Restaurant Reviews On Yelp Driving You Crazy, Too?
If you're new here, you may want to Join Restaurant Revolution for Free. When you do, I'm going to send you a couple reports and other goodies. Thanks for visiting!
As a former Yelper, I can honestly say, I’m scratching my head over why certain restaurateurs put so many eggs in the Yelp basket.
The appeal of this mostly-popular-among-Gen Y-user-generated-content site is two-fold, catering to innocent restaurant-goers seeking a quick online review of a certain eatery as well as those who want to open an account, jump in and become a part of the cliquish—often snarky, sometimes vulgar—culture that gives Yelp its intimidating reputation.
The influence of sites like Yelp are often underestimated, even by the likes of travel publishing mogul Arthur Frommer, who shamelessly criticized the site for its amateur writing and unnecessary venting. Of course, he was challenged by quite a few Yelpers, including one who cowardly went by the pseudonym Muffin Top or something like that, calling Mr. Frommer the most offensive of names while defending the “credibility” (my choice of words) of the reviewers.
In the realm of journalistic review, this past week, the San Francisco Business Times featured an article called “Restaurants Learn to Yelp,” which talks about restaurateurs who respond to negative Yelp reviews through ass-kissing of its members and inviting dissatisfied patrons back for a new and improved visit.
“Elizabeth Falkner of Citizen Cake fame tried to stave off negative reviews of her new restaurant Orson by inviting in top Yelpers, those who post the greatest number of reviews, for a private pre-opening party,” the article states. And Faulker says she had a party for Yelpers and “they wrote a lot of cool things.”
Hmm. Oh nothing. Just, hmm.
In my experience of talking to folks who Yelp, or post online reviews elsewhere I discovered a lot of folks who bashed on professional food writers for their lack of integrity. Saying they provide the honesty because no one is handing them a free meal to write the review. But based on the article above, apparently this might not be so true anymore. Having worked on that side of the media desk, I can say, yes food writers can sometimes get preferential treatment. And yes, this might lead to embellishing the experience and cloud an honest review.
What’s most interesting though, is how food bloggers, Yelpers and whoever else might be reviewing restaurants online are gaining recognition for their impact on consumer buying behavior, and therefore receiving this preferential treatment by restaurateurs and PR folks they were so quick to bash before.
In the same article referenced above, one eatery mentioned they had given free meals to anyone who posted a negative review, until word got around that Yelpers just need to bash the place to get a free meal ticket.
In a blog I posted earlier this year on the restaurant social networking site FohBoh, I talked about a former fellow Yelper who generated a buzz of a certain restaurant in Orange County. After it started becoming popular on Yelp, to the point of a group of them visiting the place for a couple of meals, the restaurant still shut down. In other words: Yelp was no help.
My guess is, and it’s only a guess, restaurateurs who give Yelp credence are doing so because if you Google any restaurant, and it’s been reviewed on Yelp, no doubt this review will appear on page one of Google, and perhaps be No. 1. This is how I found out about Yelp. Of course, after clicking on the review, one is easily sucked into the numerous reviews, the humor, the caddiness and eventually the appeal that anyone—and I mean anyone—can be a food critic.
But if there’s no review on Yelp, then there’s no presence of Yelp on page one of Google, and more than likely not on page two or three for that matter. But other review sites might appear on page one, making Yelp not just the only game in town. Besides, think about what you look for in a review when you Google the restaurant. Chances are honesty, the date (how recent it is), price range and the summation of an experience are the key things. If so, any of the sites below can give you the same thing, although some without the large quantities of reviews but enough to give you an idea of the quality of food and service:
–
Article provided by Judy Asman.
Free Restaurant Training Report: “Tough Economy Edition”
Restaurant Revolution and Judy Asman conducted an information session with John Alexander of Chart.org. This interview was put into video format and can be seen here.
To help you get the most value of this information, we created this 10-page, no-fluff report (shown right). If you want the lists, tips and bullet-points that John brings up, make sure to get your copy of the report absolutely free.
How Training Will Help Your Restaurant Thrive In Any Economy
If you enjoy this report and want more like it, you’re invited to Join Restaurant Revolution.
FohBoh Video Tour - Restaurant Social Network
Find more videos like this on FohBoh
I had the pleasure of working with Ted Cohn and Michael Atkinson to produce this video tour of FohBoh, the premiere restaurant industry social network.
During production I interviewed people such as Doug Golden from AdvanceMe, Ray Villaman from the Tahoe Restaurant Group, Amanda Hite from Talent Revolution, Andy Swingley from Thomas and King, and Matt Urdan from Nantahala Outdoor Center.
If you haven’t already, make sure to join FohBoh and get involved. The amount of resources available are powerful and will do much for your business.
Restaurant Revolution On The Top 50 Blog List
Restaurant Revolution is #12 on Evan Carmichael’s Top 50 Blogs for Startups To Watch In 2008!
“EvanCarmichael.com is the Internet’s #1 resource for small business motivation and strategies. With over 260,000 monthly visitors, 1,700 contributing authors, and 42,000 pages of content no website shares
more profiles of famous entrepreneurs and inspires more small business owners than EvanCarmichael.com.”
CouponCuisine Restaurant Marketing System - Concern #1
We’ve heard a couple major concerns from our readers about the impending release from Restaurant Revolution… CouponCuisine. The first, and probably most important of these deals with time and “technical understanding”…
CONCERNS:
- “If I join CouponCuisine… I don’t think I’ll have time to use it properly”
- “I’m not a techie… and don’t care to become one for the CouponCuisine program.”
BACKGROUND: The Internet marketing “world” is entirely different than the traditional marketing restaurant owners are used to. It does have many layers… and each ones becomes more technical as you get into the processes.
When I was developing CouponCuisine, one of the biggest factors on my mind was making it EASY to use… and yet remain powerful. Of course that’s not a simple task. And I can’t say that it’s been perfectly accomplished. But, by keeping a high standard for visual layout and getting feedback from restaurant consultants along the way… joining, setting up and using CouponCuisine effectively is not difficult.
That doesn’t mean you WANT to set it up… and it also doesn’t mean you have the time to.
SOLUTION: So given that our potential clients are some of the busiest people alive… and some are not technically inclined… CouponCuisine and InternetWordMagic have formed a unique partnership.
Together we created the CouponCuisine Account Management Program.
Click here to listen to a phone call explaining the program
Basically, you can join CouponCuisine and have a professional restaurant marketer take the reins… so you can get all the benefits… all the profits… with NONE OF THE WORK.
It doesn’t get any more “stupid-easy” (as I like to say) because it’s like having free money handed to you… considering that our system is 100% guaranteed.
Of course you’re thinking it’s going to cost your right arm to get involved, but that’s not the case. It’s actually cheaper than most any traditional marketing campaign… except now you have the #1 Internet Marketing System and a professional marketer running it for you… and it’s guaranteed to exceed your expectations.
Please forgive me - this isn’t meant to be a “sales pitch” - but after putting this together with Michelle over the past couple of months, I’m very excited about what it will do for our clients.
Stay tuned for more details. Our anticipated release date is before April 1, 2008. The best way to stay informed is to register for CouponCuisine’s free report… that way you’ll receive details immediately and possibly get an Early Bird special if you should join us.
Recent Comments