The Dirty Truth About Reviews

Reviews – Are they Helpful or Misleading?

We all depend on reviews to prepare us for an experience or help us make a decision about a product or a place. But are reviews REALLY helpful? Or are they increasingly becoming misleading?

Many people are unaware of the battle happening online between businesses and trolls. Trolls are people [and sometimes computer programs] whose sole purpose is to disrupt and discourage. These trolls will come into a Facebook conversation just to argue and pull everyone’s attitude down as far as possible. They will look for points of contention and keep poking as long as other’s listen or respond.

What does this have to do with reviews? Trolls will post negative reviews to pull down a company or product’s rating. Sometimes they will do this specifically to a competitor, or a product or subject they decided they don’t like. The easiest examples of this are seen on Amazon.com in their book reviews. You can go into almost any genre and see reviews that are very negative where the person often admits to not reading the book. The major issue with this is that once the negativity starts, it tends to spiral. For some reason there is definitely a herd mentality online. People will jump on board to bully and bash, even when they have no experience with the person, product or company. It is a scary thing.

If you want to make the most of your search, check out the reviewer. Are they always negative? Do they seem to just be promoting the competition?

Amazon is trying to combat fraudulent reviews by posting when a reviewer actually purchased the product through Amazon. They also require that you have an active Amazon account to ensure that you are not just anonymously bashing or rooting for something. These are steps in the right direction, but not all companies are so on top of the problem. 

So, just because you see a series of reviews with the same complaints, it doesn't mean it’s accurate. It can mean that people are simply mimicking what they read instead of giving an honest assessment. If they even have experience with the object in question. Read reviews with a wise eye. Check out the reviewers and always check out more than one site before making a decision. Ultimately, after all the research is done, follow your instincts on it.

Have a Happy Day!

GSJ