Laura Nestler joined Yelp in 2007 in Portland and has since set up Yelp in London and Australia. She speaks with SMK about her journey.

Background

Laura Nestler worked in event marketing, writing, recruiting, and in Los Angeles before moving to Portland in 2004. “A contract with Adidas’ event department moved me from Los Angeles to Portland and I instantly fell head over hipsters for PDX. Fast-forward three years and I was working in university admissions – travelling the country speaking to rooms of fervid high schoolers, organising recruitment events and pursuing my MBA,” she explains.

In 2007 Nestler joined Yelp. “I was Portland’s first community manager – a role that involved everything I loved: writing, event planning, marketing, social adventuring and most importantly, connecting people with great local businesses. In late 2008, I hopped the pond to expand Yelp internationally and build Yelp’s first overseas community in London. My experience in London was inspiring and challenging in all the right ways – taking a product I knew worked, applying a community management style that had proven successful, and re-packing the snowball on English soil, if you will.”

Nestler hit Australia in 2011 to set up Yelp here. “I’m beyond lucky to have found an industry that is so uncharted and innovative, a role that allows me to soapbox one of my core values – supporting local businesses – and a company culture that encourages me to flex my creativity on a daily basis,” she says.

Yelp

When Yelp hit Australia, many ex-pats rejoiced. Nestler describes the platform: “Yelp connects people to great local businesses. We provide a platform for discerning people to find and share opinions on everything from coffee shops and fashion boutiques to everyday services like dentists and dry cleaners. Be it at your desk while perusing Yelp.com or via our mobile apps, we’ve got you covered.”

Audience

“The yelp customer or ‘yelper’ is a discerning person who is passionate about finding and supporting local businesses,” says Nestler. In addition to people who are finding businesses, the businesses themselves are invited to participate in the Yelp community.

Since consumers are turning to Yelp to make spending decisions, Yelp pages are like online storefronts and as a business, you want your hours up, your windows clean and your lights on! We encourage businesses to join the discussion that customers are having about their businesses. I believe that online interactions are just as important as the interactions they’re having in person.

Setting up

Yelp takes care to ensure the platform is populated with authentic content. “Every market is unique, which is why you have me standing here on Australian soil rather than attempting to do this from San Francisco,” says Nestler. “That said, we do apply the same methodology we’ve used since the launch of very first community in 2005: we focus our efforts in one city at a time – a mile deep an inch wide as we say – to ensure Yelp is a truly valuable local resource.”

Community Management

Yelp has recruited community managers in Melbourne and Sydney and are currently searching for an Adelaide community manager. “We believe that having a local community manager on the ground is an integral part of creating awareness both online and off,” says Nestler. “My best advice is to stay authentic to your users and your brand. For example, we know that people come to Yelp to get trusted and honest local opinions. So while other sites are great for posting pet photos or checking in on an old flame (No judging, I use those sites too!), people don’t want to do that on Yelp, they want to find out where to spend their hard-earned cash. So that’s what we focus on both online and off – connecting people to great local businesses.”

Nestler’s tips for community management are: “DO: Stop looking at what everyone else is doing and start looking at why your super-users are your super-users – ultimately why people use your site, brand or product – and do more of that. Provide them with the most intuitive experience since they are your bread and butter. 

“DON’T: Try and be everything to everybody – instead simply focus on doing what you do best.”