Local Manufacturers and Product/Service Providers Have to Participate If Yelp Is Going to Benefit Them Too
Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on April 29, 2010
For those of you who are not familiar with Yelp.com it is a local search engine that has successfully combined aspects of social networking with a structured paid advertising model. Users are able to specify in their search the type of business they want and the location it is near. Afterwards they are able to publicly share the experience they had with the local business via the online application. Yelp refers to the model as “word-of-mouth – amplified.”
On the business side, Yelp offers local business owners a suite of free tools to ensure they make the most of their Yelp advertising experience. The tools allow them to:
- Communicate with customers– privately and publicly
- Track how many people view their business page
- Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties
- Announce special offers and upcoming events
- Recommend other businesses
As customers communicate information about the local business they are also communicating valuable information about themselves, which can be used by business owners for more targeted marketing campaigns.
As always with these search engines they rely on pre-determined business categories into which their member advertisers must fit (see Industrial Web Search for a different model based on accurate content tagging not categories). This is not the best model for small local manufacturers whose category may not be listed among the options. However, on the positive side, the local search tool is available on both a desktop and mobile platform, making it available to iPhone and Smartphone users who use their phone for everything, including search.
Mobile search is on the rise because it is convenient and allows one to search wherever wireless access is available, including at a job site. Yelp has a feature called Monocle that allows a search to be conducted using the mobile device’s built-in camera. The camera is used to pan the location from left to right. The Monocle application displays icons for the type of business queried in the search that is nearby and even includes consumer comments. As this type of application goes mainstream, notes John Havens, VP of Social Media at Porter Novelli, businesses will be able to Tweet (post messages via Twitter.com) in real-time to passersby about products and services they are offering.
There are plenty of businesses out there that rely on products and services from local manufacturers and providers. Although the industrial world hasn’t embraced all these new technologies yet, the time will come when it will and it is to your advantage to be present and well represented. At least start by getting listed. Sign up at Yelp.com. Let your target audience groups know they can find you there. If the industrial marketplace is to benefit from all this technology it has to start making its presence known. By demonstrating value to the search engine providers features and applications will be developed to both serve and capitalize on the revenue-generating possibilities offered by the industrial marketplace.
I hate to post anonymously, but Yelp has shown a history of shady business practices and I’d hate to bring their wrath down on my company. They’re currently in the middle of a number of lawsuits for removing positive reviews and elevating bad reviews for companies who refused to pay for advertising. That’s not the type of company I choose to do business with and I’d hate for an industrial manufacturer to suffer that type of extortion.
You can read more here:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/17/complaints-against-yelps-extortion-practices-grow-louder/
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.