A couple weeks ago I traded in my iPhone 4 for the new iPhone 4S and it wasn’t because of the new, faster A5 chip, or their new 1080 hp video camera it was because of Siri.

Siri is your iPhone’s personal assistant that will allow you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, make telephone calls, check the weather and find local businesses.

And the finding local businesses part is Siri’s game changer.

Just like Steve Jobs changed the face of personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital computing Siri may become the new face of local search.

So those SEO firms that have been focusing on Google Places and mobile search will have to change their game plan.

First off Apple is promoting Siri as a personal assistant and NOT a search engine.

And looking back at Steve Job’s history this means you must be the best of the best, so your focus has to be on reputation management not SEO.

This means it’s important to have your citations correct and under your control especially Yelp, as here is where Siri get’s most of its results.

So, what is Yelp?

Yelp is one of the most highly regarded online review sites specializing in restaurants, shopping and entertainment and has one of the most strictest review filtration processes striving to create a community of “Yelpers” who regularly use the service and provide feedback.

Make Sure Your Business is Listed on Yelp

Make sure your business is listed on Yelp by going to their website and doing a search for your business.

If you’re not listed go to their Local Business Center and sign up.

If you are listed and your listing is unclaimed, click on the “Claim Local Business” link on the bottom the page and follow their instructions.

Yelp Verification

Once your account is claimed and listed your account will be assigned a specific account representative in your geographic area who may call you to verify your listing and offer you different promotional offers and specials. (In other words be nice, verification of your listing may depend upon it)

Reputation Management on Yelp

Once your business is listed on Yelp you will be able to respond both privately and publicly to reviews.

DON’T encourage your customers to leave reviews if they are not regular “Yelpers” as there is a strong possibility that their reviews will be removed and if you get to many reviews by non “Yelpers” your business may become listed as a “Yelp Spammer”.

Bye Bye Google, I’m Sticking with Siri

Since using Siri as my personal assistant I have NOT gone back to Google to search for local goods or services on my iPhone.

How about you, are you using Siri? What are your thoughts and comments?

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