Yelp! Where Niche Experts Can Reign Supreme

Yelp.com redefines local online business presence

Yelp.com Russos

Remember Citysearch? Well, Citysearch is dying. Four or five years ago, Citysearch was where I went when I needed to find something new to do in Boston — or in any city I was visiting, for that matter. It was a great resource. But it wasn’t consumer (or visitor) focused and it didn’t evolve fast enough.

Enter Yelp! Since 2004, Yelp! has been slowly building a high volume of great content (user reviews) for almost every category under the sun. You can find reviews on everything from locksmiths to lawyers to Legal Seafoods — and the content is GREAT!

Searchshare - Yelp v. Citysearch

Yelp! primed for Great Growth in Escalation

As you can see from the chart above, demand for Citysearch has slowly declined, while interest and demand for Yelp.com has steadily risen. Yelp! is in the midst of explosive growth, and they are garnering more and more attention from the mainstream media. If you have a local presence of any kind (whether it’s a Best Buy store in Watertown, MA or a hair salon in Los Angeles, CA), you need to pay close attention to Yelp.

New Media Life Cycle for Yelp!

On Yelp! subject matter experts will reign supreme

Yelp! allows users to write reviews, upload images and even give quick tips for any local business. The more I interact with Yelp! the more clear it becomes that subject matter experts pull a lot of weight. For example, if someone is a BBQ expert and travels the country writing wonderful content about the BBQ restaurants they visit, their reviews stand out. Reviews can be up- or down-voted and tagged as useful or funny, and the most useful reviews tend to be the most valuable insight.

Of course, some of the most active reviewers (people who have an opinion on everything) show up very frequently, especially in a specific locale, but these people don’t necessarily add the most value. They will make great local friends though, and as you begin to learn their likes and dislikes you’ll find a context in which to understand their reviews.

If you’re looking to get involved as a marketer at Yelp! I suggest you pick a specific area in which you can focus your energies. For example, if you’re a salesman in the business of selling stationary to office supply stores, turn yourself into a paper expert in every city where you do business. Objectively review each and every store you visit, add value to your review, tell us if the staff is knowledgeable. This kind of comprehensive, high-quality review adds tremendous value. Obviously, under no circumstances should you lie or disparage any company. This is not helpful to your readers. Yelp! is extremely powerful and even clients that you have to critique in your review can learn from your experience. It’s perfectly fine to tell people you’re “in the stationary business” — in fact, that gives you important credibility.

Invest time in Yelp!

Yelp! is still growing and will continue to grow. This means that if you see an opportunity to create valuable content on a specific subject area, you should add it to your social media portfolio. You should be spending 15% of your time, energy, and budget on things like Yelp! and work hard to measure your energies.

At the end of the day, we believe Yelp! will continue to expand (they just started a UK Yelp!) you should start participating today!

About The New Media Life Cycle Analysis

The New Media Life Cycle Analysis is the brainchild of the Tippingpoint Labs strategy team. Each week, our team takes a look at a new media channel and presents its findings here, to help chief marketing officers, directors of marketing, and social media experts add some context to their social media and content marketing strategies. If there is a new platform or channel you’d like to see us evaluate, please let us know. We’re more than eager to take a look!

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."