Like everyone with a smartphone, I use and trust Yelp for everything from food to oil changes. I heard about Yelp Elite from a friend a couple years ago and it seemed really cool – I mean, what’s cooler than free events and food? I wanted to look into becoming Elite and I found the local Yelp Elite page with guidelines in the app, under the more menu.
I clicked on the button and the community manager reached out to me to tell me the guidelines specific to me. She looked at my review history and told me I should write more useful and positive reviews and stay consistent. I kicked it into gear more the next 2 weeks and checked into places we visited and wrote my reviews. I wasn’t contributing that much to the review side of things until I wanted to become Elite so I had to build up my review history.
The community manager contacted me again and asked if I wanted to b Elite still as I qualified then. I said yes and she sent me the link to assign my Elite ’20 badge on my Yelp profile. It was super easy! I learned that you can nominate yourself or you can nominate a friend for Elite status and your profile gets reviewed.
For Elite status, you must:
- Be 21 or older
- Have a healthy review/check-in history
- Post useful and positive reviews
- Post reviews consistently
- Answer questions through the app about the businesses you visit
I nominated by boyfriend and he reached Elite status as well. Our community manager made the connection that we were together and would attend the events together so that is helpful as she is the one who coordinates and organizes the events.
We have only been Elite for a month or so, but we have been able to attend a special new bubble tea location opening (with so much good food) and an awesome orchestra symphony rock show called “Yelp Night at the Symphony: The Music of Billy Joel” all for free. March Yelp Events have been postponed due to the coronavirus related stay-in orders so we don’t have anything else lined up yet.
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Normally, we would browse the Yelp Events listing and we would sign up and this puts our name in the bucket for the lottery drawing nearer the event date and if you get drawn, you are notified of how to pick up your tickets. It’s all super easy and everyone I’ve met through this experience is so happy and nice to be getting these opportunities just for writing the reviews and getting their opinions out into the world.
