Can Yelp do more for your business than Groupon or LivingSocial?
Of all the online coupon websites, Yelp is making the best use of social media to generate revenue for its listed businesses and for itself.
That’s important to know when your business is solicited to offer a one-day deal by one of the growing number of social commerce websites.
Groupon and LivingSocial have created niches by recruiting businesses to offer discounted products and services. They extensively market those offers over the Web and TV. Both make it easy for consumers to find local deals.
However, Groupon and LivingSocial are more like digital coupon books than anything else. They lack the social dimension of Yelp, which started as a consumer review site customized to the user’s location. Restaurants write-ups made up the bulk of the early listings.
In the past year, Yelp has solicited businesses to create specials and post them to their Yelp pages. Businesses design their offers and Yelp provides social media marketing tools such as Tweets and Facebook page updates.
By the way, if you haven’t read your Yelp page recently, do so. It could contain outdated or inaccurate information, such as that you are closed.
Yelp rises above Groupon and LivingSocial because customer ratings and comments drive the site traffic. Reviews range from praise (“Great food!”) to critical (“Overpriced drinks.”) to detailed information about products and customer service experiences.
The opinions help prospective customers decide if a coupon deal is right for them. The fact that Yelp was started for consumers by consumers puts it ahead of the competitors, which solicit sellers, not buyers.
