Yelp as a Local Economy Booster
As I have participated on Yelp throughout the semester, I noticed the advantages positive yelp reviews has on local business economy. With positive feedback reviews from a variety of users local businesses, no matter location or appearance (somewhat), local businesses receive a stream of revenue that they would most likely not have without the Yelp forum to bring business/service seekers together. To test this, I tracked back into my own dining experience prior to my activity on Yelp. In 2009, I visited a small vietnamese/thai restaurant on Williamson Street, Ha Long Bay. It was a dining choice out of connivence, looking for a restaurant off the beat path from the Barrymore theatre crowd on the night of a good show. I was pleasantly surprised with the food I received and the wait staff was beyond grateful to have two people in their small restaurant. After dining there, I looked them up online and it was as if they did not exist. No website, no facebook, no yelp, nothing. Their first yelp review by "Kerry F." from San Francisco, seemed however, to put them on the map. A series of happy and unhappy diners left their comments about the restaurant and since then, Ha Long Bay has developed its online presence. Creating a dynamic website with online reservations and emailing customers, additionally their fully functioning Yelp page is added to frequently. Yelp for this small, mom and pop, Asian restaurant is a source of free marketing and advertising that has greatly developed their fan base (my last visit required a reservation and I had to wait 20 minutes(!) much different than my first drop in).
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