Karaoke Forums

With the advent of social media sites and comment sites, have any of you ever bothered to go to YELP.com(or other similiar sites) and do a search for your bar and see what visitors say about your place?
Are you getting lots of POSITIVE comments and therefore have a positive vibe about your place or do you have a SERIOUS problem with your bar's public perception and customer visit experiences?
Websites like YELP can contribute heavily to the ruination of a bar's reputation in it's community and consequently it's business (and by the same token, build-up it's reputation and enhance perception and drive business to it).
Anyone here ever bother to visit such websites to get a feel for where there bar sits and what they are up against in terms of public perception and visitor experiences?
(Be forewarned.........some of these comments can be UGLY AND BRUTAL!!)
Anyone care to post up a link to YELP reviews on their place for examples?

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

It doesn't seem to be a big presence in our area. There are very few businesses of any kind, even in surrounding towns that get even one mention--and that might be from 2010. I know in bigger cities it even gets to the point of there being Yelp wars where supporters of one place will post bad reviews of the competition on purpose but here it hasn't taken off as a place to check yet. I know it is difficult for some to comprehend but I used to have a show at a bar where the owner didn't even have email. People are out camping, hunting, fishing, boating and digging their bunkers. They don't seem to have Yelp as a priority yet.

Where are you located?

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Here in Portland(PDX hereafter), most bars, restaurants, coffee houses all have YELP comments to some degree or another. People love getting on it and leaving commentaries. And using it a a decider of where to go based on reviews(if they are looking to try a new place).

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Yelp has been busted for filtering out good comments unless the club buys ads..

Nothing else needs to be said..

In smaller (and, let's be honest, technologically deprived backwater, too) towns like mine, Yelp isn't a factor anywhere for anything. While browsing Yelp a few months back for one of the bigger cities around here (bigger being a relative term, obviously), the most reviews I saw for a place? Four.

Like with everything, location is key. Where I grew up, even the smaller places will have twenty or more reviews.

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast

Yelp according to Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhandy/20 ... ink-again/

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

See, I told ya..

Nothing beats word of mouth.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

In spite of all of this, I still have a Yelp profile for my business. It just makes sense. Go to your city on yelp and just do a search for "karaoke". If you are on the first page of listings, then you are losing singers to those who are.

-Chris

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-Chris

Yelp is too easy to manipulate. Our club has a few bad reviews and a few good (hidden of course). I don't think I take too much stock in what they say.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

It is less about the reviews and more about the visibility.

The vast majority of people that use search engines of any kind rarely go beyond the first page of results. Karaoke is a bit different because people tend to pick a smaller area in which to travel. But with well defined search criteria, one can still find karaoke in a specific neighborhood and nmever have to go beyond the first page of results.

Name and brand recognition often times outweigh reviews.

-Chris

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-Chris

Well I submitted a good review for my venue. It posted within minutes now I will see if it stays posted or gets hidden. One thing of interest I did notice as I am located in a college town. The business that are located in the campus area have at least 5 times the reviews of any other parts of town. Tells me that it is the younger smart phone crowd submitting and searching these types of websites.

Yeah,
i just reviewed my venue, in about 4 different sites.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE