Every year, communities across the country are asked to vote for the “best” local businesses.
Best restaurant. Best plumber. Best dentist. Best Realtor. Best coffee shop.
And then the campaigning begins.
Vote for us today. Come back and vote again tomorrow. Share the link with your friends. Send it to your employees. Remind your customers. Keep voting until the contest closes.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with that. In many cases, those are simply the rules of the contest.
But it raises an important question:
What are we actually measuring?
That is where “Best Of” contests and WhirLocal are fundamentally different.
A vote is not the same as a trust relationship
Many Best Of contests are designed to generate participation.
Businesses are encouraged to rally their customers and supporters. Depending on the contest rules, people may be able to vote repeatedly throughout the voting period and from every device or email they own.
Naturally, businesses that want to win get good at campaigning.
Again, that's not necessarily a criticism of the business. If the rules allow someone to vote every day, why wouldn't a business remind its customers to vote every day?
But think about what that means.
Ten votes from one person are still one person.
A business receiving thousands of votes during a campaign doesn't necessarily mean thousands of different people chose that business.
It means the business received thousands of votes.
Those are different things.
What does a “Best Of” badge actually tell us?
When the contest is over, consumers usually don't see the campaign that happened behind the scenes.
They see the badge.
“Voted Best ______________.”
And then, queue the "We're honored to win again this year".
That can absolutely be something worth celebrating. The winning business may be outstanding, deeply loved by its customers and very deserving of the recognition.
But consumers should understand what the award represents.
A Best Of contest is generally not a scientific measurement of every business in a community. It is a voting contest conducted according to that particular contest's rules.
Those rules may reward things like customer enthusiasm, audience size, marketing reach and the ability to mobilize people to vote.
None of those things are bad.
They just aren't necessarily the same thing as trust.
There's a business model behind the contests, too
Best Of contests can be effective marketing products.
They generate nominations, voting, sharing, website traffic and community engagement. Businesses themselves often help spread the word by encouraging their customers and followers to participate.
After the contest, winners and finalists may be offered additional ways to promote their recognition. Depending on the organization running the contest, that might include advertising packages, promotional products, plaques, events, special publications, enhanced exposure or licensing opportunities for award logos and badges.
Not every contest works this way, and the details vary considerably.
There's also nothing inherently wrong with the model. Publishers and organizations need ways to generate revenue, and businesses may find real marketing value in participating.
We simply think it's helpful to understand what the model is.
WhirLocal asks a different question
WhirLocal isn't trying to determine who can generate the most votes during a campaign.
We're trying to make genuine local trust relationships visible.
Instead of asking:
“Who should win?”
WhirLocal asks:
“Who do you trust?”
A neighbor can add a favorite plumber, coffee shop, dentist, Realtor, restaurant or other local place to their personal WhirLocal Trust List™.
A business can publicly identify the local businesses and organizations they trust through their WhirLocal Trust Network™.
And when a business is trusted, people can see something else that matters:
Who trusts them.
That creates a very different picture of local reputation.
One person. One relationship.
Imagine 100 customers genuinely trust a local business.
In a repeat-voting contest, those 100 people might generate hundreds or even thousands of votes over the course of the campaign.
On WhirLocal, those people represent 100 trust relationships.
We think that distinction matters.
The goal isn't to get someone to come back tomorrow and “trust” the same business again.
The goal is to make the relationship that already exists visible.
A vote is an action. A trust relationship is a relationship.
Trust can accumulate instead of resetting
Most contests eventually end.
The votes are counted. Winners are announced. Awards are promoted.
Then, at some point, the next contest begins.
Trust relationships work differently.
When a neighbor adds a business they trust to their WhirLocal Trust List™, that relationship can remain.
When a Realtor adds a contractor to their WhirLocal Trust Network™, that relationship can remain.
When one local business publicly trusts another local business, that relationship can remain.
Over time, those relationships begin to tell a story.
Instead of asking how many votes a business generated during a particular campaign, someone can begin asking:
Who trusts this business?
Do neighbors trust them?
Do Realtors trust them?
Do other contractors trust them?
Do local businesses trust them?
Do community organizations trust them?
The number matters.
But the context around that number can matter even more.
Trust doesn't have to be winner-take-all
There is another important difference.
A contest needs winners.
If five excellent plumbers are nominated, ultimately somebody has to finish first.
That's how contests work.
Real-world trust isn't always that simple.
A Realtor might genuinely trust three different plumbers.
A homeowner may have a favorite restaurant for date night and another favorite restaurant for taking the kids.
A contractor might recommend different electricians depending on the type of project.
WhirLocal doesn't require someone to declare that one business is objectively the “best.”
Sometimes the more useful question is simply:
“Who would you recommend?”
That's much closer to how word-of-mouth works in everyday life.
Not Someone Else's List. Your list.™
This is especially important for neighbors.
WhirLocal isn't asking you to help build somebody else's master list of the “best” businesses in town.
You build your own.
Your favorite coffee shop.
Your hairstylist.
Your mechanic.
Your dentist.
The contractor who did a great job on your house.
The Realtor you'd happily recommend to a friend.
It's your personal collection of trusted local places.
Not Someone Else's List. Your list.™
And when someone asks, “Do you know a good _______________?” you have a list ready to share.
What about businesses asking people to trust them?
We encourage it.
Businesses should absolutely invite real customers, neighbors and community relationships who genuinely trust them to make that relationship visible.
That's part of the point.
WhirLocal even provides tools, including QR codes, that make it easier for businesses to invite people to trust them.
But there is an important distinction.
Asking 100 real customers to establish 100 trust relationships is different from asking those same 100 customers to repeatedly cast votes throughout a contest.
WhirLocal also doesn't claim that every recommendation or trust relationship has been independently vetted by WhirLocal. People should always do their own due diligence when choosing a business.
We're providing a way to make existing trust visible.
WhirLocal is a business, too
We think transparency matters here.
WhirLocal is a business.
We offer paid plans, advertising opportunities and additional marketing products to local businesses.
Businesses can pay WhirLocal for additional tools and exposure.
But they don't have to buy an advertising package for a genuine trust relationship to count.
Our goal is to build an ecosystem where the underlying trust network has value on its own.
That means helping businesses and neighbors make real-world word-of-mouth more visible online.
Public. Shareable. Portable.
A WhirLocal trust relationship isn't intended to stay hidden inside WhirLocal.
Trust Networks and Trust Lists can be publicly viewed and shared.
Businesses can use their WhirLocal Trust Card™ on their own website to show their trust activity and link visitors to their Trust Network.
Businesses on qualifying plans can even display their WhirLocal Trust Network™ directly on their own website.
Someone doesn't necessarily have to know what WhirLocal is to benefit from seeing those relationships.
That's important to us.
Public. Shareable. Portable.
If you've won a Best Of award, celebrate it
We aren't suggesting businesses should stop participating in Best Of contests.
If you've won an award, congratulations.
Celebrate it.
Thank the customers who supported you. Put the recognition on your website. Share it on social media. Be proud of what your business accomplished.
Awards can be valuable social proof.
Google reviews are valuable social proof.
Testimonials are valuable social proof.
A strong Google Business Profile is critical for local search and AI discovery.
Your WhirLocal trust relationships can become another layer.
The difference is that you're building something that can continue growing after the voting period ends.
What if we put some of that energy into building trust?
Businesses can spend weeks reminding customers:
“Vote for us today!”
“Don't forget to vote again tomorrow!”
“Voting closes Friday!”
What if some of that same energy went toward a much simpler invitation?
“If you trust us, add us to your list.”
One person.
One relationship.
And over time, hundreds or even thousands of genuine local trust relationships.
You're not just accumulating votes.
You're accumulating trust.
And we think that's something worth building.
About this comparison
This article is intended to help readers understand the differences between WhirLocal and other platforms and marketing models. Information about third-party products and features is based on publicly available information at the time of publication and may change. Individual “Best Of” contests have different rules, voting methods, promotional opportunities and business models. All trademarks and brand names belong to their respective owners. WhirLocal is not affiliated with or endorsed by the companies or organizations referenced unless otherwise stated.