Online Reviews and the Power of Word-of-Mouth

  Have you ever looked up a restaurant's local reviews before checking it out yourself? Do ratings by previous buyers of a product influence your purchases today? If a rating site contains lots of negative comments, do you give up on the idea of buying that product? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you are in good company. That's the magic of the word-of-mouth (WOM) campaign or social network.

An important concept in interpersonal influence is viral messaging behavior. WOM is actually information about products, services and experiences being transmitted from consumer to consumer. Most marketers realize that negative WOM can be extremely damaging. In general, negative WOM is significantly more influential than positive WOM. When you hear that the food at a restaurant is bad, you're more likely to avoid the restaurant than you are motivated to try it when the reviews are good. Of course, it's also true that consumers tend to share more about their dissatisfying experiences than the pleasant ones.

Social media networks are the method "du jour" for spreading WOM. More and more consumers are seeking each other's advice on anything and everything from what movies to watch to gathering input on health care options, personal and financial decisions.

Two Major Ways Consumers Spread Their Views

1. WOM spreading websites:

Many websites encourage spreading information and some are dedicated to WOM, like Bzzagent.com. This site not only allows consumers to spread WOM, but it provides them the web content to share. Anyone can become a “bzzagent.” Social review sites like Digg.com focus on curating web content and opinions. Using Digg or StumbleUpon, users submit or per sue content others can see and vote on what they like. 
 Other synthesizing WOM sites include: Yelp, InsiderPages and YahooLocal.

2. Review sites that focus on specific interests:

There are a number of review websites designed to reach consumer publics targeted by specific fields of interests - books, movies, electronics, foodies, frequent travelers, etc. 


Personally, we're using these:

• GoodReads.com - One of the largest sites for readers, GoodReads includes book reviews and recommendations that allows users to see what their friends are reading.
• Zagat.com - This website collects and correlates ratings of restaurants by diners. The current Zagat's Survey includes 70 cities and features reviews based upon input from 250,000 individuals reporting over several years.
• TripAdvisor.com - This popular travel site assists customers in gathering travel information and planning trips by reviews and opinions posted by well-traveled members who engage in interactive travel forums. These members often post local businesses and attractions not found on the Web.
  
  Keep spreading the views, PR pros, and let's be the ones who look for the positive everywhere we can find it! 

        - Meng & Abby