Have you ever heard of Yelp? It is a web site that features various establishments and allows people to review them. They can give whatever kind of review they want – positive or negative.
It does not take a genius to figure out that Yelp holds potential for business owners, small or big. The good thing about Yelp is that it can help you gain publicity for your business. Of course, it is pretty obvious that this can work both ways – you can get good publicity as well as negative publicity.
There are new developments as to how Yelp operates now, which can make it more useful for business owners. Starting this month, Yelp will be allowing businesses that are reviewed to talk back. The LA Times has this report:
This month, Yelp will open up its site to public responses from businesses, a first for the 5-year-old San Francisco company.
It’s a significant victory for business owners, who have long griped that they were being shut out of the Yelp community — which boasts more than 5 million reviews to date — and were unable to address what they perceived as unfair and unchecked posts.
Yelp has a lot of categories which covers most every type of business there is. If I were you, I would find a way to get your business on Yelp. In these times when advertising is even more necessary than usual, and when it is very expensive, free advertising such as Yelp is more than welcome!
Originally posted on April 11, 2009 @ 1:48 pm