Michael Taylor – Founder of Taylortown SEO
Garnering positive online reviews has long been a marketing goal for Orlando businesses, but have the actions of a few unethical business owners and marketing companies diminished their value?
In my opinion, Central Florida is awash with phony reviews paid for and submitted by business owners, marketing companies, family members or submitted by competitors to slander a business which threatens the business model of many “review” companies like Yelp and Trip Advisor who rely on consumers trusting their reviews. If your business has been slandered by phoney online reviews or your competitor is getting positive reviews which are obviously false then you know the shady side of online reviews.
The New York State Attorney General’s office recently fined 19 marketing companies more than $350,000 for generating phony reviews written by offshore workers as a shot-across-the-bow to alert companies the practice is illegal and deceptive. Even Amazon has filed suit on more than 1000 individuals for placing false reviews on Amazon. The inevitable outcome is a diminishing trust of reviews submitted on site like Yelp, City Insider, Google, YP and Merchant Circle. Although many of these companies have algorithms in place to detect phony reviews, by and large a significant amount of reviews found online were bought and paid for.
Legal ramifications of falsifying reviews
By law, a reviewer should disclose if they have been paid or compensated for a review or endorsement. In addition, for a reviewer to criticize or state factual claims when they have never actually patronized a business is tantamount to slander. The only acceptable reviews are given by actual consumers who have first hand knowledge of a business and are motivated to post their actual reviews based upon their personal experiences without compensation.
Your Rights as a business
I’m not a lawyer but to my understanding you have the right to pursue legal remedies when someone makes a factual misrepresentation of your business. Now this doesn’t mean that consumers can’t give their opinion but if they intentionally mistake a fact (for instance claiming that your medical or dental college degree is falsified) with intention to harm you, that is slander and against the law. However, if a customer simply states their opinion, then you have little recourse.
When your competitor is creating false reviews?
Unfortunately there is little you can do without risking your reputation. By all means do not misrepresent yourself to leave negative review. What you can do is do a little research on the profiles of the person’s doing the reviewing and determine if they are indeed in your market area or possible make a living manufacturing reviews. With a little research you may uncover the evidence you need to make a complaint and have the reviews taken down.
How should my business encourage reviews?
My recommendation is to encourage reviews on social media like Facebook, which tend to be more believable with consumers because the submitter has a profile available. if you are actively engaging your customers, you can expect a certain amount of customers to express their gratitude or support in a genuine way when you provide an them an outlet. outlet. Also, it’s not a disaster if occasionally you get a review that is not complementary. Perhaps one in five reviews will be some sort of complaint, and believe it or not, the public expects to see these reviews when researching a business. Additionally a fantastic way to solicit genuine reviews is on social media like Facebook. Occasionally, you should post a link to your Google Plus page on social media, inviting those who are actual customers to post a review.
Remember, a review submitted by someone who has a verifiable profile is worth ten times more credibility than one submitted without one. Concentrate on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and others that provide detailed user profiles for your reviews and let the other review sites sort out their own problems while you prosper.
