Digital

Seventy percent of Americans trust online reviews by strangers.  A recent piece in The Washington Post shows how deeply grassroots perception campaigns have reached into the world of Yelp and other online reviews.

That world of online-reviews is not exactly the Wild West.  There are industry standards, ethical boundaries of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and U.S. Federal Trade Commission guidelines on disclosure.

Little understood by many is the need for firms to use proactive techniques to counter the dark side of reviewing.  Critics complain about Yelp’s elevation of good reviews for firms that advertise on Yelp.  Less well understood is how often it is necessary to use tools to get out the good word, to protect oneself from what Chicago’s Zocalo Group calls “reputation terrorists” and “competitive destroyers.”

Seth Godin spoke before the American Express OPEN conference and explained when social networking is useless.

It boiled down to basically, it’s useless when it’s fake.  Just like in the real world, networking is only worthwhile when real substantial relationships are being cultivated.

Now, I’d add one grain of salt.  That is that for some applications of social networking, you are looking for volume and you can get away with have “less real” relationships by making up for normal symbiosis with other items of value (contests, discounts, etc).

Watch the two minute video after the jump. Read