STL Social Media Guy

I love this page from Yelp, which describes itself as a “online city guide made up of real reviews from real people.”

Among the highlights from their page, which addresses the concerns of restaurants, retailers and other commercial businesses about dealing with readers’ reviews:

DON’T overestimate the impact of a single negative review. It happens to even the best businesses. In fact, in speaking to Yelp users, we’ve learned that negative reviews sprinkled in with favorable reviews often act to enhance the credibility of the positive reviews by illustrating the honesty and openness of the Yelp environment. That said, if you see a trend of negative reviews, you may want to take this feedback and determine if there is a way to improve your business.

DON’T lash out at the people who have written negative reviews about you. Tempting as that may be, we see that backfiring in some cases as the Yelp community may up the ante and even engage in “vigilante justice” by spreading more negativity (see below for alternative).

DO use Yelp private messaging to thank reviewers for writing about your business but consider waiting 48 hours before responding to any negative reviews as a cooling-off mechanism. Be sure to put yourself in the mindset of your customer, and recognize that your tone may come across as defensive, so tread lightly.

Advice we could use in our newsrooms, for the most part.

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