Yelp is an online resource that many individual use to research restaurants, coffee shop, or hair salon. If your nonprofit organization provides services to the community, you may also be listed on Yelp. Below are a few tips to help you ensure that you’re maintaining a positive online presence.
Research yourself – If you haven’t searched for your organization yet on yelp, now is the time. Look at a listing for your office or instances in which a user mentioned your organization. While you can’t respond to these directly, the information can be helpful when assessing the effectiveness of your work with the public and what individuals are saying about you.
Claim your company page – You can sign up for your company page on Yelp. This will give you access to a free Yelp for Business Owners account. This account will allow you to monitor how many people view your business page, immediately update business information, privately message customers, and receive email alerts of new reviews. These tools are critical to maintaining a positive presence on this platform and will provide valuable data.
Respond to comments – Don’t be afraid to respond to comments. If someone had a negative experience with your organization, it will be helpful to publicly apologize for the issue. A comment that offers to speak with them offline to clear up confusion or talk in greater detail about the policy that they disagree with helps show other Yelp users that you are conscientious of your supporters needs.
Keep it positive – It is imperative that you always keep comments and responses to reviews as positive as possible. If a comment is invalid, false, or about another organization, do not respond with negativity. This creates a cycle of negative comments and does not reflect well on your organization, staff, volunteers, or mission.
Justin (he, him) is a Principal and Co-Founder of Social Change Consulting. He has over fifteen years of nonprofit experience, with expertise in online fundraising, digital communications, and data management. Justin helps organizations connect their communication strategy to their income development needs. When he’s not on the clock, Justin is exploring Berlin, running, listening to too many podcasts, and drinking too much coffee.