#ARE YELP REVIEWERS A THING FREE#
“Sometimes events are held with free food and beverage at a business, but we are clearly instructed NOT to review that business based on that event or experience,” shares Yan.
She says she hasn’t heard of people getting kicked out of Yelp because of the reviews they post, and she’s never received free products from anyone in exchange for a good review. She’s been an Elite member for about two years, and has written around 170 reviews since she joined. I also tracked down an Elite Yelp member, Ophelia Yan. They do write reviews about their experiences with local businesses as well.” They host fun events, write a weekly newsletter, educate business owners on the free tools available on the site, and more. “Their role is to connect the local community, both online and off. They are situated in cities around the world across the 23 countries where Yelp has a presence. Yelp community managers are paid employees. These events are designed to introduce passionate locals to great local businesses, and, in turn, give those local businesses more exposure to their community.” Additionally, all Yelp users have the opportunity to receive Compliments from other users as well as themed votes for their reviews.Ĥ. “Elite Yelpers do get access to Elite-only Yelp events, which are planned by the local community manager and are usually free. Elite Squad members do not get compensated or paid for their activities on the site and are completely voluntary. They still have the same ability to share reviews, interact on the site, and attend events as regular Yelp users.ģ. A community member may lose their Elite Squad membership “if they decide not to stay engaged on the site and with the community.” The only repercussion of this is that they will lose their Elite badge on their profiles and they will no longer be able to attend Elite events planed by the local community manager (AKA Yelp Ambassador) in their city. The only standard requirement as far as they are concerned is that Elite Squad members be role models “who embody the spirit of community – both online and off – and write useful, funny, and cool reviews.”Ģ. There is no set number of reviews required from Elite Squad members. I asked Yelp a couple of questions pertaining to the requirements of being an Elite Squad member and what happens if a member fails to meet the standards mentioned in the FAQ (quoted earlier), and here’s what I have been able to gather from Rachel Walker, Yelp’s Senior PR Specialist:ġ. (Elite Yelpers do, however, get to enjoy many perks, like parties and events.) Image used with permission by copyright holder The closest Yelp has to having paid reviewers are Yelp Ambassadors, who are official employees that also write real reviews. In fact, accepting freebies in exchange for a review is highly discouraged. According to Amazon’s Help page, any review written as part of the program is always labeled “Amazon Vine Review” on the product page and “Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program” when you read the review in its entirety.Īnd this setup is extremely similar to the Yelp Elite Squad, a group of top-rated users that have been nominated and chosen based on “well-written reviews, great tips on mobile, a fleshed-out personal profile, an active voting and complimenting record, and playing nice with others.” The only difference is the fact that nowhere on the FAQ page does it explicitly say that Elite Squad members are to be sent free things.
As a Vine member, you may have soon-to-be-released products sent to you, and the only thing required is that you review it and maintain sole use of it. Amazon has Vine, a by-invite-only program available to the most highly rated reviewers on the site. While the HuffPost cases didn’t fall in the writers’ favor, there are online publishers and reviewer platforms that reward users for reviews. TechDirt reported that the judge was quick to call the suit frivolous and implied that Tasini’s lawsuit was probably driven by the fact that Huffington Post had just been acquired by AOL for a whopping $315 million. Huffington Post gives bloggers the freedom to write about anything they want, but they don’t get paid for the content they produce for the site because they have in their employ reporters and editors who actually have contracts detailing the rules they need to follow and responsibilities they need to fulfill. Back in 2011, Huffington Post endured a class action lawsuit filed against them by a group of writers led by former HuffPost writer Jonathan Tasini, claiming they weren’t getting paid for the stories they’d written for the site. This isn’t the first time a suit like this has been filed against a big-name online company. Vine members may have soon-to-be-released products sent to you – the only requirement is that you review it and maintain sole use of it.
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