The first general session of WOMM-U 2009 featured Geoff Donaker, COO of Yelp. Geoff gave the audience a brief overview of what Yelp is. One on side it's a consumer search site. You're looking for a restaurant a plumber, etc. On the other side, it's a business tool. You're a restaurant owner or a plumber and you need customers. Yelp meets these needs in the middle.

Yelp currently has six million reviews, many of those in the past year. Restaurants are 31% of reviews submitted. People think of Yelp as a restaurant review site, but only 1/3 of reviews are restaurants, the rest are spread across all manner of businesses. Why are they known as a restaurant site? Because most people eat out more than they may have their car fixed.

How do they make money? Local search ads.

Obviously people are going online to do research before making a decision. This trend is accelerating.

What they're finding by analyzing the site traffic is that no reviews = no traffic. The more reviews a business has, the more traffic they get online. Major retailers are now realizing that they need to be part of this ecosystem.

What have they learned about WOM?

Geoff recently had a situation with his car, it needed repairs and at first he didn't use his own product. It resulted in a bad situation, but by going to Yelp and doing a little research, he found a mechanic that worked out perfectly. By listening to the opinions of others, Geoff found the quality service he wanted.

We all have a love/hate relationships with reviews. A carpet cleaner told Geoff some interesting stories. First, he removed all the logos from his vans since he didn't want to accidently cut off somebody in traffic, and then get a negative review.

The small business operators want such control over their personal brand. The concept of putting control in the hands of their customers is terrifying to them. In the past this carpet cleaner would spend $50,000-$100,000 in Yellow Page advertising, now he spends $0. Because of Yelp and other sites he has more business than ever. However the money he's saving from advertising, he's spending on improving customer service.

For Geoff, it's great to see consumers winning and businesses that are providing excellent service winning.

Nothing sells better than great WOM. The stories that customers provide about products and services sell much better than advertising. As a result many of the organizations that excel on Yelp are focussing more efforts on WOM and service.

WOM does require think skin though. Negative reviews sting. Yelp recently entered into their first national advertising deal with Starwood Hotels. However, in the lead-up to the deal, a Yelp user posted a scathing review of a W Hotel in Arizona. Starwood asked for it to be removed, but Yelp left it up. Geoff wondered if that would scuttle the deal, but in the end Starwood realized that the positive and negative reviews were what made Yelp the resource that it is.

With online review sites the temptation to spam is very strong. Sadly there are people that will attempt to game the system. Some do this without knowing it's wrong, while others specifically

The manufactured reputation usually backfires. A pet sitter recently asked customers to write five-star reviews on Yelp and receive a $20 discount. From Yelp's perspective this violates their terms of service. It also brings out the vigilantes. People who attempt to protect the sanctity of the system. Sometimes that retaliation

However, negative WOM can be good for business. A local coffee shop that was VERY serious about their product received a 1-star rating. The reviewer felt the coffee shop was a bit too serious about the product. The coffee shop took that review and ran with it. It became a focal point of their marketing efforts. Yes they were serious about coffee and proud of it. That negative review was quickly turned to a positive.

It's worth engaging your vocal critics. Geoff showed a clip from a local wine shop owner. He said that whenever he contacts a negative reviewer and interacts with them, the review changes from negative to positive. Some of his best customers now are individuals that once left negative reviews.

Geoff's closing thoughts: The genie is out of the bottle, you're better off joining the conversation than not, choose your ambassador(s) carefully.

No break between the first two sessions, we're on to the next presentation.