Description

On this episode of the Happy Mouth podcast, chef Nyesha Arrington and restaurateur Philip Camino discuss how Yelp is helping LGBTQ business owners.

With June being Pride Month, Yelp is doing its part to boost the LGBTQ community. As more people have been searching for local LGBTQ-owned businesses, owners can now self-identify on the site. With the new search filter, customers can now more easily find and support LGBTQ-owned businesses in their area. When paired with the “Open for All” filter added in 2018, customers can find safe spaces to celebrate Pride and support the community.

Listen to Philip and Nyesha discuss minority-owned businesses:

• June is officially Pride month
  
• Yelp noticed searches for LGBTQ-owned businesses in the U.S. increased by 150% last April compared to the previous year
  
• Yelp implemented a free LGBTQ-owned business filter for owners to self-identify
  
• In addition, Yelp will display rainbow-colored map pins that will identify these businesses
  
• While this will help owners, Yelp hopes this and an “open to all” label will help create a safe space for customers as well
  
• Yelp added a Black-owned filter last year after noticing a 7,043% increase in black-owned businesses between May 25 and July 10 of 2020
  
• The app EatOkra helps users find local black-owned restaurants and saw a 4,000% increase in downloads between May 2020 and April 2021

Links:

Happy Mouth Podcast Instagram

BBC - US hate crime highest in more than a decade

Yelp - Yelp makes it easy to support LGBTQ-owned businesses and find “open to all” places to celebrate Pride

Restaurant Dive - Yelp adds LGBTQ-owned business search filter

Human Rights Campaign - New FBI hate crimes report shows increases in anti-LGBTQ attacks

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The Happy Mouth Morning Show

Restaurant Marketing School

The Playbook