Manage & Collect
How To Make The Most Of Collecting Reviews & Google’s Free Shopping
May 1, 2020
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5 min read
No-one likes to feel tricked, so here at Reviews.io we've got your back with some tips to keep you review savvy.
Whether you're a business owner or consumer, fake reviews hurt everyone. In my last post I wrote about how a negative review can be your friend - if you haven't read it already, check it out here - as generally 100% positivity across the board is a sure fire way to spot the fakers.
Worryingly, 84% of people reported not being able to always spot a fake review, and we want to change this figure. In this blog you'll find some tips and tricks to identify those nasty fakes, and with Reviews.io you can cut them out of your business' review collection entirely, displaying only honest reviews on your page.
Fake reviews are what they say on the tin: feedback about a product, company, or service which has been fabricated by the writer or source of the review. The writer has not purchased, encountered or used said business' services, yet has commented on its quality, price, efficiency, durability and so forth.
Fake reviews can be created by anyone or a group of people, but as Business Insider's 2017 article highlights, through ever increasing technological advancements, the use of artificially intelligent (AI) generated reviews is a potential threat.
Human generated fake reviews often occur for monetary gain. Companies can look for freelance reviewers who will create an account, then spam the site with shining reviews, who in their mind positively increase the image of their brand. On the other hand, companies may advertise incentives for long standing account holders to post fake reviews on their behalf, in order to reduce suspicion regarding brand new accounts.
As we know not only is this deceptive, but its actually more harmful to their image. Once consumers find out you're subcontracting fakers, trust rapidly depletes. The Guardian goes on to interview some of those freelancers which you can read here.
Although not currently existing on the internet, researchers are able to teach these AI systems through Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) how to produce text, in this case a review, which for all intents and purposes appears humanly generated. Not only that, these systems could produce thousands of fake reviews free of charge cutting the need for paid freelancers, thus reducing the costs for dodgy businesses to ramp up their sham reviews. However, even though this technology is a possibility it is not currently an issue faced in the real world by genuine companies collecting reviews.
Although fake reviews are worrying, we can still pick out those little features which get alarm bells ringing. Below are 4 tips to help you spot the fakes:
With all that in mind, use your nose. If something feels too good to be true, it more often than not is. Check through reviews, look for proficient language skills and coherent sentence structure, with often a mixed vibe to the message. Although fake reviewers will always be out there, and the threat of future AI fake reviewing is on the horizon, reviews still serve such a vital purpose in securing brand image and relay genuine consumer concerns and praises for your company.
Reviews.io always operates with integrity and rigorously checks reviews, with our 'Verified' badge enabling you to instantly see that review is genuine. Review verification authenticates the whole process allowing your real customers to make informed decisions about you and your products.
Find out more about all the great things Reviews.io offers in this blog, or check out the homepage.
