With so many online review sites out there, consumers are now empowered to voice their opinion on practically everything. Personally, I rarely leave the house without checking a review first -- whether it's what I should eat at a local restaurant, or where to find the most trustworthy car repair shop. And I'm not alone in this.

According to a recent Nielsen study cited in The Washington Post, seventy percent of Internet users trust online recommendations and reviews. Online review sites are virtual word-of-mouth machines with people spreading the word about products and services they love, or warning people about the bad experiences they've had. You no longer have to try something blindly - the opinions and recommendations of others are at your fingertips.

Businesses are getting more and more involved in these forums, not only getting the word out about their products and services, but also managing what people are saying. Some review sites such as Viewpoints, SheSpeaks and Smile.ly work with companies to distribute products and associated messaging to consumers in order to generate reviews. While other sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor offer advertising and sponsored results to affect brand awareness. Several of these sites are actually giving businesses the opportunity to get involved by responding to reviews directly. In all cases, the lines are now blurred between what is perceived as an open marketplace of opinions and what is a business-influenced product/service push.

Yelp is a good example of this, recently under fire for allegedly manipulating the placement of positive and negative reviews based on a company's ad spend. I'll admit, I'm a bit of a Yelp-aholic, so I thought I would take a deeper look at what this site is doing both right and wrong in the online review space.

Let's start with the positive.

1. Creating a community - Yelp has many tools that allow people to communicate with each other,  form relationships and feel like they are part of something. You can become friends or fans of other reviewers, and give them compliments of all sorts with fun badges to boot. There are also talk threads where people can ask and answer questions about almost anything.
   
   
2. Authorship - Yelp requires that you use your real name to sign up. I'm sure there are ways around doing this if you really want to be anonymous, but for me, having my name associated with reviews has made me a bit more judicious in what I say.
   
   
3. Rewarding frequent reviewers - If you're named Yelp Elite, you know you've made it in the review community. Yelp strokes the egos of its reviewers by designating those with the highest quantity and quality of reviews as "Elite." This system encourages people to write tons of reviews and in return, Yelp gives them a badge and invites them to Elite events. I'd say this deal works out a little better for Yelp but hey, I've bought into it. Yelp also highlights reviews of the day and "Featured Yelpers" to give even further recognition to its best Yelpers.
   
   
4. Search options - Yelp does a great job of letting you search reviews by all sorts of categories from neighborhood to price to type of service. You can even find places by whether or not they're BYOB, or good for groups.
   
   
5. Features and partnerships - Yelp continuously innovates and adds features to its site and mobile apps, helping to keep it relevant and ahead of the curve. For instance, they were the first iPhone app to implement augmented reality. You also can now book a reservation directly from a restaurant's Yelp review through OpenTable. These are both super smart value adds that have enhanced the user experience.
   

Now, the not so great.

1. Manipulation of review placement - As a fan of Yelp I hope this is not the case, but as mentioned before, there are allegations of Yelp allowing businesses to buy their way to more favorable rankings. If this is true, it will certainly erode trust about the validity of Yelp as a real source of consumer opinion.
   
   
2. Authentic reviewing - While Yelp requires that you use your real name, ratings could easily be skewed. For instance, a loyal employee of a business could easily post rave reviews, just as a disgruntled employee could post scathing remarks - both holding the ability to skew perception of businesses. Online platforms like this give people with chips on their shoulder a forum for filter-less complaining, which often negatively affects the integrity of the site.
   
   
3. Bandwagon jumping -Yelp continuously makes enhancements, but one recent change to the iPhone app that I'm not so sure about is the location "check-in" feature similar to Foursquare. They recently announced that you can earn badges and titles based on how many times you check in. Foursquare has already established this system, so will people really want to keep score on multiple networks? Guess we'll find out when Yelp rolls this out over the next couple of months.
   

Yelp and other online review sites are a great way of - at the very least - sharing initial opinions about products and services, helping to make life a little easier and often guiding final purchase decision. It only makes sense that businesses monitor these sites, but how they continue to get involved in this process remains to be seen. The sites themselves must also commit to a high degree of integrity and enforce standards that preserve the authentic opinions and recommendations of consumers.

So, I ask you, what role do you see these forms taking as the world of social media continues to expand? Will they last?






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As social media weaves its way from a favorite past time of twenty something's to an integral part of nearly two thirds of the population, it's no surprise how many details are being shared online and why privacy in the online space is increasingly becoming more of a concern. While intentions may have been good when creating networks like Facebook and Twitter, it is becoming more and more apparent how these outlets can and are being used against users, intentionally or not.

Social media users have 24/7 access to their networks no matter where they are.  It has become a companion of sorts, allowing them to share feelings and opinions wherever they may be.  Updating Facebook statuses hourly and tweeting about one's every move is now common practice among many users and personal safety concerns - both online and off - have been brought into the spotlight as a result of this "over sharing."  (Photo Source: http://socialnomics.net)

What's The Big Deal?

A constant stream of private information to social media networks -- which often includes people that someone may have never even met or those who normally wouldn't be privy to such information -- could potentially be quite risky on a number of levels.  Companies are beginning to use these networks to target individuals for marketing purposes, to compile evidence in legal disputes and even as a way for credit companies to track people down.  Gone are the days of anonymity and believing a private page is actually private.  Voicing opinions about a pesky neighbor over Twitter can now be used against a person and they may wind up paying for it later. 

The emergence of location based services such as Four Square where users can "check in" at places, earning themselves levels of status at the establishment, brings a whole new level of danger into the fold. In an effort to prove a point, the website PleaseRobMe.com emerged to demonstrate just how risky these services can be.  The website is a stream of updates from different sites, showing when users check-in somewhere that is not their home. The idea behind the site is that if a person isn't home, and lets other knows about it, they are leaving themselves open to getting robbed.  A little over the top?  Perhaps, but the site makes a valid point that if used in the wrong way, these social media tools can leave users vulnerable to harmful possibilities.

(Photo Source: www.pleaserobme.com)

What To Do?

So, what can be done to ensure one's privacy on social media sites?  Staying current with personal privacy controls is extremely important and there are a variety of applications and programs being developed to help users do just that.  In light of the recent Facebook news that the company is now using social plug-ins to make previously private information public, programs have emerged to make it easier for users to change their newly defaulted public settings back to private.

According to cnet.com, SaveFace and ReclaimPrivacy.org are two such applications.  SaveFace works by changing fields such as personal contact information, wall posts and friend lists to the "friends only" setting.  Reclaim Privacy scans a Facebook member's privacy settings to flag profile areas that may be unexpectedly public.  Both applications have the ability to reset Facebook's automatic public settings, enabling a more secure profile.

An interesting article on ConsumerReports.org also details where and how consumers can control privacy.  Released specifically to target Facebook, these seven tips can and should be avoided to ensure privacy:

• Using a weak password
• Leaving your full birth date in your profile
• Overlooking useful privacy controls
• Posting your child's name in a caption
• Mentioning that you'll be away from home
• Letting search engines find you
• Permitting youngsters to use Facebook unsupervised
 
It is important to remember that as social media platforms continue to evolve and new tools arise, so do new safety threats and those looking to steal information.  Social media platforms are great tools to make and foster connections as well as to learn new things.  In order to keep them that way, it's imperative to stay on top of privacy control updates.  Be aware of who is in a person's friend network and remember that holding back on posting detailed information remains the best way to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

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The 2010 Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) School of WOM wrapped up Wednesday afternoon here in Chicago, and the social media community has been abuzz with conversation about the wisdom that was shared.

The School of WOM conference is designed to help marketers "move beyond tactics" and gain the knowledge necessary to "engage the social consumer across business disciplines." The three day event featured best practices and case studies from some of the world's top brands, including Coca-Cola, Best Buy, Proctor & Gamble, Google, and Kraft Foods. The School of WOM is led by a "faculty" of distinguished industry experts from agencies (such as Zócalo Group's own Paul Rand and Emily Bader) and major corporations.

With hundreds of Tweets and a lot of active discussion circulating around the event, I thought it might be helpful to share some key insights shared by some of the biggest speakers.


 
Key Notes from the Keynote Speakers:

Jeffery Hayzlett - Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company

• Hayzlett asserted that moments lose their power if they are not shared. This, he said, is why Facebook and Twitter are so powerful. As a company that traffics in moments, Kodak realized it was in its best interest to make sharing moments as easy for consumers as possible. This is why the company will be adding a new "Share" button to all of its cameras.
  

Dan Heath, Co-author of Switch and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

• Heath, whose newest book features the sub-head "How to Change Things When Change is Hard," connected with the audience by challenging them to "obsess about success." He made the case that people spend too much time concentrating on how to change what isn't working in a given situation, when their energy would be better spent focusing on replicating what is working.

Jeanne Bliss, Best-selling Author, Chief Customer Officer

• Bliss has spent years evangelizing for the importance of customer experience in driving positive word of mouth recommendations. A key point she drove home during her presentation was the idea that businesses need to truly think of their employees as partners, not just cogs performing a given task. "Beloved" companies, she said, trust their employees to do the right thing and eliminate excessive bureaucracy that creates barriers between employees and customers.

Andrew Mason, CEO - Groupon

• Groupon's colorful CEO, Andrew Mason (who gave his presentation in shorts and a faded shirt), preached about the importance of customer service. At one point he indicated that he's sometimes tempted to screw up on purpose, just so he has the chance to apologize -- because he sees just how powerful a heartfelt apology can be. He also perceives customer service to be a major differentiation opportunity for businesses, because, frankly, most companies are so bad at it that even being just a little bit better goes a long way.
  
  

Rob Morris, Co-Founder and President, Love146

• Morris, whose organization is dedicated to the abolition of child sex slavery through prevention and aftercare solutions, tugged on attendees' heartstrings while sharing his take on how online WOM (such as Love146's successful Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter programs) can be used to engage and mobilize individuals around a cause.
  

Jim Lecinski, Managing Director, Central Region, Google

• Although Google may be ubiquitous as a brand, the company still puts a great deal of emphasis on developing sound WOM strategies. For brands that aren't as well known, Lecinski offered these four tips: 1. Pose a challenge, 2. Hold a contest, 3. Give a gift, 4. Surprise people. He pointed to Google's recent integration of the classic Pac Man arcade game into its home page logo as an example of a surprise that sparked a tremendous amount of conversation across the web.

There's only so much of a three day conference that can be packed into one blog post, so we'd love to hear from you. Were you able to attend the School of WOM? What was the most valuable piece of advice you took away from the event?





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