straight if the negative review included errors.
Here’s a helpful list of 10 tips on how to respond to bad reviews.
By the way, Yelp won’t yank a bad review if you’re an advertiser. So don’t waste time asking.
10. Also respond to good and bad reviews privately.
Responding privately to the person who posted a negative review can reap big dividends. Yelp says that its users often change a negative review to a positive one after they receive a private response, especially an apology, from a business owner.
Don’t view negative reviews as always bad. These reviews flag problems that you might not otherwise know about, and they give you a chance to correct them before you lose business.
11. Publish your reviews to Facebook and Twitter.
What other ways do you recommend business owners use Yelp? How has it helped you gain a loyal following?
Do you respond to reviews? If not, why not? If so, have you been able to turn a negative review into a positive one?
This is an excellent tool! I recently started using Yelp to help a family member promote their small business and I believe I may have committed a few of the unfortunate acts already. Yikes. Thanks for the guide, it’s excellent!
Thanks, Lizzie.
Mistakes are so easy to make because most people (including me) often don’t bother reading the Terms of Service.
Just fix the mistakes and encourage your relative to stay actively involved on Yelp.
Thanks Lizzie, this is indeed very helpful. We’ve been looking at Yelp and the potential effect that it is likely to have on Google rankings and this article is excellent.
I still haven’t seen much evidence of Yelp being used in the UK a great deal but I would think that it is only a matter of time before we see it’s presence felt to a greater degree here.
I disagree with 9. I don’t think a business owner should ever respond publicly to a review, negative or positive. I’ve seen these responses a few times and it just never looks good for the business owner. It looks like they have too much time on their hands. Maybe the reason customer service wasn’t good, or the bathroom wasn’t stocked is because the owner spends all his/her time on Yelp responding to reviews! Also, it’s hard to craft just the right tone. Probably impossible. I saw one example where a manager/owner left detailed comments in response to bad reviews, but the comments were all basically denials of the customer’s observations. “My staff absolutely did not do X, I interviewed them personally. Your complaint doesn’t make sense.” In that case, the business owner comes off as crazy! If you respond to bad reviews it should be super short and professional, like “I’m sorry you had a negative experience. Please give us a second chance. I’d like to offer you 25% off your next meal at our restaurant. I will send you a private message with more details.”
Your suggested reply is perfect. That’s exactly what I mean by responding to bad reviews. I am not suggesting the business owner write a long laundry list of excuses.
Yelp says its research shows that businesses that get bad reviews, and reply just as you have suggested, have often been able to “turn around” the customer who complained.
Reviewers who see that businesses actually care have, in some cases, rewritten their bad reviewed and actually said something positive. Thanks for stopping by, Dolly.