Reviewing the Yelp Review Filter

I’ve just published a longer article on the Yelp Review Filter, what it is, how to manage it and, of course, how to spam it.

Since I wanted to make it a page rather than a post it doesn’t have comments so I’m putting up this post to collect comments.

Are you a business who is stinging from being Yelped? Tell us about it and we’ll do a follow up blog post with the best stories.

And even if you’re not a business owner I’d love to hear your opinion of the Yelp Review Filter in the comments.

Buying Yelp Reviews Is BAD for Business

Yelp is intended as a review site where users can write and read reviews for local businesses to help make informed buying decisions. It’s a powerful tool in that users trust the real opinions and feedback from their friends and neighbors. Yelp’s user-driven reviews allow everyone to add in their opinions of products and services at local clubs, restaurants, and businesses in all forms.

There is obvious value to a small business owner in getting users to leave positive reviews. The question is how much should a business pay for a review? No, no, no … I’m joking. The question really is how do you encourage customers to leave Yelp reviews naturally and organically without abusing the intent of the site?

Yelp Review Filter Explained (How do I spam that?)

I was looking for more contact info for Luther Lowe and noticed his tweet about a blog post explaining Yelp’s Review Filter. Luther does a good job of explaining the Yelp Review Filter and Yelp has commissioned a video which tries to explain it in a friendly way. The review filter, Yelp’s legal woes and the general state of Yelpdom have been the topics of many conversations lately.

While in Portland last week presenting on Facebook Marketing at SEMpdx SearchFest I had a couple great dinners with some really smart people. One of those dinners included the aforementioned smart person Luther Lowe who is part of Yelp’s business outreach team.

Now Post Reviews Directly to Facebook and Twitter

For online businesses that depend on customer reviews to improve visibility in local search, social media engagement has become even more relevant with companies like Yelp giving reviewers the option to seamlessly broadcast their Yelp reviews to Facebook and Twitter.

According to the official Yelp blog, any photos that reviewers upload to Yelp.com will also be included when sharing reviews for that business via Facebook Connect. Users also have control over which reviews they want shared and which ones they don’t.

BizzSpot & BBB taking a page from the Merchant Circle playbook

BBB, BizzSpot partnership takes a shady tack to entice local businesses.

So, it’s taken me a few days to get back to this, but I was blown away by a recent cold-call from a company purporting to be the marketing arm of the Better Business Bureau.

I think everybody knows that the BBB is a commercial venture, but this was a little over the top.

Here’s why I liken it to Merchant Circle: The caller says “This is Valerie calling for William Scott. Calling on behalf of the better business bureau if you could please contact me at 888-xxx-xxxx. Thank you.”