October 3, 2024 • 19 mins
Can we trust reviews anymore, or have they become part of the marketing game? In this episode of Mindful Bytes, we discuss the reliability of online reviews. With the rise of fake and paid reviews, can consumers trust what they’re reading anymore? The podcast panel explore how reviews have evolved, and how marketers are manipulating them. From buying fake reviews to the possibility of buying bad reviews to sabotage competitors, this episode asks the hard question: are reviews still trustworthy? Join Brian, Shawna, Olivia, and Ashton as they discuss personal experiences, potential solutions, and some ideas for what might come next in the review landscape.
What to Expect:
- The Shift from Brand Loyalty to Review-Based Purchasing: We discuss how consumers have moved away from relying on brand names to trusting reviews—and whether that trust is misplaced.
- The Problem with Fake Reviews: How marketers are buying positive reviews to increase sales, and the tricky ethics behind incentivizing reviews for untested products.
- Can We Trust Influencers? Olivia raises the question of influencer credibility and the lack of regulation on paid endorsements.
- The Possibility of Bad Reviews Being Bought: Brian explores whether companies might be paying for negative reviews to harm competitors.
- Signs of Fake Reviews: Tips on how to spot repetitive, unnatural, or overly generic reviews that might be red flags.
- A Future of Verified Influencers? Brian shares an idea, could platforms create a rating system for influencers to help consumers determine their trustworthiness?
- Word-of-Mouth’s Comeback: Brian shares another idea based on how consumers are increasingly trusting friends’ recommendations over online reviews, and how social media could play a role in connecting buyers to trusted reviewers.
Let's Figure This Out Together:
- Schedule a Discovery Call
- Book Brian for a Keynote, Speaking Engagement, Team Workshop or Interview
- Get Help with Digital Strategy, Consulting, or Coaching
Affiliate Links:
- Launch your own podcast on BuzzSprout
- Join us LIVE in VR at the Killer Bee Studios by grabbing an Oculus headset. Plus, earn some reward points from Meta!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Mindful Bytes
podcast.
Today we're going to talk aboutreviews.
Can you trust them?
Hey everybody, thanks fortuning in to the Mindful Bytes
podcast.
I'm Brian, your Gen X businessleader, slash digital guy.
Shawna (00:15):
And I'm Shawna, your Xenial digital dinosaur.
Olivia (00:17):
I'm Olivia, your social media savvy millennial.
Ashton (00:21):
I'm Ashton, your Gen Z tech enthusiast savvy millennial
.
Brian (00:28):
I'm Ashton, your Gen Z tech enthusiast.
So a couple weeks ago, sean, Iheard you on the phone talking
about reviews and you saidsomething that I thought was
very interesting is like abouthow, basically, can we trust
them?
You know, we used to buyproducts We've talked about this
with clients and at conferencesthat we've spoken at and say,
hey, how many of you buyproducts today because based off
the brand name?
And not many people raise theirhands and that used to be the
(00:52):
thing that people would buy itbecause of the brand name.
But brand loyalty has kind ofchanged where now people buy
based on the reviews, and it'sbeen like that for a while.
But as marketers catch on tothese things, we realize that
you know, reviews have become akey part of marketing strategies
.
So that's the knowing thatthose reviews can influence
(01:15):
who's buying products, whatdecisions people are making.
People have started adjustingthat to try to start buying
reviews, and so the questionstarted surfacing like can we
trust reviews today?
And it just kind of give youlike some insight.
I know here, like when I workedat a radio station, one of our
(01:35):
big things was, you know, wewere launching a brand new app.
So this is like one approach,but we weren't buying it.
But I knew that on the appstore to get the get a better
results Like when people aresearching for the app we need to
get the reviews up.
So the idea was, hey, we're atthis huge conference I think
there was like 10,000 peoplethere or something and we got up
on stage and we announced the,the app and stuff like that, and
(01:56):
then gave them the opportunityto like download the app right
now.
They had like a like a contest.
They could register.
That was app only, but then ifthey left a review on the app,
they got an extra entry.
So this app went out and withinhours, you know, of that
concert, they had hundreds ofreviews, five-star reviews,
which was great, worked outgreat and hey, take that
(02:18):
strategy, go use it, uh.
But you know, the thing is likea lot of them hadn't even
tested out the app, but theyjust gave it a five-star review.
They loved the station.
Uh, hadn't even tested out theapp, but they just gave it a
five star review.
They love the station, uh, andthey want to give the app review
.
It was a great app, so it wasworth the five stars.
So, but with that, sean I, whenI heard you say that, I was like
it's so true, like this has nowbecome such a big marketing
(02:39):
thing.
I purchased things, get thingsin from Amazon.
It's like, hey, leave us areview.
Just the other day I'm I'mtesting out an AI service to
make a an AI avatar of me to dovideos and doing some tests on
that to see how that works, andit's been a.
I guess it hasn't been a longdelay.
I thought it was a long delay,but then you pointed out it's
only been one day longer when Ireached out to him and said, hey
(03:02):
, what's going on with that appthat the AI avatar, it said two
days, so long it felt like aweek.
It felt like a week and they'relike, oh, it's, it's passed and
they're they're building itright now.
I'm like, right, cool.
But as soon as they sent thatto me and I was like, all right,
cool, they sent me a questionhey, rate our service a five,
like our app.
Would you rate our app a fiveor a one?
(03:24):
Like what would you rate it?
I was like I can't rate it atall because I haven't even tried
it yet.
It's like that happens to me allthe time too.
Yeah, they go for the reviewsso quickly.
So I wanted to bring this upfor us to talk about.
You know, with the rise of fakeand paid reviews it's it's
become a harder that we can wereally trust what we're even
reading online.
So do you guys trust reviews?
(03:44):
And shauna, I guess let's startwith you.
I heard you on that phone call.
How did that even come up?
Unless it's like a privateconversation, you can't share it
yeah, it's confidential.
Shawna (03:53):
I'm sorry, uh, I don't actually remember what product
we were talking about.
I just you know, and if you seeuh ads and stuff on facebook a
lot which I'm really susceptibleto, those products and those
ads I'm like, oh, I need that.
But the trouble is now I'velearned to go ahead and go and
(04:15):
research that company and searchand find out if that company is
like a scam, because it happensso often where I will see
something that looks interestingto me.
I just saw this thing aboutseeds like water lily, lotus,
flower seeds, and I was like Ireally want those, and then I go
and see it's a Chinese company.
(04:37):
It's probably not even actuallygoing to send you any seeds, so
I didn't order from them, but Ilooked up other companies.
All of that to say I don'ttrust reviews anymore,
especially not on social media,because I've tried too many
products that were not anythinglike they were supposed to be,
and so then you ask yourself howdid they get thousands of great
(04:57):
reviews that all sound verysimilar too?
I just don't trust them anymore.
Olivia (05:04):
Yeah, I think reviews is , you know, not something you
necessarily can trust anymore,um, but something I do trust and
see people doing on social isif you do an actual post.
You know, like I saw someoneactually do it with mixed tiles.
I don't know if you guys usethose, but I have them and
(05:27):
they're like a picture framethat, like you can easily stick
on your wall and move around andit doesn't rip your wall off or
whatever.
Well, they are fantastic.
So someone actually asked likeon Facebook is this true?
Asked like on Facebook, is thistrue?
(05:48):
And the reviews from theiractual personal friends were
actually really good.
So they were like okay, I trustmy friend, so I am going to
order it versus just looking atactual reviews, so that I feel a
little differently about.
But even now, if you not evennecessarily reviews, but like
(06:09):
influencers and products,they're getting paid, so that
you can't even trust either.
Brian (06:15):
Some of my reason of bringing up this question is to
be thinking about what's next,because, like, just like, people
don't buy brands, you know, weknow, obviously a lot of brands
are trying to save money, sothey're doing stuff cheaper and
they started losing thatrecognition for being the brand
that they are and people startedusing reviews.
So reviews have increased sales, but now people realize that
(06:38):
people are paying for reviewsand stuff like that.
So now what's next?
And I liked what I neverthought about the influencer
side of this, so I'm glad thatyou guys brought this up and I'm
curious is could reviewers orinfluencers, what happened if
these platforms added an optionwhere, just like on ebay, you
can rate the seller, you canrate the influencer?
Olivia (07:02):
So in these apps.
Brian (07:03):
You can see, like what is the rating for this influencer
when it comes to the trust sideof the reviews for these
products.
Shawna (07:13):
I like that idea.
Olivia (07:15):
I have actually seen a creator basically have to shut
their stuff down because theytalked about this product and no
one ever got it and it was likean $150 thing, so they just got
so much, you know, flack, thatthey were never going to be seen
(07:35):
as credible again.
Brian (07:37):
But that's still a lot of people that are out of $150 too
, because they weren't gettingtheir money back, so yeah, I
think that's an interesting takeon all this too, because I
think when you go to theinfluencer side, it's a lot
different, because it can affect, because it's like a personal
(07:57):
brand, it's like their face, andthere's a big consequence if it
doesn't go out.
If it's a review that's fake,that they're giving, it could
really affect their business asan influencer.
So I guess there is that part.
But I would love to see thatoption.
Like if you buy something onAmazon and you leave a review
that says verified that youbought it, but with Shauna, with
(08:20):
your statement over the phone,I'm like here's the thing we
know that people are paying forthose.
We know that people are payingfor those.
We know that people are gettingproducts and like, hey, you're
going to get this percentage offor we're going to give you $10
if you leave us a five-starreview.
So people go to do it to getwhat they want.
The review really doesn't haveanything to do with the quality
(08:41):
of the product.
So those don't really have aconsequence.
Is that the right word?
They don't have a consequencefor the buyer because we're
getting something and I thinkit's something that we have to
be aware of, that this ishappening, which a lot of us are
, I think.
Are we really going around theright approach here?
(09:05):
But here's another twist to it,cause I want to ask you guys
what are some signs of that?
You guys have seen maybe somefake reviews, but here's another
twist.
Before we get there, I want toask you like I started thinking
about this when you guys weretalking about influencers and
stuff.
But we see fake reviews for badreviews, but I wonder if
there's just as many fakereviews for bad reviews.
Ashton (09:27):
You said bad twice.
You said the same thing twice.
Brian (09:30):
Yeah, you said the same thing.
Okay, let me say that again.
This way it makes sense.
We all know and understand thatthere's people paying for good
reviews, but have we consideredthat there might be people
paying for bad reviews?
Shawna (09:46):
Like for another company .
Brian (09:49):
Yes, I'm going to pay you to leave bad reviews on our
competitors Amazon.
Olivia (09:55):
Oh my gosh.
Brian (09:57):
Because I look at the bad reviews.
Shawna (10:00):
Yeah, I do too.
Brian (10:02):
I started thinking about that.
Like when I go to the reviews Ilike to look at okay, first I
look at how many is it close toa five-star reviews, how many
people have reviewed it.
So those are two things I lookat and then I'll go down to the
lowest reviews and say what arepeople saying?
But I've never thought thatthere could be people getting
paid to leave bad reviews.
So I want to quickly ask youguys what are some signs that
(10:24):
maybe, when you guys look atreviews, are there any signs
that you guys look for to say,hey, should I trust this review
or not?
Shawna (10:32):
This might not be entirely fair, but one of the
things that's kind of a red flagto me is you know how um
obvious it is when someone hastaken something and put it in
Google translate.
So, like you know, thegrammar's weird and put it in
Google.
Translate.
So the grammar's weird and thewords they use are weird.
Whenever I see a review writtenlike that, I'm automatically
(10:53):
like I don't know about that.
That makes me nervous.
Brian (10:58):
That's probably a good idea because, with AI now I
wonder how many people are goingto be using if they're not
already using AI to translate.
They're paying like have an ai,go out and do these, leave
these reviews on the fly.
So that's a good I'm sure, yeah, repetitiveness happening.
Olivia (11:13):
Um, I have a couple things.
Number one, like what is theactual complaint?
Because you can tell whensomeone is just I mean, they
complain about everything, right.
Or, number two, has the companyresponded to the negative
review?
(11:33):
Because, if they have, becauseyou know, a lot of other clients
that I work with are customerservice based and that is a
priority Whenever we get anegative comment it gets
responded to, because I havebeen a part of accounts where a
(11:55):
jilted employee went ham on theaccount with negative reviews.
So yeah, it's Ashton.
Brian (12:06):
How about your thoughts when you look at reviews?
Is there anything that you lookfor as a sign, like I don't
know, this might be a fakereview?
Ashton (12:14):
Well, definitely repetitiveness If you see a lot
of reviews saying the same thingover and over, you know it's
probably not right, but alsoseeing if the things they're
saying actually line up.
I've seen reviews before that'slike oh, oh, yes, the full
metal construction of this thingis amazing.
And you look and it's like itliterally says in the
(12:35):
description.
It's all plastic and you're likeyeah, you can already tell like
this person either is like afirst or second grader, or like
they've never held a piece ofmetal or something is obviously
wrong here.
Uh, so just using kind of likea, the details that are given to
(12:56):
you, the specifications aregiven to you.
You know, sometimes people arelike this is so big and you're
like and it's like fourcentimeters, like it's not that
big that's an insult to firstgraders, because first graders
can tell the difference betweenmetal and plastic.
Shawna (13:10):
Yeah, you're probably right.
Brian (13:13):
I think you hit a lot of stuff there, ashton.
Really pay attention to thosemultiple reviews, maybe even
very generic, like a genericreview, and also even a surge of
reviews, maybe kind of like wedid with the app.
I mean, that was great and ithelped out a lot.
But on other things we have tobe paying attention.
There's a huge surge of reviewsthat are coming in, and why?
(13:34):
Why might that be?
So?
Can you trust all those reviewsif they're coming in at one
time?
But, yeah, unnatural language.
I think that's good and I thinkthat there's just.
I guess we have to be whatShauna said at the beginning we
have to really be willing to domore research.
The thing when it comes tomarketers is let's just be
truthful, marketers that arelistening that we can kind of
(13:57):
ruin these things that workreally well, because then we
abuse these things, andobviously that's what's
happening here is, they're beingabused for to fill somebody
else's wallet and people arebecoming you know, we become
aware of it.
So, and if you're not, youreyes look at them like we've
seen some pretty funny reviews.
Actually, as we get ready totransition, I want to show you
guys this is a funny review.
(14:17):
I like fun okay so, okay, I'mgoing to share this on the
screen, if I can here.
We go share the screen righthere and, uh, maybe people will
be able to see us.
This is this is there's a bookhere that people is selling on
amazon.
It says where is baby's bellybutton?
It's great and you see thereview.
(14:38):
One star.
Do not buy this book.
You can see the ending right onthe cover that's funny, but
it's so.
Shawna (14:46):
so mean to leave a one star, yeah.
Olivia (14:50):
I know.
Shawna (14:51):
Actually that really impacts an author, but it is
funny.
Brian (14:59):
So the question is do you think a competitor?
Shawna (15:00):
paid for this review.
You know it's not a bad idea,like someone who thought this
was like a deeper learning bookand they're like what a waste of
money learning book and they'relike what a waste of money.
Olivia (15:13):
So also you could spin this as a marketer and this
could have even been paid for bythe author, because you're
giving them free advertisingthat's right.
Brian (15:19):
This is so funny, you're sharing it with everybody that's
a great point.
Ashton (15:25):
There's a lot of youtube channels.
Olivia (15:26):
Now that review reviews um yeah, go through stuff like
this so that very well could bepaid to get extra traction world
in regards to endorsement,because there are people talking
about how some influencers aregetting paid millions of dollars
(15:56):
to endorse political candidatesand there is no like laws or
any protections set into placefor things like that.
So, again, there probably is agray area when it comes to
reviews and just differentthings like that.
On like whether we believe it'sethical or not, there is no
(16:19):
laws that says they're doinganything wrong currently.
So these are big conversationsthat are happening and it will
be interesting to see, if anylaws are put in place, how these
types of things will change inthe future.
Brian (16:36):
I think that this goes hand in hand with what we just
kind of watched on a churchsermon Shauna about.
You know, we've been talkingabout how connection we see
connection as the future when itcomes to marketing and, you
know, building a brand andbuilding those relationships uh,
basically earning trust and thepastor that we were listening
to said that we have to be awareof who we're listening to.
(16:59):
Like we don't really know them,and I think that's something to
even take into considerationwhen it comes to influencers.
Could it lead to an increase,like in local purchasing,
because people know people, likethey know the people in the
area?
I don't know.
Things are shifting andchanging because obviously
there's a lot less trust and thethings that we did trust, like
(17:24):
reviews and feedback.
Shawna (17:25):
We're starting not to come back to what Olivia said,
as far as people asking theirown friends, people they already
trust, for their personalreviews.
I think that's it's word ofmouth.
It's always been the mostpowerful, I think so.
Brian (17:41):
I like OK.
So I think that's pretty coolbecause if you think about like
social media side, if you seeyour friends are going somewhere
, it'll if there's an event, itevent, it'll say, hey, your
friends are going there, or thisperson sent you a friend
request and you can see thatyour friends are friends with
them.
So could the future of thesethings be like hey, your friends
purchased this, like.
(18:01):
So if it's on amazon, it couldshow their social profiles like
who's purchased it that maybeyou're following on social media
and I mean I need to get like abig check from these people,
because these are great ways Iactually don't like
Olivia (18:14):
that I don't want people seeing what I'm buying well,
you would have that option, likeyou know.
Shawna (18:20):
Unsubscribe yeah.
Brian (18:22):
But I would imagine, like if I could say, hey, I was
gonna buy this mic and I justdon't know.
I don't know if I can trustthese reviews.
But I see the videographersthat I'm friends with, they
bought this mic.
I can reach out to them nowreally quickly and find out, hey
, what do you guys think aboutit?
And get a personal referralfrom them.
So it'll be interesting to seehow it all pans out over the
(18:42):
next five years of all thesethings happening All right.
So that's enough about reviews.
So that gives you everybody alot to think about.
I would love to hear your guys'thoughts.
Click that text link in theshow notes and let us know your
thoughts about this.
That's all we have for today.
If you enjoyed this episode,click, follow and don't forget
to leave us a review.
Olivia (18:59):
Well, should you even be telling people to leave a
review after we just blastedreviews?
Shawna (19:05):
Well, we didn't ask for it.
Brian (19:07):
Yeah, leave a review, but we won't trust it that's why we
asked for the review at the end, guys.
That's why we asked for it atthe end.
They listened to it, and we'renot giving anything away, though
.
If you want to leave us areview, what we'll do is we'll
just send us your address andwe'll send you a.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Mindful Bytes
podcast.
Today we're going to talk aboutreviews.
Can you trust them?
Hey everybody, thanks fortuning in to the Mindful Bytes
podcast.
I'm Brian, your Gen X businessleader, slash digital guy.
Shawna (00:15):
And I'm Shawna, your Xenial digital dinosaur.
Olivia (00:17):
I'm Olivia, your social media savvy millennial.
Ashton (00:21):
I'm Ashton, your Gen Z tech enthusiast savvy millennial
.
Brian (00:28):
I'm Ashton, your Gen Z tech enthusiast.
So a couple weeks ago, sean, Iheard you on the phone talking
about reviews and you saidsomething that I thought was
very interesting is like abouthow, basically, can we trust
them?
You know, we used to buyproducts We've talked about this
with clients and at conferencesthat we've spoken at and say,
hey, how many of you buyproducts today because based off
the brand name?
And not many people raise theirhands and that used to be the
(00:52):
thing that people would buy itbecause of the brand name.
But brand loyalty has kind ofchanged where now people buy
based on the reviews, and it'sbeen like that for a while.
But as marketers catch on tothese things, we realize that
you know, reviews have become akey part of marketing strategies
.
So that's the knowing thatthose reviews can influence
(01:15):
who's buying products, whatdecisions people are making.
People have started adjustingthat to try to start buying
reviews, and so the questionstarted surfacing like can we
trust reviews today?
And it just kind of give youlike some insight.
I know here, like when I workedat a radio station, one of our
(01:35):
big things was, you know, wewere launching a brand new app.
So this is like one approach,but we weren't buying it.
But I knew that on the appstore to get the get a better
results Like when people aresearching for the app we need to
get the reviews up.
So the idea was, hey, we're atthis huge conference I think
there was like 10,000 peoplethere or something and we got up
on stage and we announced the,the app and stuff like that, and
(01:56):
then gave them the opportunityto like download the app right
now.
They had like a like a contest.
They could register.
That was app only, but then ifthey left a review on the app,
they got an extra entry.
So this app went out and withinhours, you know, of that
concert, they had hundreds ofreviews, five-star reviews,
which was great, worked outgreat and hey, take that
(02:18):
strategy, go use it, uh.
But you know, the thing is likea lot of them hadn't even
tested out the app, but theyjust gave it a five-star review.
They loved the station.
Uh, hadn't even tested out theapp, but they just gave it a
five star review.
They love the station, uh, andthey want to give the app review
.
It was a great app, so it wasworth the five stars.
So, but with that, sean I, whenI heard you say that, I was like
it's so true, like this has nowbecome such a big marketing
(02:39):
thing.
I purchased things, get thingsin from Amazon.
It's like, hey, leave us areview.
Just the other day I'm I'mtesting out an AI service to
make a an AI avatar of me to dovideos and doing some tests on
that to see how that works, andit's been a.
I guess it hasn't been a longdelay.
I thought it was a long delay,but then you pointed out it's
only been one day longer when Ireached out to him and said, hey
(03:02):
, what's going on with that appthat the AI avatar, it said two
days, so long it felt like aweek.
It felt like a week and they'relike, oh, it's, it's passed and
they're they're building itright now.
I'm like, right, cool.
But as soon as they sent thatto me and I was like, all right,
cool, they sent me a questionhey, rate our service a five,
like our app.
Would you rate our app a fiveor a one?
(03:24):
Like what would you rate it?
I was like I can't rate it atall because I haven't even tried
it yet.
It's like that happens to me allthe time too.
Yeah, they go for the reviewsso quickly.
So I wanted to bring this upfor us to talk about.
You know, with the rise of fakeand paid reviews it's it's
become a harder that we can wereally trust what we're even
reading online.
So do you guys trust reviews?
(03:44):
And shauna, I guess let's startwith you.
I heard you on that phone call.
How did that even come up?
Unless it's like a privateconversation, you can't share it
yeah, it's confidential.
Shawna (03:53):
I'm sorry, uh, I don't actually remember what product
we were talking about.
I just you know, and if you seeuh ads and stuff on facebook a
lot which I'm really susceptibleto, those products and those
ads I'm like, oh, I need that.
But the trouble is now I'velearned to go ahead and go and
(04:15):
research that company and searchand find out if that company is
like a scam, because it happensso often where I will see
something that looks interestingto me.
I just saw this thing aboutseeds like water lily, lotus,
flower seeds, and I was like Ireally want those, and then I go
and see it's a Chinese company.
(04:37):
It's probably not even actuallygoing to send you any seeds, so
I didn't order from them, but Ilooked up other companies.
All of that to say I don'ttrust reviews anymore,
especially not on social media,because I've tried too many
products that were not anythinglike they were supposed to be,
and so then you ask yourself howdid they get thousands of great
(04:57):
reviews that all sound verysimilar too?
I just don't trust them anymore.
Olivia (05:04):
Yeah, I think reviews is , you know, not something you
necessarily can trust anymore,um, but something I do trust and
see people doing on social isif you do an actual post.
You know, like I saw someoneactually do it with mixed tiles.
I don't know if you guys usethose, but I have them and
(05:27):
they're like a picture framethat, like you can easily stick
on your wall and move around andit doesn't rip your wall off or
whatever.
Well, they are fantastic.
So someone actually asked likeon Facebook is this true?
Asked like on Facebook, is thistrue?
(05:48):
And the reviews from theiractual personal friends were
actually really good.
So they were like okay, I trustmy friend, so I am going to
order it versus just looking atactual reviews, so that I feel a
little differently about.
But even now, if you not evennecessarily reviews, but like
(06:09):
influencers and products,they're getting paid, so that
you can't even trust either.
Brian (06:15):
Some of my reason of bringing up this question is to
be thinking about what's next,because, like, just like, people
don't buy brands, you know, weknow, obviously a lot of brands
are trying to save money, sothey're doing stuff cheaper and
they started losing thatrecognition for being the brand
that they are and people startedusing reviews.
So reviews have increased sales, but now people realize that
(06:38):
people are paying for reviewsand stuff like that.
So now what's next?
And I liked what I neverthought about the influencer
side of this, so I'm glad thatyou guys brought this up and I'm
curious is could reviewers orinfluencers, what happened if
these platforms added an optionwhere, just like on ebay, you
can rate the seller, you canrate the influencer?
Olivia (07:02):
So in these apps.
Brian (07:03):
You can see, like what is the rating for this influencer
when it comes to the trust sideof the reviews for these
products.
Shawna (07:13):
I like that idea.
Olivia (07:15):
I have actually seen a creator basically have to shut
their stuff down because theytalked about this product and no
one ever got it and it was likean $150 thing, so they just got
so much, you know, flack, thatthey were never going to be seen
(07:35):
as credible again.
Brian (07:37):
But that's still a lot of people that are out of $150 too
, because they weren't gettingtheir money back, so yeah, I
think that's an interesting takeon all this too, because I
think when you go to theinfluencer side, it's a lot
different, because it can affect, because it's like a personal
(07:57):
brand, it's like their face, andthere's a big consequence if it
doesn't go out.
If it's a review that's fake,that they're giving, it could
really affect their business asan influencer.
So I guess there is that part.
But I would love to see thatoption.
Like if you buy something onAmazon and you leave a review
that says verified that youbought it, but with Shauna, with
(08:20):
your statement over the phone,I'm like here's the thing we
know that people are paying forthose.
We know that people are payingfor those.
We know that people are gettingproducts and like, hey, you're
going to get this percentage offor we're going to give you $10
if you leave us a five-starreview.
So people go to do it to getwhat they want.
The review really doesn't haveanything to do with the quality
(08:41):
of the product.
So those don't really have aconsequence.
Is that the right word?
They don't have a consequencefor the buyer because we're
getting something and I thinkit's something that we have to
be aware of, that this ishappening, which a lot of us are
, I think.
Are we really going around theright approach here?
(09:05):
But here's another twist to it,cause I want to ask you guys
what are some signs of that?
You guys have seen maybe somefake reviews, but here's another
twist.
Before we get there, I want toask you like I started thinking
about this when you guys weretalking about influencers and
stuff.
But we see fake reviews for badreviews, but I wonder if
there's just as many fakereviews for bad reviews.
Ashton (09:27):
You said bad twice.
You said the same thing twice.
Brian (09:30):
Yeah, you said the same thing.
Okay, let me say that again.
This way it makes sense.
We all know and understand thatthere's people paying for good
reviews, but have we consideredthat there might be people
paying for bad reviews?
Shawna (09:46):
Like for another company .
Brian (09:49):
Yes, I'm going to pay you to leave bad reviews on our
competitors Amazon.
Olivia (09:55):
Oh my gosh.
Brian (09:57):
Because I look at the bad reviews.
Shawna (10:00):
Yeah, I do too.
Brian (10:02):
I started thinking about that.
Like when I go to the reviews Ilike to look at okay, first I
look at how many is it close toa five-star reviews, how many
people have reviewed it.
So those are two things I lookat and then I'll go down to the
lowest reviews and say what arepeople saying?
But I've never thought thatthere could be people getting
paid to leave bad reviews.
So I want to quickly ask youguys what are some signs that
(10:24):
maybe, when you guys look atreviews, are there any signs
that you guys look for to say,hey, should I trust this review
or not?
Shawna (10:32):
This might not be entirely fair, but one of the
things that's kind of a red flagto me is you know how um
obvious it is when someone hastaken something and put it in
Google translate.
So, like you know, thegrammar's weird and put it in
Google.
Translate.
So the grammar's weird and thewords they use are weird.
Whenever I see a review writtenlike that, I'm automatically
(10:53):
like I don't know about that.
That makes me nervous.
Brian (10:58):
That's probably a good idea because, with AI now I
wonder how many people are goingto be using if they're not
already using AI to translate.
They're paying like have an ai,go out and do these, leave
these reviews on the fly.
So that's a good I'm sure, yeah, repetitiveness happening.
Olivia (11:13):
Um, I have a couple things.
Number one, like what is theactual complaint?
Because you can tell whensomeone is just I mean, they
complain about everything, right.
Or, number two, has the companyresponded to the negative
review?
(11:33):
Because, if they have, becauseyou know, a lot of other clients
that I work with are customerservice based and that is a
priority Whenever we get anegative comment it gets
responded to, because I havebeen a part of accounts where a
(11:55):
jilted employee went ham on theaccount with negative reviews.
So yeah, it's Ashton.
Brian (12:06):
How about your thoughts when you look at reviews?
Is there anything that you lookfor as a sign, like I don't
know, this might be a fakereview?
Ashton (12:14):
Well, definitely repetitiveness If you see a lot
of reviews saying the same thingover and over, you know it's
probably not right, but alsoseeing if the things they're
saying actually line up.
I've seen reviews before that'slike oh, oh, yes, the full
metal construction of this thingis amazing.
And you look and it's like itliterally says in the
(12:35):
description.
It's all plastic and you're likeyeah, you can already tell like
this person either is like afirst or second grader, or like
they've never held a piece ofmetal or something is obviously
wrong here.
Uh, so just using kind of likea, the details that are given to
(12:56):
you, the specifications aregiven to you.
You know, sometimes people arelike this is so big and you're
like and it's like fourcentimeters, like it's not that
big that's an insult to firstgraders, because first graders
can tell the difference betweenmetal and plastic.
Shawna (13:10):
Yeah, you're probably right.
Brian (13:13):
I think you hit a lot of stuff there, ashton.
Really pay attention to thosemultiple reviews, maybe even
very generic, like a genericreview, and also even a surge of
reviews, maybe kind of like wedid with the app.
I mean, that was great and ithelped out a lot.
But on other things we have tobe paying attention.
There's a huge surge of reviewsthat are coming in, and why?
(13:34):
Why might that be?
So?
Can you trust all those reviewsif they're coming in at one
time?
But, yeah, unnatural language.
I think that's good and I thinkthat there's just.
I guess we have to be whatShauna said at the beginning we
have to really be willing to domore research.
The thing when it comes tomarketers is let's just be
truthful, marketers that arelistening that we can kind of
(13:57):
ruin these things that workreally well, because then we
abuse these things, andobviously that's what's
happening here is, they're beingabused for to fill somebody
else's wallet and people arebecoming you know, we become
aware of it.
So, and if you're not, youreyes look at them like we've
seen some pretty funny reviews.
Actually, as we get ready totransition, I want to show you
guys this is a funny review.
(14:17):
I like fun okay so, okay, I'mgoing to share this on the
screen, if I can here.
We go share the screen righthere and, uh, maybe people will
be able to see us.
This is this is there's a bookhere that people is selling on
amazon.
It says where is baby's bellybutton?
It's great and you see thereview.
(14:38):
One star.
Do not buy this book.
You can see the ending right onthe cover that's funny, but
it's so.
Shawna (14:46):
so mean to leave a one star, yeah.
Olivia (14:50):
I know.
Shawna (14:51):
Actually that really impacts an author, but it is
funny.
Brian (14:59):
So the question is do you think a competitor?
Shawna (15:00):
paid for this review.
You know it's not a bad idea,like someone who thought this
was like a deeper learning bookand they're like what a waste of
money learning book and they'relike what a waste of money.
Olivia (15:13):
So also you could spin this as a marketer and this
could have even been paid for bythe author, because you're
giving them free advertisingthat's right.
Brian (15:19):
This is so funny, you're sharing it with everybody that's
a great point.
Ashton (15:25):
There's a lot of youtube channels.
Olivia (15:26):
Now that review reviews um yeah, go through stuff like
this so that very well could bepaid to get extra traction world
in regards to endorsement,because there are people talking
about how some influencers aregetting paid millions of dollars
(15:56):
to endorse political candidatesand there is no like laws or
any protections set into placefor things like that.
So, again, there probably is agray area when it comes to
reviews and just differentthings like that.
On like whether we believe it'sethical or not, there is no
(16:19):
laws that says they're doinganything wrong currently.
So these are big conversationsthat are happening and it will
be interesting to see, if anylaws are put in place, how these
types of things will change inthe future.
Brian (16:36):
I think that this goes hand in hand with what we just
kind of watched on a churchsermon Shauna about.
You know, we've been talkingabout how connection we see
connection as the future when itcomes to marketing and, you
know, building a brand andbuilding those relationships uh,
basically earning trust and thepastor that we were listening
to said that we have to be awareof who we're listening to.
(16:59):
Like we don't really know them,and I think that's something to
even take into considerationwhen it comes to influencers.
Could it lead to an increase,like in local purchasing,
because people know people, likethey know the people in the
area?
I don't know.
Things are shifting andchanging because obviously
there's a lot less trust and thethings that we did trust, like
(17:24):
reviews and feedback.
Shawna (17:25):
We're starting not to come back to what Olivia said,
as far as people asking theirown friends, people they already
trust, for their personalreviews.
I think that's it's word ofmouth.
It's always been the mostpowerful, I think so.
Brian (17:41):
I like OK.
So I think that's pretty coolbecause if you think about like
social media side, if you seeyour friends are going somewhere
, it'll if there's an event, itevent, it'll say, hey, your
friends are going there, or thisperson sent you a friend
request and you can see thatyour friends are friends with
them.
So could the future of thesethings be like hey, your friends
purchased this, like.
(18:01):
So if it's on amazon, it couldshow their social profiles like
who's purchased it that maybeyou're following on social media
and I mean I need to get like abig check from these people,
because these are great ways Iactually don't like
Olivia (18:14):
that I don't want people seeing what I'm buying well,
you would have that option, likeyou know.
Shawna (18:20):
Unsubscribe yeah.
Brian (18:22):
But I would imagine, like if I could say, hey, I was
gonna buy this mic and I justdon't know.
I don't know if I can trustthese reviews.
But I see the videographersthat I'm friends with, they
bought this mic.
I can reach out to them nowreally quickly and find out, hey
, what do you guys think aboutit?
And get a personal referralfrom them.
So it'll be interesting to seehow it all pans out over the
(18:42):
next five years of all thesethings happening All right.
So that's enough about reviews.
So that gives you everybody alot to think about.
I would love to hear your guys'thoughts.
Click that text link in theshow notes and let us know your
thoughts about this.
That's all we have for today.
If you enjoyed this episode,click, follow and don't forget
to leave us a review.
Olivia (18:59):
Well, should you even be telling people to leave a
review after we just blastedreviews?
Shawna (19:05):
Well, we didn't ask for it.
Brian (19:07):
Yeah, leave a review, but we won't trust it that's why we
asked for the review at the end, guys.
That's why we asked for it atthe end.
They listened to it, and we'renot giving anything away, though
.
If you want to leave us areview, what we'll do is we'll
just send us your address andwe'll send you a.
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