We talked about the way that Domino’s pizza posts customer responses on their Facebook in a clever and effective manner. Unfortunately, most businesses are not in the position to be able to post in the same way  whether it’s due to being a localized business or simply not having the brand recognition and customer interaction that the pizza chain has. The good news is that it can still be done well without being a nationally-recognized name. People might not be posting as often to social pages or visit the websites of local businesses, but one thing that happens regularly for many is the online reviews…

Defamation. Freedom of speech. Honesty and transparency versus lies and coverups. These and other gray matters are all in play in a $750,000 lawsuit filed by a Virginia contractor against a former customer who left a scathing review on review sites Yelp and Angie’s List. If it gets settled in court, the ramifications will be felt by both the review industry as well as millions of small businesses around the country. If Christopher Dietz, owner of Dietz Development LLC, wins the lawsuit, many consumers will become fearful of posting reviews that call out businesses. If Jane Perez, the woman who…

With so much money going into social media as a marketing and branding tool, it’s hard for businesses to discern the true value that their social media efforts are bringing. How much are they really getting when someone posts a tweet about them or mentions them on Facebook? Are they getting real value or is it all just another intangible to throw into the advertising budget like billboard signs and television ads? The folks over at backupify took their cloud data and applied it to the question, “What is social data worth?” The results help to quantify social by showing the average per-user value and…

They say you have to spend money in order to make money. The problem for Yelp is that they may be spending too much money compared to what they’re earning. This is common for publicly-traded companies, but in their case they may be spending too much compared to how much they have the potential to make, a prospect that nobody at the company and few on Wall Street are willing to entertain. There is definitely growth-potential for whoever can do well in the local listings and recommendations industry. Mobile devices, the Apple products in particular, rely on Yelp as a way for users to find the best sushi…

There are definite distinctions between users of various social sites. They’re often easy to spot based upon their look (Tumblr), activities (FourSquare), and attitude (Pinterest), but the combination of the three can help us identify Yelp users very easily. Our friends at Flowtown take a humorous look at the Yelp phenomenon and the people who drive it. Reviews are important for businesses so the ability to spot a Yelp user as they’re walking in the door can be the best defense against negative comments that can haunt a business for years. Click to enlarge. (H/T: Peoria Chevrolet Dealer)…

When Yelp denied Google’s $500 million bid to buy them in 2009, many believed that the location/reviews company was positioned to fight the search giant in their niche and win. That has been the case so far, but Google is making strides to change that, including today’s announcement that they had purchased the venerable restaurant resource and ratings company Zagat. Restaurant reviews have always been the cornerstone of Yelp’s service. Most major restaurants are loaded with Yelp reviews and consumers tend to trust them more than they trust other online services. Zagat has been the exception,…

A new partnership between Yelp and OpenTable will allow the US public to browse restaurant reviews written by users and quickly make reservations within a few clicks without having to jump between websites or pick up the phone. The social review site Yelp, which offers itself as a platform for people to make known their grievances or praises about anything from technology to nightclubs, has partnered up with OpenTable to allow users to make reservations at restaurants without having the need for lengthy searches through the phonebook. Users will now be able to read a review and then use an OpenTable…