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Companies paying people to say good things about their products on forums

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TucknDar:
The sum of it is that you never know just how good or bad a product is until you've tried it yourself... :huh:

iphigenie:
That's true.

But to me it seems far more cost effective to pay a researcher to go through many communities and identify people who are already positive about your products, then once you have identified them contact them and see if you can turn them into enthusiasts, via freebies and attention. Or risk it and go for people who are opinionated and influential but indifferent to your product, and get them to try it.

Since these people could still decide to be neutral or negative about your product, I don't see why it's so wrong. Or is it that if you are a journalist for a magazine it's ok to review stuff you got for free, and keep some, but if you write on the web it's not?

I suppose the disclosure is all

PS: I alas have had to pay for every single one of my graphics cards

app103:
I have been a member of a consumer testing group that does product testing & feedback for a number of companies, for a long time.

Some of these companies will even pay me to test and give them feedback, both positive & negative, about their product.

Sometimes I don't know what brand I am testing, but most of the time I do.

I recently tested some shampoo and conditioner of a very well known brand, for pay. (I am deliberately not telling what brand)

In the questionnaire I was sent, in addition to the usual product related questions that I am used to seeing and answering, there were a few more I have never seen before.


* They wanted to know if I was an active regular participant in online chatrooms. (IRC, AOL, Yahoo, etc)

* They wanted to know if I have ever recommended a product I have tested to people in online chatrooms.

* They wanted to know if I would recommend theirs in an online chatroom.
* They wanted to know if I have ever used a product on the recommendation of someone in an online chatroom.
I think in addition to getting feedback from me on their product in order to improve it, they are hoping (naturally) to turn me into a regular customer and for free advertising by planting the thought in my mind to tell people about it...specifically in online chatrooms.

Now I don't know about anybody else, but shampoo isn't something that comes up much as a conversation topic in the chatrooms I hang out in. And as far as recommending a product, I would have to really love it to recommend it to someone.

I don't see anything wrong with recommending a product you have tried and like...for free. But that is the key...you have to believe in it or your recommendation is worthless. The minute you receive pay to say nice things, your credibility will go down the drain with me, as soon as I find out about it. From that day forward, I will never trust your recommendations about anything, ever again. I don't like sneaky advertising and people that try to pull the wool over my eyes.

Being sneaky about it is worse than google ads on my kitchen table, relevant to current conversation, over coffee. It doesn't belong there.

But it did get me thinking, and a little paranoid now, about product info from friends...specifically in chatrooms. Are companies paying people to sway the topic towards their product? Are any of my friends involved in this? Would they even tell me if they were?



(if the creators of the Python programming language could stand to make a profit from chatroom endorsements, I would be giving tinjaw the evil eye, right about now.)
;D

tinjaw:
This is nothing new. Many people don't know that alcohol companies pay people go into bars and order drinks and ask for a certain brand. They do it early in the night when you can still hear people talk. Then they strike up conversation and mention the drink. This is also true for cigarette companies. Night club owners are also known to send people to other clubs, strike up a conversation and then mention that they are going back to the club owner's club.

I can also say that I am taking advantage of a similar offer. I won't say what yet, because I don't want to start the conversation that will inevitably ensue just yet, but I will be reviewing some software and will have a matching post/thread on this subject.

As they say, Stay Tuned

dk70:
Internet is lovely for cheap hidden advertising/spamming. Mercedes Benz Denmark recently send out test drive invitations to handpicked bloggers - of course followed by encouragement to blog about the experience. May be just a bright idea by local marketing dep. who have noticed something about viral ads, product placement - but could be worldwide tactics. What does BMW, Samsung etc. and do?

Tech world has always been the worst, may be because it is tied so closely to internet. Not sure anyone care/pay attention to this - part of the game, to be expected. Nvidia, ATI, Microsoft or whoever - all in it together. Listen to latest TWIT 93, from about 48:55 and 1.5 minute forward, a tiny battle between 2 of them ending with "So tell me about the last time you bought a computer product Mr. Ethics". I assume he was among those who got free notebook from MS so he could review Vista. Nice that such poor people get a helping hand ;) This does not cause a stir, seen as a joke I guess. How it is in tech world.

PS: I alas have had to pay for every single one of my graphics cards
-iphigenie (April 06, 2007, 08:27 AM)
--- End quote ---

If you review hardware parts I doubt you are telling the whole truth. Ok so you pay but only 50% right? ;) Ive seen a few sites/reviewers making a big deal out of the fact they DONT review handpicked/sent items from anyone but instead go out and buy them from random shop. I think that is very uncommon.

All this reminds me of why I dumped a local tech site/forum - like a small Cnet. Started out pretty good but then someone noticed one of their advertisers were a well known convicted idiot who have cheated for years. Dodgy online shops, spamming you name it. He just asked how it could be they accepted such a sponsor and got into big trouble with ADM powers. At first they rejected any talk of a problem but after some pushing finally had to announce they did not care as long as they benefited, and then complainer, who I wished was me, got banned. They also are fast to make articles about products kindly supplied by X shop etc. etc. Same old tricks. Since much of internet works because of outside monetary influences no use in crying, cant be avoided - Google ads are here to stay. Matter of being able to look people in the eye and giving them facts - whatever they are. Full disclosure allowing enough transparency for people to see who have an interest in what or nothing - if none consider content advertising. Nvidias straw men were annoying because nobody likes the feeling of being tricked. Mercedes Benz invite got known because one of the bloggers did not have a driving license but she do have a podcast, heh. Did not like being seen as a tool. Others might see this as chance of getting nice rebate on next car.

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