Local review sites are an integral part of social media. Review sites give customers an opportunity to talk about the businesses they use. They also give business owners the opportunity to see how well you are meeting customer expectations.

• Before You Start: You have a business with customers.
• Learning Level: 1 | Social Media Basics
• Article Last Updated: Thursday, April 4, 2013

What Are Local Review Sites?

Local review sites allow customers to write and share reviews about the businesses in their community. If your business has customers, your business may already have a review on one of the many local review sites even if you don’t know about them.

Customers always have opinions about their experiences with businesses. Before social media, customers shared their opinions primarily through word-of-mouth to their friends and neighbors. But with social media tools, anyone with a computer can become a business reviewer. All it takes is an internet connection and a free account at one of the review sites.

The most common local review sites are Yelp, Citysearch, Insider Pages, Yahoo! Local, and Google Maps. There are many specialty review sites for specific industries, also.

Business Owner Tools

Any customer can write a review of your business online at any of the local review sites. Many times, the first customer to write a review of your business adds your business basic details. These details may be inaccurate or incomplete. Most local review sites allow the business owner to edit and enhance their business listing. The amount of detail you can provide varies between sites, and some sites may require you to pay for business owner services.

As a business owner, you can’t afford to ignore the local review sites. Instead, you need to embrace them and make sure that your business details are complete and accurate. Potential customers use these sites to find out how to become your customer. You want to make it easy for new customers to understand your business and find you.

Encourage Business Reviews

As a business owner, you want to make it easy for customers to write reviews about your business. You want reviews of your business because it shows that customers care about their experience with you. If your business is blah or boring to your customers, you don’t get many reviews. You want people to walk away with strong feelings about their experience with your business, and you want to make it easy for people to share their opinions with others.

Your turn: Is your business receiving reviews on local review sites? Do you know the most popular review sites in your community? Do you check them frequently?

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