Yelp Elite - Seeing Green

Last week I attended my second Yelp Elite Party. As always, the party had a theme and was at an Irish bar called McFaddens where they were having a "Halfway to St. Patty's Day" party. My friend Tara and I went to their last party, a prohibition themed party at Bootlegger, and had a great time. (More on my blog Yelp Elite - Oh Yeah!) This time I took my boss Kate as my plus one since she's an aspiring Yelp Elite member and was excited to see what being Yelp Elite was all about.

Yelp Welcome Sign

It seems like these parties are always downtown on Thursday nights ... meaning last week I had to rush home from coaching Girls on the Run, change, head downtown, and keep my fingers crossed that I'd find parking. I circled the streets furtively for a few minutes after Kate told me she had found parking, but then gave in and just parked in one of the many lots. Since the theme of the party was St. Patty's day we both should've dressed in green. Unfortunately I didn't have anything green to wear so I threw on a string of green mardi gras beads that I had gotten years ago at the Chicago Marathon. 

Yelp Elite Party Entrance

 Photo courtesy of Yelp's Flickr stream

As we approached the bar we saw a crowd of green party people lining up at the door. We checked in, received name tags, were instantly given glowstick necklaces, were handed chapstick on a stick, walked two more feet and were given a choice of beers, walked a few more feet and were offered an appetizer from a tray, started to descend the stairs and encountered another waitress with an appetizer tray .... wow! I wish this happened to me when I walked into work! Wouldn't it be nice if someone took my coat, handed me coffee, read me my to-do list for the day, reminded me to pick up my drycleaning .... but I digress. Someday ... someday....

Packed Bar at McFadden's

  Photo courtesy of Yelp's Flickr stream

Anyways, we got upstairs and were surprised by how large the bar area was and how packed it was. The place was jam packed with Yelpers in green and tons of waitstaff. The Yelp party ran from 6 - 8pm and during that time they had an open bar and free appetizers circulating. WOW. We walked around the main bar area for a bit and then headed out back to the huge patio area where we sat down. Maybe I haven't gone out in a while (okay that's totally not a maybe, that's a definitely), but the noise was bothering me. There was music blaring inside and it was hard to hold a conversation. WHAT? HUH? haha jk.

We're Just Too Cool

As Kate and I hung out outside we picked up some cute chotchkis off the table, met the party leprechaun, and we were constantly checked on by the waitstaff to see if we wanted more drinks or food. The staff was ON IT. Since this event was the bar's grand opening party I'm sure they wanted to provide top-notch service and get great Yelp reviews, and I'm pretty sure that after this party they must have. 

Kate's New Friend

As we sat there we had several super friendly people come by and start up conversations with us. This reminded me of the  last party I went to with Tara. Either Elite Yelpers are the friendliest most outgoing people out there, or parties attract super outgoing people. Maybe if you throw a free party and provide free drinks and food you are guaranteed to have happy friendly people? Who knows. 

Our New Friends

By the end of the night Kate and I had been suited up with McFadden sunglasses, wrist bands, and beer coozies, and had met the party leprechaun and received gifts from his pot-o-gold ... McFadden prophylactics! haha. Random and funny ... I thought they were matches when I grabbed one! :oP

That's Not a Matchbook!

We didn't stay too long after the Yelp party ended (8:30pm is late enough for me to be out on a school night) and I headed home to finish up with my post-GOTR coaching work. (If you're interested in reading my bi-weekly GOTR coaching blog, you can pick up the feed here.)

LOVE This! Blood, Yelp, & Tears

The party was a lot of fun and it was fun to hang out with my boss for the first time socially. We work in such a small company that we've hung out a lot at work and on the road, but it was fun to do something local and downtown. I'm looking forward to the next Yelp Elite event and I'm sure it will be a blast too. Who wants to be my plus one?? :)

Don't You Want to Be +1 to This Girl??

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!