I enjoy sharing my experiences with others just as much as the next guy. If my experience is great I usually post something about it online somewhere. Most commonly, I post a review on Yelp because it’s easy and I am familiar with it. One thing that I have noticed is at I rarely post reviews for the things I experience most often. I will post a review for a restaurant my wife and I visit one time but posting a review for the coffee shop I frequent doesn’t even cross my mind. The people who serve me most often deserve the reviews more than the obscure places I may never visit again.
I am going to embark on a new challenge of publicly sharing my experiences with the businesses and products I come in contact with most often. My goal is to post a new review every day. This could range from writing a review for a local business to reviewing a product I love on Amazon.
Reviews play a big part in how we make decisions these days. How many times have you looked at products online and ordered the one with the most positive reviews? How many times have you clicked on the link with the highest number of ratings? I do it myself. I don’t want to make a poor decision so I look to see what others who came before me have said. Everywhere we go these days we can see what others have experienced. The world is getting smaller.
Most of my reviews will be written on Yelp or on a businesses Google Place Page, however it will also be fun to try different forms of reviewing. I may decide to shoot a short video review of a product and upload it to its Amazon.com page. Just sitting here thinking about it I already have a list of places and things I could review. To make this fair I will just be reviewing businesses and products I come into contact with during the next 30 days. This is not to say that I won’t possibly write reviews for other places and things I have experienced in the past but at least one review per day will be from an experience that day or the day before it.
I am excited to do this excuse I am excited to share my thoughts about the people, places and things that impact my life on a daily basis. These are people who deserve reviews. I encourage you to setup a Yelp account and write some reviews about businesses that you could not live with out. Your review could help the next person decide to visit and perhaps your influence could turn them into a new customer. How cool would that be? We all give inadvertent referrals all of the time. A written review online can help people make decisions every day. I believe that most people are like me, they just want to make a good informed decision.
Along with writing reviews, I am going to make sure that I checkin to those businesses with Yelp and perhaps Foursquare. I want my Yelp reviews to be backed up with proof of visitation. You can visit my Yelp profile at http://jeradhill.yelp.com. My hope is that the reviews I write will result in well deserved referrals. Most of the local businesses I frequent probably have no idea what Yelp or foursquare are. Perhaps I will have to enlighten them after I write the review. As a website designer I am always encouraging my clients to find creative ways to get their customers to write reviews. It is time I led by example and started writing reviews. The best way to get reviews is to start writing them about others.
Show the businesses you frequent that you care by posting a review on one of their profiles online.
I have never used Yelp, should try it as you have suggested. I love it when writers challenge themselves,I also use 750words web app, to ensure that I write everyday and keep my juices flowing!