Yelping About Yelp
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/yelp.htm
Yelp, the restaurant review service has gone under quite kitchen heat of late. Recently, many sources have surfaced stating that Yelp uses deceptive techniques to diminish the amount of negative reviews consumers find for certain clients. While Yelp has strongly denied these allegations, it seems as though the consumer-base still holds strong skepticism to Yelp’s prowess. Especially with the emergence of other applications that provide reviews, more and more customers are turning their backs to Yelp’s services. Yet the question remains, “how much power does Yelp really hold?”
Upon receiving many accusations of scamming customers into attending certain restaurants, Yelp has made strong efforts to supply their consumers with sufficient information to demonstrate that indeed, they are “cooking up” truthful reviews and proclamations. However, many of the actions taken, including a “myths” page on Yelp’s main webpage have gone unnoticed and given a cold shoulder by consumers. Now it is a matter of how Yelp will force its way back into the “Restaurant Yellow Pages” realm once again. Through a persistent and educated marketing process, perhaps it is possible for Yelp to reclaim the top position and reign supreme for another duration during the technological era. In order to do so, Yelp will really need to take advantage of the social networks available and get its name to be branded among the industry.
With the exponentially growing number of users on the Internet, including social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it is even more important for Yelp to branch out to these websites to advertise its new and improved look. Concepts of Graph Theory suggest that multiple users will see Yelp being shared and in turn, more people will view the website, and multiple restaurant suggestions will be made to each user. In applications/companies such as Yelp, networking is of the utmost importance.
-SIA