For most companies and brands ,social media seems to be a double edged sword. The common perception among most brands are “While positive reviews and online viral buzz might help you take your brand to a couple of notched above your competitors, a negative review might bring you 5 times below consumer perception While some part of this reasoning is true.. The real fact of this double edged nature of the social media, is that the digital medium is a great leveler, while you might have people complaining about some of the services or product of yours, You might also have your online brand endorsers who would be quick to post a positive review of yours if he has something nice to share about you.
Sam decker of Clickz.com blogged on ” Reasons why companies does not fear negative reviews
Sam points out that contrary to popular perception ,Most reviews are positive. Most reviews - up to 88 percent in the U.S., for example - are four or five stars out of a possible five stars. This percentage holds up worldwide and across a variety of industries. All feedback including negative feedback - builds authenticity. Including customer reviews on your site shows that you care about the direct input of customers; however, a site full of nothing but glowing reviews can make a shopper skeptical.
Allowing a mix of positive and negative reviews proves to customers that you care about what they say - both good and bad. It also shows that no brand can always be 100% correct in their interfacing with their consumers “Bad” isn’t always bad. While some reviewers may rate a camera low because they believe the battery life should exceed six hours, others may not be so stringent. Qualities that matter to one consumer may not matter to all - or even most - consumers.
In other words, it means that reviews per se is both qualitative and quantative..There is nothing that will be correct across all consumers. A product can mean different things to different people, and as a Brand you have to make sure that you cater to the lower common denominator or the segment which you believe has the maximum market potential Reviews .
Numerous case studies and client anecdotes prove that having any reviews has a positive impact over having no reviews. Big Brands always has both users who love to hate and users who hate to love.. A controversial move might alienate a certain class of your customers.. but you might get a thumbs up from another class . Reviews let you know exactly how to improve your products. Sure, negative feedback can be hard to hear, but having reviews or Q&A on your site lets you aggregate what people think, quickly and easily - and you can respond directly to your consumers.
Sam gives the example of , Domino’s Pizza recently made headlines with its “Pizza Turnaround” campaign, publicizing its decision to act on customers’ feedback to radically improve upon its 50-year-old recipe. Recently, when Consumer Reports gave Apple’s iPhone 4 a bad review, Apple deleted all references to the article that consumers posted to its discussion board. This prompted an outrage about censorship, which bloggers and other social network users brought to the forefront.
So, what was really more damaging to Apple’s brand: a less-than-stellar review from Consumer Reports, or the censorship story that followed?
More examples include BP oil Spill which generated heaps and tons of comments on British Petroleum.Web users dismayed by the BP oil leak are using Facebook and Twitter to channel outrage, organize cleanups, and poke fun at the public relations crisis facing the company behind the largest-ever U.S. spill. here is no doubt that BP has heard them loud and clear but can they even begin to control this social media spill?
