My Media Magnet’s Favourite 10 Social Media Sites – Yelp (5 of 10)

Have you heard? Nobody uses The Yellow Pages anymore, they just Google it. And now, if they can’t find what they want on Google they localize their search on Yelp. Yelp doesn’t just stop at finding what you want either. It’s a review site so you leave knowing where you’re going, why you’re going there and what you can expect to experience while you’re there. It’s free to submit your company so that people can find you so get on there!

Here are a few reasons you may want to use Yelp over your what you currently visit for reviews:

• Yelp is the only review site that lets reviewees talk back
• Yelp combines local reviews and social networking functionality to create a local online community
• The site allows consumers to share the experiences they have had with local businesses and lets business owners share information about their business with their customers both publicly and privately
• Yelp is word of mouth – amplified; allowing for quicker communication between consumers and business owners alike
• Over 25 million people visited Yelp in August 2009 to make spending decisions
• Yelp applies a “First to Review” reward system to create a competition among contributing members, further motivating the creation of reviews and adding to the site’s business coverage
• Site visitors can see which contributing users are the most popular, respected, and prolific, how long each has been a member, and which have interests similar to their own
• You can Yelp on your phone allowing for accessibility and ease of use

If you are concerned about transparency or receiving a bad review, it’s time to get over it. People are going to find a place online to voice their opinions whether you provide and monitor the platform or not. Get your name on Yelp, let your network know you’re there, attain valuable reviews and testimonials from your network and ask them to post them on Yelp and suddenly you’ve nullified any negatives by saturating your review pool with positives!

If you are just looking for cool social media tools, Yelp fulfills that specification too. I found an amazing restaurant to take my hubby to for his birthday and the reviews made me feel confident and know how much to budget. I always check Yelp now before trying a new place because I hate being disappointed. Join the fun and learn from others on Yelp, start contributing your own reviews to help out and build a personal network.

For more information on Yelp or other social media services please contact My Media Magnet.