Yelp Snapsot

Puts things into perspective. Yelp, being only 4 years old, is definitely something to take note of...especially for restaurants, who compose 34% of the reviews on the site. On the bright side 4-star and 5-star reviews top the chart for the most kinds of reviews made on yelp - a lot less bad mouthing and a lot more good word-of-mouth publicity!

Other interesting stats in the chart pictured above: 4 million reviews, with 34% restaurants, 23% shopping, 8% beauty and fitness, etc. Users are 51% male and 49% female, and 65% have a college degree.

Tech Crunch shares this and more info about Yelp in light of the recent Citysearch beta launch.

CRM and Web 2.0: What are you customers saying?

In today's Internet age, consumers are given more and a more of a voice. With the development of Web 2.0 (blogs, social networks, forums, i.e. user-generated content) businesses can no longer overlook the power of the people as a small blip on the radar. According to the NY Times Article about Yelp - 2.5% of all Internet users visted Yelp in March alone and, with 2.6 million reviews on the site, they pack a powerful punch. And yet, they aren't the only review site out there. With statistics like that no one can argue that media is shifting. Consumers are listening more and more to each other than to what the advertisements are telling them.

Do you know what your customers are saying about your establishment? Now is the time to find out! An easy way to get a glimpse about what dirt is out there, or who's singing your praises, is perform a simple internet search on your establishment. Be sure to also do a blog search - which will specifically search blog results based on your query - you can do so from here using Google.

Don't have time to pore through the search engine results? Start a free Google Alert for your restaurant. Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, blogs, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. It's easy, free and delivered straight to your inbox either daily, weekly or as it happens - your choice and you can stop or change the service at anytime.

To help you along your way here's a list of review sites to check out:

Yelp

Chowhound

Trip Advisor

City Search

Urban Review

Boo Rah

Menu Network

Foodie View

Yahoo Travel

Urban Spoon

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Read more on CRM & Web 2.0:

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NY Times Article: "The Coffee Was Lousy. The Wait Was Long."

Judy Asman, Food Industry Consultant: Other Games in Town Besides Yelp

San Francisco Business Times: Restaurants learn to Yelp

FohBoh Article by Judy Asman: Yelp Shocker

DestinationCRM.com: CRM Where You Least Expect It

OpenTable.com Press Release: MATTERS OF TASTE