Don ’ t Get Catfished by Bogus Product Reviews
Don ’ t Get Catfished by Bogus Product Reviews
Let ’ s be honest , we search out people ’ s opinions before we purchase products all the time . Sometimes that opinion is provided by a friend , family member , colleague or we choose a review from a complete stranger . All of these require a minor leap of faith to trust the opinion of the source . In fact , we are choosing to value these opinions as primary sources in our decision making process . In most cases reviews are helpful and valuable to the process , but sometimes people are intentionally misleading .
We want to believe that every review is altruistically contributed by an individual who simply wants to help others with the buying process . And that does describe the majority of people . But that little voice in our head keeps asking , “ is this review honest ?”
Unfortunately , there is a minority population of reviewers that is motivated to contribute less than honest reviews . Thankfully your gut is probably already telling you to ignore them .
To clean up this process , sites like G2 Crowd do the work for you and manually verify each review and reviewer . But if you are using a source that doesn ’ t do the verification work , here ’ s a few tips from G2 Crowd ’ s experts .
Lacking specifics - When reviewers stress positive or negative aspects about a product in a way that puts emphasis on either aspect , their opinions are usually based on personal experiences . Not only do vague reviews provide little value to readers , but they should cast doubts on the reviewer ’ s expertise and qualifications .
100 percent negative or positive - Reviews from real users should have a balance of likes and dislikes , even if the overall sentiment of the review skews one way versus the other . Readers should question the motivations behind an overly positive or negative review . Too well-written - User reviews are generally short and require less time than a review from a journalist , analyst , or other industry professional . The use of formal language and / or marketingspeak are indicators that the content might be inappropriately influenced . Reviewer ’ s profile - Identifying information about the reviewer helps build trust that the person leaving the review actually uses the product . If it seems like the reviewer is trying to hide their identity they are probably trying to conceal their motivations from readers as well . Completely anonymous reviews should be disregarded . Reviews from competitors or employees - Someone with a vested financial interest in a product should never be a trusted source for a review . Review and role should align - If a public relations specialist is reviewing accounting products or an employee at a five-person company is reviewing an enterprise-level system , there ’ s probably something fishy going on .
Trust and credibility are essential for a review to provide useable information to the reader . Valid reviews provide a great deal of value to people trying to make an informed decision about a purchase . Unfortunately , that value quickly evaporates if the review is not valid , and in the extreme might mislead the decision making process . It is essential then to validate the credibility of the review before using the information . Companies that transparently validate reviews alleviate much of the burden , reduce the risk of using the information and increase confidence in your final decisions .
Michael Fauscette , G2 Crowd https :// www . g2crowd . com
Strictly Marketing Magazine May / June 2016 3