3 Ways of Using Yelp as a Tool For Your Business

There are thousands of professional, entrepreneurial women who now run small businesses from their home office or from a small space in their home that they set up as their work station. As with most successful ventures operating an online business takes passion, patience and a creative use of business tools. One of the many business tools that is worth looking into for your business is Yelp.

Yelp is a social networking site for small business owners. Its aim is to create a connection between business owners and customers through the use of reviews. It has been around for many years, since 2004 and allows entrepreneurs and customers to talk and interact about their products and services. Big and small business owners, men and women are members of this site; and your current and potential customers, have the chance of reading the reviews of fellow customers about a product or service that they want to buy. The main idea is either they will be convinced and purchase the item (s) themselves, or be warned against buying it.

If you are wondering how yelp can help you in your business, here are a few ways how:

• Business orientation. Your information will be made known to many potential customers. Millions of people will be potentially introduced to what kind of business are you offering. Yelp had an average of approximately 108 million monthly unique visitors in Q2 2013. On Yelp you can post your contact details for those potential customers to have access to should they be interested in using any of  your services or if they want to place an order for your products. Think of this like placing an ad on television without paying those premium prices to advertise. In fact, most smart business women are using the power of social networking sites like Yelp and other more popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo and many more to advertise their business.
  
  
• Customer reviews. Feedback from clients and customers can provide women entrepreneurs with valuable insights and opinions from the people who matter most. These are downright honest reviews which can identify weak points in your products as well as areas which need improvement. Alternatively, Yelp offers customers as space where they can lavish your business with praise when they are truly excited and pleased with your products or services.
  
  
• Business connection. Since this is a site that has the capability of connecting companies and customers, you can also make use of it by connecting with like-minded and complimentary business owners. If you’re a new entrepreneur, it is wise to reach out, make introductions and connect with established women business owners, it's certainly what we encourage and how we operate within our online community here at MACsWomen. You just might find that they are willing to give you some pointers to help move your business forward or that they might be interested in collaborating. 

Do you have some specific ways that you've utilized Yelp for your business? Share them with us in the comments section below.