GeoMonday 2015.4 – Yelp – The Power of User Generated Content

The consumer voice online is stronger than ever. With the influx of social media, mobile purchasing, social sharing and reviewing, there is nowhere for businesses to hide when it comes to customer comments. Consumers love to share their thoughts and feelings about great businesses. So what happens when something goes right or wrong? They write a review online of course! Online community and review site Yelp now attracts over 89 million unique visitors per month coming from mobile devices alone, with 90 million reviews submitted to the site in total. So with that in mind, this session will address:

• Yelp – Fact & Metrics
• Attributes on Business Listings (Business & User generated)
• Yelp’s Recommendation Software
• Yelp’s API
• Careers @ Yelp

Maximilian von Garnier is Yelp’s Manager of Local Business Outreach for Germany. He hosts informational sessions with local business owners across Germany to educate them on best practices for navigating the world of online reviews. He works with Yelp’s Small Business Advisory Council, and delivers constructive feedback from the business community to the different division within Yelp. He also hosts a series of webinars about Yelp’s free online tools, and regularly produces informative content for Yelp’s “Blog for Business Owners”. Prior to joining Yelp in 2014, Max worked for AOL Germany as an Editorial & Video Production Manager for ten years. He was born in Berlin and now lives in Hamburg. For six years he was the head coach of the Hamburg Blue Devils (American Football).