Looking for a way to harness the power of word-of-mouth advertising online? A relatively new site, Yelp.com, is the latest social networking site helping businesses do just that, but beware: When customers dish about businesses online, they focus on the good and the bad.

Established in 2004, Yelp currently is benefiting from increased consumer interest, following recent coverage in national publications such as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.

"Yelpers have written more than 1 million reviews since the site launched in 2004, with more than 500,000 posted in the past four months ... Yelp's audience grew 124 percent from May to May, according to market tracker Nielsen/NetRatings, with monthly visitors increasing to 1 million," according to the June USA Today story.

So how does the site work? Yelp features a "rate-it-yourself opinion system" that lets users weigh in on myriad businesses, from restaurants and salons to nightclubs and even doctors. Businesses are ranked on a star system -- five stars is the highest -- and users can post reviews, rants, raves and pictures. The site includes contact information and a Google map of each reviewed business.

Having your business reviewed on Yelp could come as a pleasant surprise -- just ask SAF member Ted Winston of Boston-based retail florist, Winston Flowers.

Under the Boston Yelp Web page, Winston Flowers is rated No. 3 out of the 'best of' shopping category, and it's no wonder -- the store has nearly 40 reviews, and almost all of them are rave ones.

"I didn't realize there were this many of them," Winston says. "Somebody has to be a pretty passionate fan" of the store. These Yelp reviews, both write-ups and photos, are the new kinds of word-of-mouth advertising which Winston considers the best kind of advertising. Reviewers have rated three of the six Winston Flowers locations and commented on the store's reliability, personal touch, tasteful arrangements and cost.

"You're only as good as how you treated your last customer," he says. And, he jokes about the potential for bad Yelp ratings citing the old adage that people remember a great experience and tell a few people about it, but they also remember a bad experience and tell many people about it.

Yelp even has a section reserved just for business owners' questions; it shows them how to enhance and begin to promote their online shop profile.

Read more about another kind of online tool for generating product feedback, published in the May 16th E-Brief "She Speaks, They Listen?"

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

 

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