New online community creates a WoW buying experience for Beckenham locals

Beckenham and Bromley borough residents can now check out local businesses and services before they buy, thanks to a new website that lets them search social media reviews as well as those listed on the site itself, WoW Bromley: www.wowbromley.co.uk.

 The WoW Bromley site, which stands for ‘Word on the Web Bromley’, is unique in the way it captures reviews from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for the businesses listed, as well as allowing people to post their own reviews direct on the site. This means users can view a wide selection of reviews – and they can contact reviewers direct – before they make a buying decision.

WoW Bromley is the brainchild of Lynda Wright, owner of Baccarat Hair Design in Beckenham and co-founder of the successful local Twitter hashtag (#) community, #BeckBromFL. She came up with the idea of WoW Bromley to bring the success of the hashtag to a wider audience and got together with developers Steve Spice and Ian Robb to create the site.

 Lynda explains: “When we started the #BeckBromFL hashtag some three years ago to help local businesses and residents connect, we had no idea it would become one of the most successful Twitter communities in the UK! We now want to share this success with other locals who may not be on social media, so we’ve created WoW Bromley to be a useful, unique, easy to use and fun way of searching for local businesses and services.”

Users can currently search for businesses and offers, read the reviews and ask questions to reviewers. But the site is intended to be more than just a business listings site – there are plans to add local events, jobs, property for sale/let and local news to the site soon.

“We have lots of plans for local content that will engage our users and make WoW Bromley a successful online community hub,” adds Lynda.

Within its first week, the site registered over 1,300 unique searches and already has nearly 300 Bromley-based businesses listed, with numbers growing daily. These include small and micro businesses, as well as big names such as Bromley College and The Churchill Theatre.

Businesses based in the Bromley borough can have a listing for free. All listings showcase social media feedback across Twitter, Facebook and Google+ platforms and invite organic reviews from visitors. There is also the option to pay for an enhanced listing and those businesses based outside the borough but trading extensively within it can have a listing for a small monthly fee.

For more information, to sign up as a user or to list your business, visit www.wowbromley.co.uk