Are You Causing Your Own Reputation Problems?
It’s no secret, I love Yelp, and have been an active Yelper since April of 2008. I was reading a discussion on my local Yelp thread today about about a business going in and creating 9 different profiles, and submitting the same company (a computer repair service company – my guess was his) a 5 star review on each one. I get it, you want to try and game the system, figure out how to push the boundaries … but cmon’ that’s just damn stupid!
Not only did the accounts all get removed and banned from Yelp, but the business then proceeded to get real reviews, (for doing so) from real – active Yelpers – and trust me … they are not good. In less then a day, this idiot business owner has created himself a reputation management nightmare that will be very hard to overcome. Yelp ranks well, as he obviously knew, but what he failed to understand is why it ranks so well (much trust), and how the community works. These negative nasty reviews on his business listing (the real one finally – haha) will probably rank above his website, or close to it, and guess what? It’s always going to be there!
