We all research products and services online and often make our buying decisions based on what we read. In business, getting these decisions wrong can set you back financially, hinder your progress, or both. This post was inspired by my shattered illusions, disappointments and surprises with social media over the past few months.
Faker
ARE LIES THE NEW TRUTH?
I have learnt that to gain any useful knowledge online, you need to treat everything you read with scepticism. Has lying become the new normal? Liars get away with it because they know some of us are either naive or too busy to check out the facts.
Online research informs most of my blog posts and I always find:
False or unsubstantiated claims in support of a product, service, company or individual
Sales pitches disguised as expert analyses
In previous posts I have exposed ways that companies provide misleading or false information about themselves and also how ‘expert reviews’ are mostly published by affiliates that gain a commission from the sites they review. Although it’s really important to be aware of these practices, I now realise that some of the measures I use to evaluate companies, products and services, such as consumer reviews, likes and number of followers can’t be trusted either.
FAKE FOLLOWERS
I’ll deal with this one first. We all know that you can buy followers, but for some reason I’ve always been impressed when people or companies have large numbers of them. I’m not going to dwell on this, but simply explain that there are lots of ways to buy followers, eg How to Buy High-Quality Twitter Followers Fast , and lots of ways to spot when someone has fake followers, eg What are fake followers and fake engagement?. Just don’t be impressed with high follower numbers before you check them out more closely.
FAKE LIKES
In a previous post I wrote: So far, the best way I found to get feedback and meet people is through Facebook groups. This may still be the case, but I am now very sceptical about many of them. I recently left a group because the members decided they were going to ‘like’ each other’s Facebook pages to increase their statistics. Perhaps I am old school, but to me this type of business networking and creating fake likes is for losers. Of course, just like fake followers, people also buy fake likes.
OVERBLOWN HYPE
I decided to look for another group to replace it. After extensive searching, I joined a group aimed at baby boomer businesswomen, run by a woman who claims to have decades of highly successful experience. Once I joined, I was immediately invited to join an exclusive ‘Success Club’ which you pay for. I was put off by the brazen self-promotion and simply didn’t believe it. Perhaps some people find this helpful, but hype just doesn’t work with me. I left the group.
I tried again and joined another group, this time run by a supposed high-flying businessman. Same situation about the exclusive club invitation: “Join now, it’s your last chance!” I was interested to know which country he was writing from, so I visited his company’s website and went directly to the privacy policy in search of some facts. I found a cut and pasted document with no business name or contact details. Totally unprofessional. I left the group.
The other groups I belong to are OK but there don’t seem to be enough older members I can relate to.
FAKE consumer REVIEWS
I ended a previous post with the question: Can you trust TrustPilot? Now that I have more experience online, I am in a better position to answer.
We are all aware of the fake reviews on Amazon but what about TrustPilot? I have depended on their reviews because I don’t trust the ‘experts’, but I now find they can’t be trusted either. Wikipedia’s article states: Independent investigations have revealed that review websites such as Trustpilot have fake reviews on an almost industrial scale. Can I trust this statement?
Well, it was referenced from four sources, although they date back a few years. Nevertheless, the article was updated 9 May 2019 and other statements are current, for example: Estate agents and banks have been accused of gaming Britain’s biggest consumer feedback website by paying it to help gain better review scores . I didn’t bother read other review sites’ reviews about TrustPilot- why should I believe them?
I still refer to TrustPilot, but now I skim over the positive reviews and check out the negative ones in detail. Even if they are hidden amongst glowing five-star reviews, if I find the same types of complaints recurring over time, I tend to believe them. On the other hand, my trust can be restored if the company in question responds well to negative reviewers.
SO, WHO DO I TRUST?
I still trust peer-reviewed, published research, but should I?
AND WHO DO YOU TRUST?
Leave a comment below, I would really love to know.
Best wishes
Viv