Small Business Trends

Yelp Now Lets Customers ‘Check In’, Spread WOM

Social MediaJanuary 20, 2010By Lisa Barone

When I wrote my SEO Trends prediction post for 2010 I knew that mobile was going to be a big player this year. It’s been impossible NOT to see it with the rise of smart phones and the crazed adoption of location-based apps like FourSquare and Gowalla. And now we can welcome Yelp to the geo-location fray.

On Friday Yelp released a new version of its iPhone app which included several new features like the ability to view and edit yourr Yelp profile, Yelp Friend Finder, Yelp Check-ins, sharing via Facebook Connect and updates to Yelp’s Augmented Reality community. While all the features are great adds it’s obviously the check-in feature that has the most people talking.

With the new Check-In Feature, Yelp users will be able to see:

  • Their activity via their Yelp for iPhone profile page
  • Opt-in alerts including “Push” notifications
  • A Leaderboard on Yelp for iPhone
  • A Map that will also show the “Check-ins” of your friends nearby and your check-in count next to our Yelp star rating if you’ve written a review on Yelp.com
  • Where you’ve checked in on Monocle
  • Active users of Yelp Check-ins can also earn “Regular” status of highly-frequented businesses.

If you’ve been following the rise of FourSquare, then you know Yelp is basically incorporating what they’ve been doing for awhile now. And if you haven’t been following FourSquare, then there’s a lot to learn about how location-based apps may be able to help you as a small business owner.

I’m not a big fan of FourSquare which I’ve mentioned over here. From a user perspective, I find it rather cumbersome and annoying. However, as a small business owner these location-based apps provide a huge opportunity.

They give you:

  • Another page to rank in the search results for your business name
  • Great consumer data to see who your biggest evangelists are and how often they visit you
  • A chance to offer special discounts to active patrons
  • A look at your digital influencers
  • The opportunity to take online interactions offline and put faces to users

These apps give you a way to tie names, faces and actions to the people who visit you on a daily basis. And the fact that Yelp is now signing on to the check-in process is going to make this even more valuable for small business owners. Because while FourSquare is averaging more than one check-in per second, Yelp’s iPhone app is used by more than 1.25 million people. No other service can come close to that. Plus, the ability to check-in to locations is a very natural extension to leaving reviews and one I think community members are really going to like. Yelp also plans to show check-in counts next to reviews so that users will be able to tell if a reviewer is basing their opinion on lots of experiences or a single visit. It’s putting context and relevance to reviews in a way we haven’t seen before.

As a small business owner I think this means you need to be encouraging your customers to use these new apps by rewarding them for their efforts. Offer special promotions, have a Yelp or FourSquare night, highlight those that have been identified as regulars, etc. The more people ‘check in’ to your establishment the more they’re spreading word of mouth and showing people in your area that you’re a trusted establishment.

You also need to be keeping track of your establishment on these sites and finding ways to make the numbers useful for you. For example, perhaps it’s possible to track your busy vs slow days (and then offer promotions on slow days).  You can tie events to how many people are checking in and the types of responses left.  You can identify your most active customers and track where else they hang out to look for local partnerships.  The consumer data these apps offer up is pretty impressive. Instead of looking at analytics to track people on your site, you can use FourSquare to track them around the community. Use it!

I’m really excited to see how the new check-in feature influences Yelpers behavior because it’s combining a huge community with a new kind of location-relevance. And that will mean big things and brand new marketing opportunities for small businesses. It’s another way for SMB owners to connect with customers on their terms and offer exciting rewards.

About the Author

Lisa Barone Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media services, and other Internet services. She blogs daily over at the Outspoken Media blog.

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94 Responses to “Yelp Now Lets Customers ‘Check In’, Spread WOM”

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  1. Robert Brady says:
    January 20, 2010 at 11:30 am

    At saw a headline about this yesterday and figured it was just Yelp putting a warning shot across the bow of Foursquare. However, with the number of Yelp users this looks a lot more like Foursquare was hit pretty hard and may start taking on water. Ouch!

    PS Not to mention that Yelp actually has an app for my BB Storm while Foursquare just makes me use the site.

  2. Martin Lindeskog says:
    January 20, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    Lisa: Jinx! ;)

    I wrote the following comment:

    “Interesting stuff going around in the “location” services. You are talking about Yelp. I heard that they now have a service similar to geolocation tool like Gowalla and Foursquare.”

    http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/01/place-pages-features.html#comment-698722

    I think that Yelp has increased its credibility with this new feature. The reviews could now be “verified”. You could check if the reviewer really has checked-in at the location he / she is reviewing.

    If you want to listen to podcasts about Gowalla and Foursquare, go to Leo Laporte’s site Twit.tv (net@night).

  3. Foursquare According To Four Friends | Critical Mass PR says:
    January 22, 2010 at 11:01 am

    [...] course we already have apps like Urban Spoon and Yelp (which now also lets users “check in“) for much of this, so how can tools like foursquare and Gowalla build upon the utility of [...]

  4. brandon zeuner says:
    January 22, 2010 at 6:28 am

    Ryan,

    Good write up. Thanks for including me. I am still in evaluation mode between Foursquare, Gowalla (and now Yelp). When foursquare offered me a single scoop of ice cream the other day from Sweet Republic (because I checked in around the area) I was blown away. It was then (even knowing 6 months ago this was on their roadmap) when I realized the true power for Location-Based Offers (LBOs) or Geo Offers (GOs).

    I agree 100% with Jay Baer’s statement – “to be “friends” with locations as well as people could be a social media game-changer.” Well put!

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  5. Jack Smith says:
    January 22, 2010 at 11:42 am

    I have found myself ‘Checking In’ via FourSquare more and more lately – especially since they just launched there mobile app for the Palm Pre.

    I have also been surprised that I get asked by my friends about the places I go, “How was the coffee, your lunch or what was the service like?” That alone tells me it is something that business owners should pay attention to because of the easy exposure it can offer their business.

    I know we are just heading down this geo-location path, but I think it is something businesses need to pay attention to now to reap rewards later.

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  6. Ryan Zuk, APR says:
    January 22, 2010 at 11:51 am

    Thanks for contributing and commenting Brandon. I’m eager for some of these real-time location-based offers, if only to test out the experience. Hope I don’t regret saying that!

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  7. Ryan Zuk, APR says:
    January 22, 2010 at 11:55 am

    Jack, thanks for reading and commenting. Good point about easy exposure for business. I’ll be interested in your test of the Palm Pre beta app. I will test the new foursquare BlackBerry beta – and have to wonder if geo apps etc are going to finally take me over to an iPhone. (Business email has certainly been BlackBerry’s anchor. Will it last?)

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  8. Deb Kolaras says:
    January 22, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    The recent build that in addition to showing location also shows number of people at the same checkin point – that alone begins to make things more immediately useful to me. If anything, the tips section is underutilized and certainly a powerful touchpoint for businesses to tap into – why not put an offer or coupon right there? Hopefully businesses are paying attention, as I surely am. @bizcoachdeb

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  9. Heidi Miller says:
    January 22, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    Ryan–

    Thanks for the writeup. I’ve had thoughts brewing on the business value of Foursquare for a while now, and you’re really pushing them to the fore.

    For me, as a user, my “excuse” for constantly logging in via Foursquare was that I am a recent transplant to Seattle, and the game encourages me to get out and explore my new city and see what my new friends are up to and what they recommend.

    I agree that I’d like to see the app merged with a more precise GPS like Gowalla. Personally, I have a first-generation iPhone, and it doesn’t have GPS; it usually puts me within a block or two of where I actually am.

    And for local businesses, I have to say that the possibilities for promotion and marketing based on location are really fascinating, especially the idea of an immediate, time-sensitive coupon or offer for Foursquare folks.

    Can’t wait to see how it’s used.

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  10. Ryan Zuk, APR says:
    January 22, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Thanks for your comment Deb. That’s a nice point about understanding the sheer volume of people – and potential patrons – trending at the same location. Seems there is a lot business, friends, fans could do with this. (I’m envisioning thousands of fans checking in at the Super Bowl for example, and a savvy brand doing something about it.)

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  11. Anil Jain says:
    January 22, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Enjoyed the write up, Ryan (great looking blog site, btw). I believe we are just beginning to see the power and potential of geo-tagging and location-based services. On the LBS side, those applications/services that put the power and control of marketing to ‘locally-relevant’ audiences in the hands of businesses themselves – in a manner that is easy, intuitive and natural – will be the ones to watch.

    Local startup HyLo is one of those that everyone should keep on their radar – http://www.hylo.com / http://www.gohylo.com (Disclosure – I am involved with HyLo, advising the founders from inception).

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  12. Ryan Zuk, APR says:
    January 22, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Heidi, the game connecting you to your new city of Seattle is interesting to me, and possibly a common use case for veteran foursquare and Gowalla users – if we can call anybody that yet. I’m wondering how interesting it is to make some new discoveries with these apps in a town that has been home for years? I’m going to try that angle. Thanks for your comment.

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass

  13. Joel Libava says:
    January 26, 2010 at 10:31 am

    Lisa,

    The issue I have so far with location based stuff-twitter, is that whenever I look for local Twitterati on my Blackberry, (I use Twixreme} all I get are folks who I would never want to follow. Ever.

    Maybe Twitter can marry local trends with relevant folks based on one’s profile.

    The Franchise King®
    Joel Libava

    This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends

  14. Robert Brady says:
    January 26, 2010 at 10:46 am

    I’ve had a chance to see the local trends, but without a city within hundreds of miles I just don’t see the benefit. I also agree with Joel that many of local Twitter users won’t interest me at all. I guess I like the idea, but how it’s implemented will ultimately make it or break it for me.

    This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends

  15. Greg Elwell says:
    January 26, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    I think there’s more to just the idea of location creating relevance in social media for SMB owners/marketers. There also has to be some compelling reason to connect, pay attention and care – as Joel and Robert point out.

    I don’t think there’s a magic pill or application to take the place of the need to create value-based connections, and most often these occur organically, one-by-one with some effort and commitment. But, if Google local trends can be built out to help identify and one to establish connections – that could be a good thing. Also, I agree, it would be nice to see some standardization via the location setting.

    Thanks,
    Greg
    Zephyr Marketing

    This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends

  16. Walt Goshert says:
    January 26, 2010 at 4:45 pm

    To echo Greg’s comment, yes, this sounds like another bright, shiny, potentially useful tool, but isn’t the local business better served building relationships organically with the market Influencers and Connectors… and let them do the heavy lifting of spreading the message?

    Hey, if you’re a local business and all you add is SPAM crap to my Tweet stream, I’m hitting Block and Unfollow.

    This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends

  17. Ryan Zuk says:
    January 30, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    Thanks Anil. (My regrets, your comment got caught in a filter. Thanks for your comment on the blog site layout. It’s fairly new and I’m getting the hang of things.) I agree, serving up content that’s very geo specific is going to be quite interesting. Apparently it’s going to be pretty competitive in the early going too … I see “Facebook Is Working On A Foursquare Killer” http://bit.ly/b4cr80 (as shared by http://twitter.com/gregheadaz).

    HyLo looks interesting. Hope to learn more.

    This comment was originally posted on Critic(al) Mass



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