Managing False & Malicious Online Reviews - Performics Performance Marketing Blog: SEM, SEO, Social & Display

With Yelp’s recent IPO, we thought it would be helpful to remind brands how to best manage their reputations on online review sites.  Your search engine marketing efforts are becoming increasingly dependent on what your participants say about your brand online.  Participant reviews—on Yelp, Google Places, and Citysearch—now occupy prominent positions on the search engine results pages (SERPs), especially for searches with local intent.  Whether a new-to-file customer walks through your door often depends on a review they read through a search engine.  The problem is that many of these reviews are fake.  For instance, a recent Cornell University study found that about half of all online hotel reviews are fake.  These fake reviews could be positive.  But they could also be negative—perhaps posted by a competitor looking to disparage your reputation.  And, according to B2B Magazine, one negative online review could cost you thirty new customers.

Savvy marketing strategies are often best suited to manage false and malicious reviews.  Managing reviews starts with engaging in a two-way conversation with your reviewers—both critics and fans.  This requires (1) monitoring, (2) reporting malicious reviews and (3) participating in the online conversation about your brand.

(1) Monitor

You can’t manage online reviews unless you’re monitoring them.  Every brand should designate resources—either in marketing, customer relations or public relations—to monitoring online brand reputation.  For larger brands, this may require social listening tools or conversation analysis capabilities. 

• Claim your business listings on Yelp, Google Places and other review sites so that you’re able to monitor more easily
• Monitor the conversation around your brand in real-time.  Time matters; every minute that a false and malicious review sits on your review page could cost you business.

(2) Report

It’s always worth it to report false and malicious reviews to the search engine or review site.  If the review looks like spam, the site may remove it.  To report a review in Google Places:

• Go to the “Report a Problem Link” at the bottom of your Place Page
• Place Page owners can then submit a form to Google indicating that the review contains incorrect information or spam 

(3) Participate

via blog.performics.com