A Reason to Yelp
I’m in PR, but I don’t like it when PR firms try to intentionally mislead audiences. Maybe I’m naive, but I think such practices give PR and marketing a black eye. The goal of PR is to engage audiences that need to know about each other – consumers may have a need, companies have a product, you help connect the two for mutual benefit – not trick people. So when I read articles like “Reputations at stake, companies try to alter word of mouth online,” I boil. This Washington Post article implies that many of the reviews you read about products and services online are being influenced by teams of “marketeers” (not musketeers, but close!) who surf the web all day looking to write positive reviews for clients in all the right places. Yuck. Not only does that mislead people who trust these review sites, like Yelp, but who could do that for a living? Sounds like a modern day coal mining job to me.
