NRA Show Blog

The great debate: are Yelp reviews a good or bad thing?

 
By Jennifer McLaughlin, Contributing Blogger

Ever had a bad review on Yelp? If you are anything like Chef Stefan Richter, “Top Chef” runner up and restaurateur, you may have lost sleep over negative Yelp reviews. With 50 million unique visitors each month, it is hard to ignore the influence of Yelp. It has turned the tables on how diners discover new places to eat and how restaurants operate. 

At today’s education session, 2011 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show attendees listened to a lively discussion with Stefan Richter, Luther Lowe, director of business outreach for Yelp and moderator Corby Kummer, senior editor, The Atlantic.

As a business owner, Richter opened the discussion with his own personal experience with Yelp. “I just opened my restaurant in L.A., and the first three Yelp reviews were horrible. They hated the place. The food was bad. Service was bad. Everything was bad. And you start to think, how could this happen? I cook everyday, I buy the best ingredients—it can make your head spin.

6 steps to get more talked about, recommended

By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief

As we reported last month, the National Restaurant Association’s 2011 Restaurant Industry Forecast indicates social media savvy consumers (those who are frequent users of at least one social media tool, including Facebook, Twitter, mobile phone applications such as Foursquare or Urban Spoon, or online review sites such as Yelp) are most active in the restaurant industry. 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief

Original post ran February 15, 2010 in SmartBlog on Social Media by Jesse Stanchak, associate editor, SmartBrief on Social Media

Today’s post comes from Derrek J. Hull, voice of the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and International Wine Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB) blog Floored!, as well as its Twitter and Facebook profiles.

Restaurants need a response plan that includes social media elements to cope with the fact that customers can leave negative comments almost instantaneously.  Having a plan in place before a situation occurs lets everyone on your team know who the point person is for the response, along with the chain of command and the plan for monitoring the conversation.

Everyone gets a good or bad review at some point. Embrace it — and in the case of a bad review, don’t sweat it. Look at every comment as an opportunity to have a conversation.

“If people are taking the time to give you feedback — even if it’s negative — that’s an opportunity for you to re-frame the conversation with them and hopefully turn the situation into a positive,” said Spike Jones, of word of mouth and identity firm Brains on Fire.

Nobody is perfect. A couple of bad reviews alongside highly positive reviews actually makes potential customers more likely to take you seriously, because they realize your page isn’t full of shills posting fake positive reviews. In the case of Yelp, business owners have an option to respond privately and publicly to reviews — this free feature can be unlocked by visiting biz.yelp.com.

10 Golden Rules of Responding in the Social Media Age

By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief

Converseon's Lindsay Lebresco recently spoke at Gaspedal's Word of Mouth Supergenius conference about "the golden rules of responding" in the social media age.

Lebresco dished out ten tips to join in the conversation:

• Respect (the venue, the participants, the importance of even a single comment)
• Expect everything to be public (even if you intended it to be private)
• Speed is of the essence (react in a timely and appropriate manner)
• Openness and Transparency are key (trust is paramount)
• Never conceal (who you are, who you work for and what your intentions are - FTC Guidelines)
• Do your homework (search, listen, read, know your communities first)
• Identify an engager (someone who will represent you well)
• Nothing builds credibility like action (do what you say or don't say it)
• Gather internal resources now (get them trained and ready to respond)

What's missing? Oh yeah, that's why Paying attention is so important!

Word of Mouth Tip #229: Say thanks!

* Word of mouth tip #229 is from word of mouth super genius Andy Sernovitz's book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

Starbucks Brews Action With Word of Mouth and Social Media

By Derrek J. Hull, Blogger-in-Chief

Last week's ideas-packed Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference hosted by GasPedal was a smash hit. Thanks a mil to all the speakers who shared tips and ideas on how to be great at word of mouth marketing.

We met up at the conference with Starbucks'  very own word of mouth/social media master Matthew Guiste for a one-on-one interview about how the company creates action with word of mouth and social media.

Q: How [and why] does Starbucks engage in WOM and social media?

A: We view social media not as a marketing channel, but as a way to genuinely connect with our customers outside the four walls of our stores. We meet them through a variety of experiences and online places. Chief among them are Facebook, Twitter, MyStarbucksIdea.com, YouTube and Flickr. We engage in these channels for a variety of reasons, most of which fit into the following three buckets:

• Listen and Learn: Active participation in the conversations in these places help us hear directly from and speak directly to our customers.