Do you trust Amazon reviews? Sometimes it’s hard to know if you should. The idea of crowdsourcing recommendations is an amazing one. It’s so amazing that every business has a vested interest in gaming the system.
And you can tell when a book has 3 recommendations, all that feel like they came off the book jacket themselves, that it’s probably the author and his friends doing that. And you’ve probably also spotted the opposite – people dogging competitive products. Getting those same people to write negative reviews about the products your competitors offer.
But there’s a new tactic that’s becoming more widespread lately. The subtle plug. Referencing your product within a related product’s review. “I liked this product, but I actually ended up going with X”. This is a powerful testimonial. False or not. And scammers are starting to take advantage of it. We’ll see if Amazon acts, or can even figure out how to?