Recently, there was a fascinating - but maybe not completely surprising - article in the Denver Post about comments sections of online newspapers and blogs. It turns out that there are organized campaigns to comment in these stories for various reasons. Special Interest Groups and political campaigns are among the types of groups who are anonymously posting comments on newspaper and blog websites to push their own agendas and influence public opionion.
What About Review Sites - They're Legit, Right?
In addition to what amounts to fake, agenda oriented comments in news websites, review websites have also come under fire recently. Yelp - the local review website primarily aimed towards restaurants - has recently been accused of extortion. I'd like to believe that Yelp isn't responsible for extortion-like practices. Even if they aren't you'd better belive that their are some business reviews that aren't completely legit. Competitors are bound to be panning each other and spreading false information on Yelp as is done on all other review websties.
Future for Review Sites or Forum Sites
Review and comment websites are here to stay. The key when reading reviews is to take them with a grain of salt and realize that a significant number of the reviews that you read have an agenda behind them. Many one star reviews may be attributable to competitors writing a bad reviews. Or maybe the 5 star reviews are family members of the business owner. I tend to look at the middle of the road reviews for more objective reviews of businesses.
Reviews should be viewed with a high degree of skepticisim in general. Most are anonymous and can't be traced back directly to a reviewer who is a real person and will stand behind their review. While the vailidty of reviews and comments on the Internet is in question - there is no doubt that bad reviews and comments can do major damage to your business.
How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?
Eventually someone is going to say something bad about your business in a social forum. Whether it is on a blog, a newspaper site, or a review site like Yelp. It may be a client or customer with a legitmate issue with your Denver small business - or it may be a competitor engaging in a little mudslinging. Either way, you need to monitor your brand, so that you can keep track of what is being said about you and your business.
How do I monitor my brand?
In my next blog post, I'll talk about brand management. I'll show you how to use Google alerts so that you'll catch instances of your company or name being brought up on the web. Of course, if bad things are wrongly being attributed to you or your business, there may be a chance for recourse. I'll also discuss actions you can take to clean up your image in upcoming blog posts.