Star Wars

[joe.pistell]

Is it me, or am I seeing reviews growing like wild fire? Google has embraced the "Reviews = Stars Ranking System" and now EVERYONE in marketing is chasing this new "opportunity"

Is this the new look for Marketing Meetings?

"gentlemen... Darth is watching us! We must get more review stars or we're doooomed to a life on the Dark Side!!"
​

Talk about Chasing the Beast. Every freakin' marketing team is out there right now working this angle. Black Hats will be gaming this big time. How long will it be before STARS reach SPAM status? Will Google build in systems to filter out the STAR SPAM? They better act quick, if the reviews tied to the stars are junk, it won't be long before shoppers look past the stars


I feel like a lemming...

 

[davidmoon]

I emailed the local BMW dealer yesterday as told him he needs to pump-up his reviews, and take care of the negative ones he has on dealerrater and Yahoo! He only has a few, and the negative outweigh the positive. He's also is being killed by his competitors in rankings and visibility. And guess where he's been putting all of his attention into ... You guessed it.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Black Hats will be gaming this big time. How long will it be before STARS reach SPAM status? Will Google build in systems to filter out the STAR SPAM? They better act quick, if the reviews tied to the stars are junk, it won't be long before shoppers look past the stars

Joe - Great Title! This gets my vote for the unofficial "best title of the month" contest.

Again, you are right on target. There are a bunch of companies popping up that are promising to "handle" this for dealers and not really explaining how they intend to do so. Some are posting fraudulent reviews under the same username for multiple dealers. They usually follow a very common pattern and are easy to identify as "false positives" for consumers.

Two thoughts:

1. There is a well known financial advisor that says you should only hire someone with the "heart of a teacher." If they aren't willing to explain what they are doing and why you don't need or want them. That is a great suggestion for Online Reputation Monitoring/Management as well. Reputation is not something to simply throw money at and think it's fixed, and to be honest it isn't really something you can outsource easily anyway. Training and leveraging tools should be the foundation of any Reputation expense NOT "help" building review count.
2. If the reviewer did not personally post the review and tell a compelling story as to why their experience with you earned 5 stars, you have a "false positive." Just like a patient won't go to the same hospital that misdiagnoses a disease with "false positives," a consumer will not trust a source that provides the same. "These guys are great!!!!! A+++++" is a false positive.

 

[jeremys]

I was hoping someone would make a post about this. Recently, our star ratings on google or any other website have become quite the topic of discussion around here. we just this past month signed up with a 3rd party to help post reviews. but, they don't write the reviews, they only post them. we have customers (service or car buyers) write something quick about their experience. i then fax the sheet over to the 3rd party who then post it on whatever websites it is that they work with like google. not really sure how good of an idea this is, especially with the points ryan made, and also FTC regulations. it seems like some grey area, or at least to me it does. any suggestions?

 

[ryan.leslie]

Jeremy,

Can you give me a call? This is exactly what I was talking about and I have some interesting screen shots for you. I'd like your permission to post a follow-up here on Refresh. 800.266.9455 xtn 729

Ryan

 

[joe.pistell]

Is it me, or am I seeing reviews growing like wild fire? Google has embraced the "Reviews = Stars Ranking System" and now EVERYONE in marketing is chasing this new "opportunity"

...Talk about Chasing the Beast. Every freakin' marketing team is out there right now working this angle. Black Hats will be gaming this big time. How long will it be before STARS reach SPAM status? Will Google build in systems to filter out the STAR SPAM? They better act quick, if the reviews tied to the stars are junk, it won't be long before shoppers look past the stars


I feel like a lemming...

From Mike Bluementhal's Local SEO blog:
Google Quickly Removes Most Review Spam in Moving Industry – More Remains at Google and Elsewhere

"...Another interesting sidelight is that Google is not alone in having been hit with this spam. According to Google’s index, Rateitall.com, Kudzu starting last fall and continuing into early this year...."