Reviews and User Endorsements
Andrew wrote a post about writing a positive review on a recent vacation destination. He raises an interesting question: “Why should I ever review a place online? I’m happy to write a bad review about a place that treated my poorly in order to warn other consumers, but what’s my incentive to write a good review if I really like a place?” I realize that I’m taking this out of context— but it’s really relevant to something I’ve been thinking about.
Positive reviews and endorsements can be paradoxical. Although they have a similar meaning, the value that is derived between them vastly differs. My reviews, in person or online are few and far between, but the internet is littered with my endorsements. An endorsement is as simple as a widget. Any widget that is in your sidebar such as del.icio.us means that you openly support that service to anyone who comes across your blog. That is part of the juice behind facebook. Strong personal connections with installable endorsements. Brilliant. However, endorsements fail at a certain level. If my friend puts a pepsi badge on one of his online profiles, I’m not going to consider drinking pepsi. That’s because I already know that pepsi sucks. My friend Alex isn’t going to vote for Obama because I have his widget in my sidebar. Endorsements are actually more useful to people who I do not have a personal relationship with. It’s a quick way for people to understand my interests without having to listen to me.
Reviews are (the good ones at least) an endorsement. However, it’s a more powerful concept that relies on some sort of a relationship. I generally source reviews from trusted friends. If I write a review on my blog, I know my friends are going to listen. They’ll listen in part because they’re my friends, but more importantly because I rarely review things. My friends understand that something must be important to me if I take the time to personally recommend a product or service. It’s also important to note that they interpret a negative review the same way. Scarcity is key.
I think the medium is also very important. I think someone will appreciate my review more if I reach out to them personally. A blog is an effective way to achieve scale with reviews, but it might not pack the same punch.
I won’t lie. I read tons of reviews. They add a lot of value to my life. However, I only read the objective ones. The one’s that describe product features. Not whether I should buy the product or not.
Random reviews on sites like Amazon don’t have the swaying effect on me. I want to have a relationship with the reviewer. I want to know that I share some of the same common values. Their review history is important to me, but I don’t want to take the time to go through it. Its also hard to tell if strangers are scarce reviewers— or if they just did it once and never cared to return. I don’t like to review on Amazon because I’ll never revisit my thoughts. I’m more likely to update on my blog. Blogs might be the exception to my internet rule. It can be a very personal medium.
Maybe you shouldn’t review online. Maybe its more valuable to keep your reviews personal and scarce. However, if everyone shared that mentality where would we be?
