I can’t take credit for the Yelp Small Business Advisory Council but I can say that I was encouraging people at the company several years ago to meet with small businesses and solicit their feedback. It’s a logical idea and Yelp finally did it.
Cut to two years later and Yelp is heading into its third Advisory Council (application for interested SMBs here). The company got many suggestions from its Advisory Council, many of which have resulted in new features and services.
It’s probably the smartest single thing that Yelp did on the merchant side. It not only generates product suggestions it provides Yelp a perpetual focus group to test ideas. And it creates good will.
Google and others have done roadshows and periodic SMB surveys and focus groups. But as far as I’m aware nobody has put together a sustained advisory group like this. I would be wise for others to emulate the model.
Yelp and the New York Stock Exchange (on which Yelp is listed) also earlier announced a roadshow to help educate SMBs about online marketing. The NYSE is also providing some funding to local business owners as part of the tour:
The tour, which debuts in Tucson, AZ, on June 12, 2012, will provide small business owners across the U.S. with access to local resources to help finance their entrepreneurial dreams and increase their online marketing power by learning best practices for engaging with online review sites.
Yelp hopes to build awareness for the site and to gain some new SMB customers along the way. Yelp told me a couple of weeks ago that the site has 700,000 claimed business profiles. At the end of Q1 Yelp said it had 27,300 “active local business accounts.”
May 29th, 2012 at 8:34 pm
I am a small business owner and find Yelp to be a site that does not promote fair and equal treatment to the businesses that are on the site. My company has 17 reviews, the total star average would be 4.5 stars, which is not perfect, but really who is. The issue I have is that only 2 reviews are showing and 15 are “filtered” giving me a 2.5 star rating. They are displaying less than 12% of the reviews posted, which to me is not an accurate depiction of my actual company reputation. By showing this inaccurate view of our company I believe they are committing fraud, defamation and libel. The excuse they hide behind is their algorithm. Well I am not buying it any further. I started a Facebook Page to try and get a clearer picture of whether this problem is Nationwide and to what extent it runs. I would like to see if other companies are having the same issue I am having and to see examples of this. Visit the Facebook page and post your thoughts, they won’t be filtered.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yelp-Defamation/188178617931389
May 30th, 2012 at 6:17 am
[...] Yelp SMB Advisory Council a Model for the Industry, http://www.screenwerk.com [...]
May 30th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
[...] you about it when you’re near the store.Yelp SMB Advisory Council a Model for the Industry (ScreenWerk) Greg Sterling: Yelp Small Business Advisory Council is probably the smartest single thing that [...]
May 30th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
Yelp weights reviews from “Elites” and those whom it trusts much more heavily than casual users. So if your reviews are all from people who have one review or only a small number they will likely be filtered as potentially suspect. In those situations typically Yelp believes that you have encouraged or otherwise solicited the reviews.