The online rating service Yelp has instituted a series of educational webinars called Yelp for your Business, aimed at helping businesses leverage Yelp to enhance their online reputations.Many small businesses are finding that the reviews customers post on online rating sites can make a real difference to their success at attracting and retaining customers. According to results from a recent Nielsen Global Online Customer Survey, 70% of consumers trust online customer comments. And the National Association for Retail Marketing Services says that companies can lose 10 customers for every one that complains (not necessarily online).

One of the leading (and most controversial) repositories of online customer comments is Yelp, which carries more than 9 million consumer reviews of local businesses, which are read by more than 26 million visitors a month. To help businesses get the most out of Yelp, the company is launching a series of webinars. The first one, on the subject of "how to use the free tools on Yelp to promote your business," was held this afternoon; future sessions will be held every Thursday at 6 PM Eastern/3 PM Pacific time. Today's webinar will not be recorded, but the presenters plan to record future sessions for time-shifted viewing. They also are planning to build out a formal tool for suggesting topics, but in the meantime are welcoming suggestions at [email protected]. They've promised to let InformationWeek SMB know when the schedule and suggestion form are firmed up, so check back for more details.

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