{"id":2038,"date":"2013-10-03T15:30:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T19:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2013-10-11T16:03:12","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T20:03:12","slug":"yelp-no-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/yelp-no-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Tooting Your Own Veterinary Hospital Horn on Yelp is a Big No-No!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2048\" alt=\"hand typing\" src=\"http:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hand-typing.jpg\" width=\"335\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hand-typing.jpg 335w, https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hand-typing-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever been tempted to post a great online review all about your own veterinary practice, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to rethink. Astroturfing, the posting and\/or managing of fake online reviews, is not only unethical, it can harm your veterinary hospital\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reputation and spell big financial trouble for your practice.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Yelp\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advertising says it all: <b>Yelp is the best way to find great local businesses. People use it to search for everything from the city&#8217;s tastiest burger to the most renowned cardiologist.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><b><i>\u00c2\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Online reviews are powerful. Rave reports can bring pet owners to your door, and dissatisfied rants can send them running:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/articles\/2013-09-25\/operation-clean-turf-and-the-war-on-fake-yelp-reviews\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/articles\/2013-09-25\/operation-clean-turf-and-the-war-on-fake-yelp-reviews', 'Bloomberg Businessweek');\" target=\"-blank\">Bloomberg Businessweek<\/a> cites a study by Dimensional Research in which 90% of respondents confirmed that their buying choices were influenced by good online reviews; 86% confirmed they were influenced by bad reviews.<\/li>\n<li>Harvard Business School\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2011 study reported \u00e2\u20ac\u0153restaurants that increased their ranking on Yelp by one star raised their revenues by 5 to 9%.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<li>According to <i>New York Times<\/i> writer David Streitfeld, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you provide a service or sell a product and you are not reviewed, you might as well not exist.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And many businesses, realizing the impact of excellent reviews, have literally taken the matter into their own hands\u00e2\u20ac\u201dby either writing their own reviews or hiring others to do so.<\/p>\n<p><b>Crackdown on Astroturfing<\/b><\/p>\n<p>NY regulators have announced \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the most comprehensive crackdown to date on deceptive Internet reviews.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In fact, a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153year-long \u00c2\u00a0sting investigation, called Operation Clean Turf, exposed \u00c2\u00a0companies that created fake reviews on Google, Yelp, Citysearch and Yahoo. Nineteen companies were busted, ordered to cease their misleading practices, and fined a (combined) total of $350,000!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <a href=\"http:\/\/nyti.ms\/1b5XikV\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/nyti.ms\/1b5XikV', ' (NY Times)');\" target=\"_blank\"> <b>(<i>NY Times<\/i>)<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a nutshell, New York\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attorney general hired investigators to pose as shop owners wronged by negative reviews; their goal was to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153secure\u00e2\u20ac\u009d positive reviews\u00e2\u20ac\u201dan easy feat. As they uncovered a network of fraud including phony review services reaching all the way to Bangladesh, Eastern Europe, and the Philippines, it became increasingly clear that for very little compensation, eager writers awaited the opportunity to review a business they had absolutely no experience with. \u00c2\u00a0Bottom line: whether businesses choose to hire others to write good reviews, bribe actual customers to write good reviews, or simply sing their own praises (under a consumer alias), they are guilty of fraud, authorities are watching, and penalties await.<\/p>\n<p><b>Want Positive Reviews For Your Veterinary Practice? Ask Pet Owners!<\/b><b>\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Want to know how you can ethically encourage your clients to post reviews of your veterinary hospital? The formula is simple: Ask tactfully, with respect. A simple Facebook posting, sign in the lobby, or conversational mention\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<i>if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re happy with our services, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love a mention on Yelp\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/i>will remind satisfied pet owners that they can help your business and guide other pet owners toward quality veterinary care.<\/p>\n<p>For even more tips on how to encourage online reviews the right way, check out our blog next week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Copyright \u00c2\u00a9 VetNetwork, LLC<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>VetNetwork<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Marketing Solutions for Veterinarians and Veterinary Hospitals<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/\">www.vetnetwork.com<\/a><br \/>\n603-743-4321<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever been tempted to post a great online review all about your own veterinary practice, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to rethink. Astroturfing, the posting and\/or managing of fake online reviews, is not only unethical, it can harm your veterinary hospital\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reputation and spell big financial trouble for your practice. Yelp\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advertising says it all: Yelp [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[319,200,337],"tags":[438,440,442,20,439,441],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2084,"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions\/2084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}