How to Pull Foot Traffic on Yelp – and Respond to Good or Bad Reviews
By Joan Stewart
If you have a brick-and-mortar business, or you have a client who does, generate foot traffic by using Yelp, the popular social media site that helps people share the best (and worst) of businesses like dentists, hair stylists and car mechanics.
Yelp allows users to contribute different kinds of content, including reviews, photos, events, private messages and more. It’s a powerful way to pull local customers and tourists into your store, build a loyal following, promote your events, and recruit volunteers for a local worthy cause. Here’s why:
• As of November 2010, more than 39 million people per month visited Yelp.
• Yelpers have written over 14 million local reviews, 83 percent of them rating a business 3 stars or higher.
• In addition to reviews, people use Yelp to find events, special offers, lists and to talk with other Yelpers.
• Every business owner (or manager) can set up a free account to post offers, photos and message customers.
Here are my Top 11 tips on how to use Yelp and respond to good or bad reviews.
1. Create your profile
This shows Yelp users who you are and where you’re located, etc. Don’t include your birthday, however. Why make it easy for thieves to steal your identity?
2. Unlock your Business Page
This video shows how business owners can use the business tools.
For example, you should add photos to your listing. If you’re a coffee shop and you use an antique coffee grinder, say so, and include a photo.
Is your cafe a popular meeting spot for Meetup groups? That’s worth mentioning. And include photos, with their permission.
3. Add an Event
If you’re a local restaurant and you’re sponsoring a Meet the Chef night, let people know. Don’t forget to take photos of as many in-store events as possible for sharing on Yelp and other sites.
4. Add Your Bio
Keep it fun. What’s your dream for your business? What’s the one thing that persuaded you to do what you’re doing? What’s the most rewarding part of the job?
5. Choose a Personal URL for Your Yelp Profile
People can easily get to your Yelp profile without remembering a long, complicated URL.
6. Offer Specials & Discounts
Encourage people to check out your listing by offering special discounts, special events or limited time offers on your page. Consider a special discount if a customer says “I saw you on Yelp.”
Yelp recently rolled out check-in offers, similar to Foursquare.
7. Recommend Other Businesses
Don’t just wait for the reviews to start rolling in for your own business. Review other businesses.
Don’t even think of wheeling and dealing and saying, “You write a good review for me and I’ll write a good one for you.” See the next item.
8. Don’t Solicit Good Reviews
Yelp has a filter that weeds out suspicious reviews. Besides, consumers are very wary of reviews that don’t sound authentic.
There’s nothing wrong with a sign in your shop that says “See us on Yelp for special discounts and other events.” But don’t suggest customers write positive reviews. If they have something good or bad to say, they will.
9. Respond to Reviews Publicly
A public response, particularly one that acknowledges problems and promises to make things better, shows that you appreciate the feedback and are committed to improving things for customers. It also gives you a chance to set the record straight if the negative review included errors.
By the way, Yelp won’t yank a bad review if you’re an advertiser. So don’t waste time asking.
10. Also Respond to Reviews Privately
Responding privately to the person who posted a negative review can reap big dividends. Yelp says its users often change a negative review to a positive one after they receive a private response, especially an apology, from a business owner.
Don’t view negative reviews as always bad. These reviews flag problems that you might not otherwise know about, and they give you a chance to correct them before you lose business.
11. Publish Your Reviews to Facebook and Twitter
Log into your Yelp account, click on the “My Account” button, and then follow the instructions in the “External Services” tab.
How about hosting a fun event in your community for Yelpers? You’ll find lots of inspiration at the Yelp blog.
Joan Stewart, who has the #1 and #2 rankings on Google for “publicity expert,” shows you how to dovetail traditional and social media to promote any product, service, cause or issue.Her articles, interviews and commentary have been featured in more than 60 books on marketing, PR, publicity, small business and social media. She answers questions on Twitter at Twitter.com/PublicityHound and on Facebook at Facebook.com/publicitytips and publishes the popular weekly ezine, “The Publicity Hounds Tips of the Week.” Subscribe at PublicityHound.com and receive free the handy cheat sheet, “89 Reasons to Send a Press Release.” Contact her at jstewart@publicityhound.com.
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The Internet Marketing Mothership is landing on 09/09/09!
You’re here…
The fact that you’re here tells me that you know enough about StomperNet to know a touch about what StomperNet is and have found some value in what we do and teach.
For the last (almost) 3 years, we have created over 100 millionaires due to the fact that we offer the best training on Earth related to how to grow your online business. There are a bunch of reasons why StomperNet has been able to give people the crazy results we’ve helped others create for their businesses:
- Our World Class Faculty delivering cutting edge techniques
- Professional Coaches ensuring members establish and work toward their goals
- 1400 hours of Focused, Expert Training across every online topic
- A Community of Brilliant Members happily helping each other
- The Best Live Events around
- Ultra-Focused Premium Level Courses
The thing is that it isn’t any one of those things that creates millionaires. It’s the combination. The system. All of these things together are the key to creating amazing success stories. Beyond the system, it’s the members that spend the time to find the answers to their questions inside of our massive library of training that make the difference. The actions they take dictate their level of success.
We know StomperNet works perfectly for the members we have.
I still became upset over where StomperNet stood. I realized that the time had come to make some changes.
The Elite level of membership we’ve maintained at StomperNet has left out thousands of people due to the cost of our Membership. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying StomperNet has ever been overpriced. You could ask any member and they’d tell you that just isn’t the case.
I KNEW there was a way to make StomperNet available to ANYONE that wants to be successful online.
If that’s you, get ready.
Everything will become clear tomorrow – from our brand new set of Stomper Tools to the other crazy changes we’ve added into the program – know that it’s strategically designed to push you to success faster than you’ve ever imagined before.
Be here: http://stomper999.com at 9:09 am on Wednesday September the 9th.
You’ll be glad you did.
Brad Fallon,
CEO
StomperNet
BIG Faculty News at StomperNet
A Huge Announcement from Brad Fallon
What a month! Jumping in as the CEO of StomperNet just one month ago has been like jumping into the cockpit of a 747. Mid-air.
But that’s okay. I kind of like it. Actually I like it a lot. I like to work fast and I talk even faster. I love getting things done, like, yesterday. I especially love building and growing companies at lightning speed.
So that’s why – one month into my stint as StomperNet’s CEO – I’m happy to announce a little growth spurt in our Faculty ranks.
Try seven new faculty members (see their bios below).
Some of these names you will definitely recognize, some might be new to you, but all of them are incredible. We are thrilled to have them join us and we are excited about the enthusiasm they have already shown. (This particular airplane ride’s about to get a lot more fun.)
Talk soon,
Brad Fallon
If you have any questions or comments, I want to know! Leave a comment below!
Welcome New StomperNet Faculty Members…
Anne Holland, founder of Marketing Sherpa and WhichTestWon.com. Anne’s been conducting tests and research into what works best in marketing for more than 20 years. As Founder and Past President of MarketingSherpa Inc., Holland published pragmatic research studies such as annual Search Marketing and Email Marketing Benchmark Guides and the bestselling Landing Page Handbook. 237,000 professional marketers in corporate America read her newsletters featuring exclusive Case Studies and fresh data every week. Holland has been a featured speaker, and often keynote, at more than 100 industry conferences including Email Summit, Business-to-Business Lead Generation Summits, eTail shows, Affiliate Summit, Direct Marketing Association events, Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conferences, and Ad-Tech conferences (for which she is also a former Advisory Board Member.) She has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, DMNews, Entrepreneur.com, Fast Company and Business 2.0 among others. An award-winning marketer herself, since 1992 she has served as a Judge for many industry awards including the Viral Marketing Hall of Fame, the Ad-Tech Awards, the Electronic Retailing Association Awards, MarketingSherpa’s Email Awards, and the Interactive PR & Marketing Nettie Awards.
Dave Taylor, of AskDaveTaylor.com fame and Intuitive Systems. He’s baaacck! As one of our exceptionally popular original faculty members, Dave is back from his StomperNet Faculty hiatus. Dave is an absolute expert at helping your company learn how to grow through savvy use of business blogging and associated social networks and new media, business or technical topics, leading a class of adult learners, or writing a business or technical book for neophytes, my central focus remains the same: to explain complex concepts and technologies in a way that lets you gain insight into the subject. His most recent books are The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Growing Your Business with Google (Penguin/Alpha) (widely hailed as a must-read by business experts), Teach Yourself Unix System Administration in 24 Hours (Sams/Macmillan) (which focuses on three operating systems: Red Hat Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X), Solaris 9 for Dummies (Wiley), Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther (O’Reilly), Wicked Cool Shell Scripts (NoStarch), and Creating Cool Web Sites (Wiley).
Erik Stafford – Described by Ross Goldberg as “…the best person I know when it comes to helping newbies, guiding them into a business model that works, and teaching the basics of internet business in a way that can be understood.”
Erik formed Stafford Marketing, LLC in late 2006, launched The Faster Webmaster in early 2007, and has been helping people get started building online businesses ever since. He looks forward to conducting site reviews for Stompers, especially focusing on copy, design, and sales funnel (magic offer) strategies.
Alan Bechtold – Alan’s been in publishing for over 30 years and been online since before the real “internet” existed with online bulletin boards. He’s a self-described ” A jack of all trades and a master of info-publishing and marketing.” His primary focus in StomperNet will be teaching creative writing for content, info product creation, and copywriting.
Melanie Benson Strick – Melanie’s a brilliant marketer specializing in business growth, team building, and breaking through the 6 figure area into 7, 8, and beyond. Melanie really knows her stuff. She’s known as The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach because she knows first-hand how to build a successful, thriving, freedom-based company with her secret weapon — LEVERAGE. With over 12 years in corporate America and eight years as a business owner, Melanie works exclusively with entrepreneurs who are ready for a “sustainable” lifestyle business. Melanie’s clients, who are typically coaches, consultants, authors, speakers, trainers, service professionals and information marketers, average a 172% revenue increase while creating more time for living their dream lifestyle.
Vin Montello – Vin’s the brilliant copywriter behind some of the greatest successes on Clickbank. His copy is some of the best we’ve ever seen. And he’s excited to help Stompers make their copy some of the best their customer’s have ever seen.
David Wilkinson – Finally, we’d love to introduce a faculty member who can only be described as a “phenom.” He’s a 15-year-old super affiliate from the U.K. who makes five figures per month and he’s still in high school. (Think you might be able to learn something about affiliate marketing from him.)
Read MoreLive 8 – Busting At The Seams – Updates from Friday (and MORE)
Even cell phone pics show themassive attendence at this historic Live 8 Event!
Normally, we rarely allow outsiders a peek at the closed-door StomperNet Live events but this time we’re doing something a little different. We’re going to have some free VIDEO from the floor soon, but for now, here are some “leaked” updates from our member portal to show you what our members come back for time after time (which is why this is our EIGHTH LIVE Event in less than 3 years!) Check it out below and let us know what you think!
Live 8 – Busting At The Seams
There are a lot of folks here. I think we’re tipping the scales at 650 attendees. We’ve wedged as many people in this ballroom as you can – without use of a crow bar or an angry fire marshal.
And the energy is already cranked. Which is shocking, considering about 1/3rd of the attendees stood up when Brad asked how many had traveled here from outside the U.S. That’s eyeball-math but it looked like just about a third to me.
So it’s pretty impressive that considering all the jet lag in the room – there’s tons of laughter, smiles, chatter and excitement. I’ve not caught one person dozing yet.
James Schramko – Sneaky Down Under
First Keynote of the Weekend: James Schramko takes the stage.
Today, there’s not exactly thunder down under.
Oh sure, James Schramko *is* from Australia. He’s smart, he’s successful. But thunderous? Not really. Affiliate Pounce creator James Schramko hit the stage today in a low key, but high content way. With a dry wit and heavy Aussie accent, James wrapped his excellent lessons about affiliate marketing into a very entertaining presentation.
(Every so often, James stops his talk and says “Hey, who wants a sneaky tip?” The crowd hollers back “We do!” If their reply isn’t loud enough for James’ liking, he asks for more energy. Before you know it, it starts to feel like a rock concert call and response. I’m half expecting to hear “Freebird!” soon. It’s just great.)
James’ back story is pretty interesting. Aside from being a top Mercedes salesman and general manager, he tells us that he used work in collections (“…which is kind of like sales…only your customers already have the product.”)
We of course can’t give away every single information nugget and ‘sneaky tip’ James covered. But we can say that relationships are the name of his game. In fact, he believes so strongly in relationships that he keeps in touch with customers who ended up buying not from him, but his competitors.
Why?
Because he counts on his competitors to not follow up. And most of the time, they don’t. So next time those customers buy, or next time someone asks them for a referral, guess who they remember? Hint: it’s not James’ competitors.
Sneaky, right?
The Need for (Smart) Speed
StomperNet's co-founder takes the stage for the first time as the new sole owner of our organization - so what's on his agenda?
I’m going to briefly address the, um, four folks in this room who’ve never seen Brad Fallon speak before. Get you up to speed and all that. I can summarize it this way:
Brad’s fast.
He talks fast. He builds companies fast. He makes money, fast.
Brad’s favorite quote isn’t from a business or marketing guru, or any kind of guru at all. It’s from a race car driver named Mario Andretti. “If everything seems under control, you`re just not going fast enough.”
See? Speed is where Brad Fallon is at.
But this event, he has a new twist on his usual “Go, go, go…” He’s now moved on to teaching a way to control the speed. To go not only fast but to go smart. Keeping an eye on how you are “spending” that speed is just as crucial as going quickly.
What Brad’s talking about is Leverage and Productivity. And the wasteful evils of Multi-Tasking. He’s taking us through worksheets and charts based on Brad’s favorite project management system – the Theory of Constraints. It’s really opening a roomful of eyes.
This system works so well that when a government agency used it to build tanks, their productivity skyrocketed. So much so that not only were they suddenly able to output the product they needed to produce…they had extra capacity. They were so efficient and so streamlined that they were able to take on extra work from the private industry.
Wouldn’t you love to get that much done, with exact same amount of workers?
#&*@%@
Bad words never sounded so good as when they will help you find more customers for your business!
Ross Goldberg defines himself a lot of different ways. A war vet. An accidental Internet Marketer. Former Fighter.
Potty Mouth.
He’s all that and then some. Ross’s delivery style is real and honest and always amusing. But his content is solid and real-world and clearly appreciated by the crowd.
Today Ross is talking about managing your reputation online. He’s helping us manage our overwhelm. He’s actually posting a slide and making us read out loud what’s written on it:
“I promise not to use what I learned today for Evil Purposes.”
—–
Quite a day (and that’s not even ALL of the stuff we covered on Friday!) Even though these are all the updates for the moment, but you’re going to want to get ready, because we’ve got even more coming up soon! (With video!) And don’t forget to leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
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