What Does Your Community Really Think of Your Business?

As I prepare to move into a new house, I have been browsing through the Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist to find furniture. I came across the Nextdoor app which is very similar to these sites but also acts as a social media platform connecting you to your neighbors through public posts.

Unlike the posts I see on Instagram and Twitter, these posts are only seen by those who live near you. So I was surprised to see most of the posts had hundreds of comments for one small neighborhood.

While there are people selling furniture, the news feed is full of recommendations for hyperlocal restaurants and hair salons, lost kitten posters and conversations about the best service providers for internet and cable.

It’s helpful to see what my new neighbors think about certain companies. But after coming across a post I did not agree with, it reminded me that there are some pitfalls for companies using social media.

In one post, a woman complained about her recent dining experiences. After being a patron of the restaurant for 20 years, she had three bad dining experiences during the pandemic.

Having previously worked at Yelp, I am very familiar with the review process and as a customer, if she only had a couple bad experiences in 20 years, that’s a pretty good track record.

The comment section on that post had nearly 200 comments, pretty evenly split between those that had similar experiences and others that were positive.

Nextdoor’s value is that the information shared is hyperlocal – it’s like asking a friend for advice or recommendation. Businesses would do themselves some good if they paid attention to Nextdoor in the same way they do other social media platforms.  Monitoring the site and engaging when appropriate will go along way in this more ‘neighborly’ platform.