Yelp Elite - Oh Yeah!

What is Yelp?

For those of you who don't know, Yelp is a website with reviews of businesses, places and events. Their official description according to their website is:

Yelp is an online urban city guide that helps people find cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of locals in the know. Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great — and not so great — in your world.

I had heard of Yelp over the years and often when I googled businesses a Yelp review would come up. I'd initially ignore them because seriously, who wants to read hundreds of people blabber on with their opinion of a place? Who has time for that? After a while though I noticed that the overall star rating for a place pretty closely matched what I ended up thinking of the place myself. Hmm ... could there be something to this crowdsourcing of reviews?

"My Name Is Cooler Than Yours" - Love It

To Yelp or Not to Yelp

After giving Yelp the credibility that it deserved, Yelp became my go-to place for reviews of restaurants and businesses. I was a reader though, not a reviewer. I was talking to my friend and former petsitter Jodie one day (boo hoo .. who left us to move to Minnesota) about Yelp and she said that the majority of her business came from people who had read her yelp reviews. Because I loved (well still love) Jodie and wanted to help her business, I decided to create a Yelp account and give her a great review as well. 

So I Yelped! And then you know what happened? My review was hidden and factored out of her overall star rating. WTH? I was so mad. Apparently if you only have a couple of reviews and an incomplete profile, Yelp thinks that the business owner just got a friend to fluff up the ratings with a fake review. What?? Nobody puts baby in the corner! And nobody is going to hide MY yelp review! I was so mad that I started reviewing places like crazy to build up my profile, AND wrote a follow-up review for Jodie ranting about my initial review being hidden. Guess what? It was unhidden! Hooray!

 I Made the Ice Cream Newsletter!

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Yelp Elite Squad

One day I noticed that some other Yelpers had an "Elite" badge next to their name. Jodie had one of these as well and told me what the Elite Squad was all about. Basically you're VIP and privy to super cool Elite only parties. As soon as I heard about the Elite squad I wanted in. If you know me and the way I travel, you know I'm obsessed with Elite status. I've been US Airways Gold Elite for about 7 years now, and I can't imagine flying any other way. By staying loyal to one chain of airlines I get free First Class upgrades, priority check-in, priority security lines, priority boarding, priority standby, standby fees waived, 2 or 3 free checked bags .. and oh yeah, on top of that I earn 1.5x the miles flown each time I fly. Its amazing. Seriously. How can you not want that once you've had it? Anyways, back to Yelp.

What is the "Yelp Elite Squad"?
The Yelp Elite Squad is our way of recognizing and rewarding Yelpers who are active evangelists and role models, both on and off the site. Elite-worthiness is based on a number of things, including well-written reviews, a fleshed-out personal profile, an active voting and complimenting record, and playing nice with others. Members of the Elite Squad are designated by a shiny Elite badge on their account profile.

Now that I'd heard of the Yelp Elite Squad, the big question was how do I get in?? I found a link on their website with information about applying, sent my pleading email in, and waited. I waited a day, two days, a week, several weeks .... and then I thought wow, I've been rejected! Without even a reply? Boo. But this girl doesn't give up easily! I continued to diligently review places on Yelp, in hopes that one day I'd qualify. Guess what? Months and months later, I was finally in! Whoo hoo!!

Yelp Elite Baby

Yelp Elite Events

Soon after I was accepted into the squad, Yelp had their first event ...  but ... I was going to be out of town. Their next two events came up and I was available, but not interested. Finally a month ago I saw an event that I was interested in, a prohibition themed party downtown! My Glam Runner partner Tara obliged to being my date and last week we headed to the party in our best attempt at 20s gear. This included black dresses, feather boas, and strands of pearls. Not our best effort, but we tried.

Prohibition Party at Bootlegger

Prohibition Party

I wasn't sure what to expect of the party, but figured it had to be fun. The party was sponsored by Skyy Vodka and Miller and both types of drinks were free all night. We passed. There was also a photo booth, and some chotchkis they were giving away, but the most notable thing about the party by far was that the place was full of the friendliest people I've ever met in my life! I mean seriously, I've never been around so many friendly and outgoing people. Almost everyone we encountered struck up a conversation with us with a big smile. I guess that's the type of person that becomes Yelp Elite?

 

Gotta Love People with Personality

Creating a  Monster

The party was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next event. On other news, my boss is the next person  in line with Yelp Elite Obsession. As soon as I told her about it she's wanted in. She is now furiously writing reviews in hopes of catching the local ambassador's attention. She lives downtown and goes out to eat a lot, so I'm sure she'll make it pretty soon!

Did you run SFM?

By the way, did you know that you can also Yelp about events? If you ran the San Francisco Marathon and have a Yelp account, take a minute to give the race a review. I gave it 5 stars of course, and not just because I was running elite for the race ;o), I really do love the event. Yelp it HERE.

See you on Yelp!