According to an article last week on Mashable, Yelp will allow users to check in to wherever they are when writing a review for the particular place they are at. This adds a lot of competition to Foursquare, because it allows businesses to measure their clients and monitor what they're saying about the company/ place. Yelp has already created an iPhone app for this service. By using the mobile metrics, business owners will be allowed to see: the "number of times their business is viewed via a Yelp mobile app," "how many calls were made to their business via a Yelp mobile app," "directions to their business requested via a Yelp mobile app," and "check-ins."
I think this is a really smart move for Yelp. They're evolving in the right way- by combining their social media with new social media. This adds more legitimacy to the entire idea of "checking in" via a PDA. And because Yelp is so helpful, people are going to want to participate in using this new feature.
I also think that it shows that Yelp is actively paying attention to what's popular in social media, and I feel confident in their company and its services. I believe more companies should do something with location-based data because it's fun and it helps educate and connect people. It's a great tool to have.
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1 comment:
I agree this is a step in the right direction for Yelp, but there's another recent social media trend they may be ignoring.
With growing aggravation for Facebook's privacy policies and Google's "don't be evil" mantra being questioned, the public in general is becoming more and more wary of online platforms that don't respect their audiences.
Now Yelp is in some hot water, being accused of extortion in a federal class-action law suit by a number of small businesses who claim that their good reviews disappeared from the site after they refused to pay for advertisements.
One of the best things about the Internet is its ability to bring the truth to the people, and people seem to be getting more and more fed up with sites that don't live up to the Internet's promise for open and unmoderated online participation. Is it impossible for a business to maintain its morality while it grows?
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