Given that Yelp may already be on rocky ground with merchants for upsetting the status quo, it’s easy to see why Yelp might have a hard time selling advertisements to local merchants to promote themselves on Yelp’s site. Furthermore, there are reports from merchants that claim that Yelp sales reps have been offering to shuffle negative reviews to the bottom of a listing, but only if the merchants agree to advertise on the site. Yelp vehemently denies such claims of coersion, but regardless of whether it’s true or not, it speaks more to the fact that merchants don’t value the advertising on Yelp at all, but rather see more value in the actual content on the site.
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Trends & Insights
April 12, 2009
Converse With Your Customers, Rather Than Market at Them
Summary
Online review site Yelp has been causing quite a stir in the small business community for a few years now. By allowing anyone to write revieOnline review site Yelp has been causing quite a stir in the small business community for a few years now. By allowing anyone to write reviews about any business, Yelp has empowered the general public with the power once held only by professional restaurant reviewers and reporters. Of course, with this newfound power comes its fair share of controversy. Before Yelp, if a customer had a bad experience, they could fill out a nasty comment card (and hope someone read it) or complain to the manager and hope for some sort of resolution. Now that customers can share their experiences with thousands of people online, small business owners fear that a few bad reviews translate into real business dollars lost. Taking a different approach, Pizzeria Delfina, a restaurant in San Francisco, made light of their negative reviews by clothing their staff in t-shirts printed with several of their worst 1-star reviews.
Given that Yelp may already be on rocky ground with merchants for upsetting the status quo, it’s easy to see why Yelp might have a hard time selling advertisements to local merchants to promote themselves on Yelp’s site. Furthermore, there are reports from merchants that claim that Yelp sales reps have been offering to shuffle negative reviews to the bottom of a listing, but only if the merchants agree to advertise on the site. Yelp vehemently denies such claims of coersion, but regardless of whether it’s true or not, it speaks more to the fact that merchants don’t value the advertising on Yelp at all, but rather see more value in the actual content on the site.
Given that Yelp may already be on rocky ground with merchants for upsetting the status quo, it’s easy to see why Yelp might have a hard time selling advertisements to local merchants to promote themselves on Yelp’s site. Furthermore, there are reports from merchants that claim that Yelp sales reps have been offering to shuffle negative reviews to the bottom of a listing, but only if the merchants agree to advertise on the site. Yelp vehemently denies such claims of coersion, but regardless of whether it’s true or not, it speaks more to the fact that merchants don’t value the advertising on Yelp at all, but rather see more value in the actual content on the site.