Yelp & Facebook – What New Partnership Means For Restaurants
April 23, 2010
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Yelp will become an even bigger player in the restaurant marketing mix after this week’s announcement that the user-generated review site has partnered with Facebook to integrate content between the two communities.
The collaboration aims to make the experience on Yelp more personalized for their members and make friends’ opinions on local businesses visible on Facebook.
Here’s an overview of the features announced on Wednesday:
- Yelp will pull personalized information from Facebook to automatically create a profile for new Yelp users.
- A new user will land on Yelp and be able to see which Facebook friends have reviewed a business and easily read their reviews.
- Users will be able to view a feed of what their friends are doing on Yelp (adding pictures, writing reviews, and liking businesses).
- Yelpers will be able to see which friends have “liked” a particular business
Yelp offers the following information about liking businesses on either of the sites:
- Any user logged into either Yelp or Facebook will be able to like a business on Yelp by pressing a Like button. This is similar to the functionality Facebook has that allows you to like the content your friends post on Facebook.
- Liking a business on Yelp will also mean you like it on Facebook, however users can opt out of sharing.
- Liking a business in Yelp means it will also show up on the user’s Facebook profile, much like the way pages fanned on Facebook are currently displayed. This link will point back to Yelp’s business page.
What should the savvy restaurant marketer do to make the most of these features? Join, engage, connect. Your goal as the face of the business in social networks should be to facilitate interaction with your brand. Business owners can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines while conversations regarding their establishments take place online. Whether or not you have raving fans or disgruntled patrons posting their thoughts on Yelp, their comments are going to have a much wider audience now that their opinions will be ported automatically to their friends on Facebook. This requires that there be an official voice of the restaurant conversing with customers in these venues.
If it hasn’t already been done, create an official presence on Facebook and Yelp. This entails claiming or adding the business listing in Yelp and creating a business page in Facebook. Once the profiles have been created, view activity on each of these pages on a daily basis. Yes, this takes time out of an already busy day, however it’s not as much as you might fear. Five to ten minutes each day should be adequate to monitor and respond to comments entered in Yelp and Facebook for an average independent restaurant. Even franchised businesses shouldn’t have to spend much more than that on social networking on the average workday.
It’s important to acknowledge both good and bad reviews – graciously accept compliments and quickly address any complaints that may appear. TwoTables strongly recommends responding publicly rather than sending private messages within the social sites. This serves two purposes: other users can see how you respond to make a negative situation better and you have shown that you are an active member of the Yelp & Facebook communities. Over time, this investment pays off in building trust and loyalty with your online customers.
I know that Yelp is a volatile subject in the restaurant industry and would love to hear how you feel about the new partnership with Facebook. How do you think this will affect your business? How will you adapt to this new paradigm? Let us know by leaving a comment!
If the ever-changing landscape of web marketing leaves you dazed and confused, please take a minute to contact us either by phone, email or via our quick and easy contact form. We’ll provide you with a free analysis of your restaurant’s online presence and specific tactics you can employ for improvement.
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