Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Hopefully by now you know how important it is to not only have local reviews posted for your business, but to incorporate those reviews into your overall marketing and advertising plan.

According to WordStream, “79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, 85% of consumers say that they read online reviews for local businesses, and 73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more.”

It’s no wonder Google and Yelp is so important to a business’s online success. Unfortunately, many companies stop there.

Believe it or not, there are actually many different online platforms and avenues you can take to get reviews for your business that will still add value, so it’s important you direct your consumers to write those stellar reviews in more places than just the top two....

The number of UK consumers using social media to research what products are "best" has rocketed from 25% to 43% in the last year, according to the Adobe Digital Index (ADI) 2015 Holiday Shopping Prediction report. The study examined more than 1trn visits to 4,500 retail websites since 2008, with a separate survey of over 400 consumers per country in the UK, USA, Germany, France, Australia, China and Singapore.

"We’re seeing the rise of social media as a source of product reviews," says Ryan Dietzen, senior market insights analyst at ADI. "It’s a key part of the customer journey."

The story is the same across Europe, with the percentage of respondents in France using social media to research products jumping from 28% in 2014 to 35% this year. Almost half of respondents in the UK said product reviews are one of the top two influencers on them when making major purchases, while the number influenced by reviews was even greater in Germany at 64 percent....

We (and the rest of the internet for the past decade) have already spent some time convincing you of the importance of acquiring online reviews for your business. So let's just assume you're sold on the benefits of having a bunch of people tout how awesome you are on the web.

That being said, it's not safe to assume we all know exactly where in the wide world of the web we can point those well wishers when they want to sing our praises. I mean, we might all be able to rattle off one or two sites ("Yelp! And I think you can get them to show up in Google Maps, too?"), but we don't exactly have a laundry list of options at our disposal.

Check out our list of the best product review websites for B2B and B2C companies. Keep in mind that every industry has niche sites, too. For instance, those in the restaurant industry may want to be on UrbanSpoon. This blog post won't get into sites that are specific to one industry, but it will provide review sites that apply to businesses in almost any industry....

One challenge, which isn’t new, is the battle for consumer attention. If you’re looking to grow your user base, is there a best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users? I’m increasingly convinced the best way is by harnessing a concept called social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web.

What is social proof? Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something. It’s also known as informational social influence....

Online reviews aren’t just for consumer products and restaurants anymore. These days, reviews are impacting revenue for all kinds of businesses and professional services including real estate agents, loan officers, salons, boutiques, auto repair shops, doctors and everything in between.

So what’s the big deal? We’ve uncovered the data, and the data tells us one thing—the power of online reviews shouldn’t be underestimated. You need to know what people are saying about your business online because reviews can hurt or help your bottom line....