Its NEAT to be ELITE: An insight into Yelp’s Clever Micro-Society and B2C Marketing

Since 2013, I have been a member of one of the most exclusive squads on the internet: The Yelp Elites.

Complete with Analytics!

Seriously though. I am Yelp Elite… and this year I even leveled up within even the elite squad: I am now a GOLD Elite, meaning I have reached one of two seniority levels: After 5 years of Elite membership your status changes from red to gold and after 10 years you are honored with a black badge as part of the rare and beautiful early adopters.

If you aren’t familiar with what the Yelp Elite Squad is all about, Yelp describes it as a “way of recognizing people who are active in the Yelp community and role models on and off the site. Elite-worthiness is based on a number of things, including well-written reviews, high quality tips, a detailed personal profile, an active voting and complimenting record, and a history of playing well with others.”

I kick myself sometimes because although I have been an active member of Yelp since 2008, I only applied to become Elite in 2013 so I am 5 years behind in my pursuit of the black level…

but what does all this really mean and who really benefits? Through my membership, use of the site and analysis of different business processes,  I’ve learned a lot about which information is beneficial to consumers, to business owners, to managers and to marketers.

Yelp Elite Event for Holisten’s 1st Birthday Party!

Let’s review the process.
In order to be honored as an Elite a Yelper must:
-Be very active within the Yelp community and by use of the site.
-Be nominated by self or a friend because of worthiness.
-Be evaluated by Yelp in a full audit of activities, profile completeness and review quality.
-Be continuously all of the above because elites are re-nominated and re-reviewed each and every year.
Call me biased but, I actually believe Yelp is brilliant for creating such a micro-society.
Yelp has gained much respect in the review space. When done right, consumers use yelp to guide them to well-rated businesses and businesses use their listings as a crowd-sourced marketing and customer service tool to understand how they’re doing. With due diligence, a great product and a fantastic experience to match, consumers are happy, worthy businesses grow and Yelp benefits by connecting the two on their platform poised with paid advertisements and the monetization of certain B2C services.

The Yelp Elite Squad helps all three (consumers, businesses & Yelp Inc.) while simultaneously enjoying free stuff because this geographically-specific group has been recognized to be above the rest of the consumers reviewing. It is because of their insights, detail orientation and network of friends and family their feedback should be held high.

Where the average Yelper might say “food was good” the Elite would say “the pizza crust was thin and had the perfect crunch on the bottom while simultaneously soft and chewy on top.” These details (and usually the photos that accompany them) make a big the difference to business listings because Yelp has designed the review feed to show Elites first (because they are the most trusted). Where else can a business receive this kind of press coverage from PAYING CLIENTS or for simply the cost of the food materials involved in hosting an Elite event? No where.

I could spend hours on the benefits of the social media sharing that the “Yelp check-in” adds to the whole environment. As of 2017, there is the option to add a photo and share it to one’s facebook, twitter and within the Yelp network so when anyone checks-in or when a business hosts a Yelp Elite event, the PR and Marketing reach goes well beyond those attending and/or those seeing it on the Yelp business listing. Also, especially in the case of the Elites, people who check-in on yelp likely have a network who they wish to notify because it is interesting to said network… making the integration of these social sharing options extremely valuable as a form of targeting like-minded consumer groups.

Yelp Elite Event for Holisten’s 1st Birthday Party!

I applaud Yelp for their brilliant marketing platform concept and the win-win-win situation they have created for consumers-business owners-Yelp Inc./The Elite Squad. The modern consumers want to see and hear unbiased truth before they spend their precious money and Yelp has created a self-sufficient platform where consumers come to gain knowledge on businesses and to make informed decisions based on trusted reviews while businesses get unsolicited, trusted feedback from their customers which informs future clients and generates revenue.

The Yelp Elite Squad furthers the reach of the products/services and elevates the level of trust between the two groups without costing Yelp Inc. or the actual business much at all – in fact, Elites often pay for their experiences AND THEN spend time reviewing because there is a sense of pride and responsibility involved in the membership.

In reality, if you are Yelp Elite, as both a consumer and a squad member you write reviews based on the pay-it-forward idea (because you used the site to find said business), the fame within the Yelp community (because of your shiny badge/review placement in listings/the analytics reporting on your content that Yelp provides), and the possibility of being accepted into free events (because they are exclusive to the squad)… but only if you have recent reviews (another clever ploy by Yelp HQ).