Yelp Building Community Offline Too

Yelp is a user generated content driven site that helps people find the best places in their backyard.  I've used Yelp for years to make those tough decisions about where to go to dinner or what weekend adventure we are going to tackle next.  It seems that they've began to step up their game in the business of community building.

in a time of content is king, Yelp's online community is tough to beat.  They have been around now for years and the information now collected online is staggering.  Recently they've added a pretty spiffy mobile application, Yelp is even trying their luck at Geo-social along w/ Foursquare & Gowalla, hoping that all of that yummy user content sets them apart from the pack.

Yelp isn't calling it quits there!  I just learned that Yelp is paving the way in influencer management & community building by hiring community managers that are embedded....well, inside the community (crazy thought huh?)

I've been doing field marketing for about 6 years now, so I'm no stranger to the idea of localized marketing and influencer building for a brand.  What blew me away is a service like Yelp utilizing a lot of the same techniques (event planning, influencer management, etc), mixing in some more traditional online community management skills (user communication, content creation, email blasts) to build a very powerful hybrid position that brings a really fresh perspective to community building online & off.

Traditional field marketers are beginning to dip their toes into social media, local blogger outreach & transferring offline relationships into the online realm, but have been running into snags when they're unsure where to point people when it comes to online communities.  Yelp jumps in front of the pack, by having a really well built playland online to bring people to from the offline world.  Not only do they have a great place to bring people, but the content their is FRIGHTENINGLY relevant, being shops, sites & restaurants in their user's own citys (what a powerful combo)

The role also creates events around the metro highlighting popular and high rated retaurants, event spaces, etc with Yelp's Elite members.  Actually creating local offline rewards for both their users and costumers.  Again...wicked smart.

It makes some much damn sense, that it's hard to believe that there isn't more of it.  Foursquare could get a real jump on participation if they had someone actually participating in all major metros.  Just imagine what could be done on a local level if Facebook or Twitter brought community managers to 19 major markets?  Do they need it?  maybe not, but connecting offline to communities could be a really powerful tool.

Look at how people have flocked to the idea of online personalities on Twitter representing brands.  It's really worked so far.  The next step is to embed those personalities into large communities surrounding large metro areas and you could really start cooking with gas.  It's one thing to chat these people up online, but if you consistantly saw them every month at the local social media club meeting, it would literally put a face to your brand.  Hire rockstars and your in business!

Smart move by Yelp and I'm betting to see this pick up soon in your neighborhood.  Please let me know if you notice anything like this in your neck of the woods.