“Sorry Neal, I don’t think we’ll be able to work with your cousin.” I was disappointed.
My friend was in search for a ring, and my cousin happens to run a business that customizes jewelry. I had suggested he reach out to my cousin to see if she could be helpful.
When I inquired into why, my friend explained that he was keen to work with my cousin, as she had been attentive educating him about rings, and even offered a considerably lower than expected price. However, he went on, his significant other had googled her company and found its Yelp review was at 1.5 stars.
My stomach cringed hearing that, knowing that it was an inaccurate representation of all the hard work my cousin has put into her business.
He continued explaining that his significant other uses Yelp regularly to help make decisions, and seeing the 1.5 stars created a foundation of mistrust in her company. Despite the personal connection, that was too hard to overcome.
I could understand. Just the other week, I had used Yelp to help me make a choice on where to eat in the West Village.
Her reaction about Yelp
Afterward, I shared with my cousin how Yelp was painting a negative picture of her and her business, and even resulted in losing a potential client. Who knows how many other potential clients she had lost, and where her business could have been.
I could see the tears develop. She was frustrated, saddened, and angry. All the hard work she had invested in her business over the last three years was being smeared by Yelp reviews. And worst of all, I was the one who suggested she create a Yelp account for her custom jewelry business.
She showed me that she had a total of 25 reviews, 21 of them were great. However, Yelp was only showing and using the 4 negative reviews to calculate her rating. These reviews were four inevitable unhappy customers out of tens of thousands of happy ones. Indeed, it’s easier to complain than praise.
Evidently, Yelp uses an algorithm to surface the most relevant reviews so their system can’t be gamed. Yet, two of her negative reviews come from people who have one review, and clearly signed up to the service to hurt her brand. Of the 21 positive filtered reviews, almost all came from people who were genuine or had active Yelp experience.
I was shocked when my cousin told me that a Yelp representative even called asking her to advertise on their platform. When I researched her situation, I found that there were countless small business owners with similar frustrations, and some have even taken legal action.
Why digital literacy is so important
Just the other week, I had used Yelp for a restaurant recommendation. Now I know there is a good chance Yelp unjustly characterizes the many businesses on its system for profit. But I’m unique. Without my cousin’s experience, I’d be unaware of how misleading Yelp is.
As it has it, my company, Imagine Easy Solutions, is dedicated to teaching reading, writing and critical thinking skills to help students in school and in their careers. We’ve seen first hand how students interact with digital content.
For example, they take users generated sites like Yahoo Answers, Youtube, and Wikipedia at face value without questioning who is behind them. In fact, of the billion plus citations created on our EasyBib citation tool, Wikipedia and Youtube are the top cited sources. Whatever Google produces is what many students believe.
When analyzing news, students do not take into account when the article was created or the bias of the author or publication. If Fox News is the first site they come across, they don’t think to check CNN’s perspective on it to make a more well-rounded opinion.
Fortunately, our new educational standards demand that students have digital literacy skills to navigate the crazy world of online content, and our products meet those needs.
We’re all naive
Despite running a company dedicated to cultivating digital literacy skills, I realized ironically I was not using these skills on an everyday basis.
I had used Yelp many times to figure out where to eat. I depend on Quora to look up interesting questions. And I use CNN for news.
But for these everyday activities, I’m not questioning the çredibility of the website or author.
Bottom line
We have to think critically about everything we read from the internet. Every website has unique intentions, and we must understand that to make the best decisions.
In business, this means doing deeper research when evaluating a vendor or a competitor. You can’t necessarily take a review at face value, and you should use numerous sources for competitive insight.
Even when hiring someone, remember that anyone can slander anyone online. We have to keep this in mind when digging up information on a prospective employee.
The digital landscape is evolving constantly. You may feel knowledgeable and educated, but the next article you read after this one, ask yourself, why does this information exist?
