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Do You Think This Reputation Management Tactic Is Legit?

by aharrold
16 replies
I saw this brought up in a threat recently where someone stated that giving incentives for reviews is illegal- just wondering if anyone can actually cite this? Do you think it is unethical to offer an incentive for a review, not a good review or bad but just a review. Granted, you could have an extremely accurate vetting process to only offer these incentives to people who are highly likely to give a good review (without hinting or asking for a good review at all) do you feel this is unethical?
#management #reputation #tactic
  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    It's not illegal but is would be against the TOS of the sites where the reviews are to be left.

    I see nothing unethical about offering a prize or reward to thank them for leaving an honest review.

    But you have to give it to everyone and not make them leave a good review (though most will)
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    Aaron Doud - Sales & Success
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    • Profile picture of the author aharrold
      Originally Posted by Aaron Doud View Post

      It's not illegal but is would be against the TOS of the sites where the reviews are to be left.

      I see nothing unethical about offering a prize or reward to thank them for leaving an honest review.

      But you have to give it to everyone and not make them leave a good review (though most will)
      Yeah, I totally agree, I think that if you offer them a gift card for an HONEST review good or bad it should be okay to do. Has anyone got booted off yelp/google for doing this before? I wonder how many people out of 100 would leave a good review on these sites if you offered a $5-10 Starbucks gift card out of their own good will without even mentioning a review site?
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  • Profile picture of the author WebdevelopmentGroup
    Of course it is...

    Your helping other businesses after taking some evidence.
    Then properly serving them by pushing down those "FAKE" comments.


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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    I'm sure yelp would kick them off. Hell yelp hides a load of reviews anyways. Google might care if it is obviously being done.
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    Aaron Doud - Sales & Success
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    • Profile picture of the author aharrold
      Originally Posted by Aaron Doud View Post

      I'm sure yelp would kick them off. Hell yelp hides a load of reviews anyways. Google might care if it is obviously being done.
      Do you guys have any suggestions around this? A way to get it accomplished without getting booted off?
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      • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
        Originally Posted by aharrold View Post

        Do you guys have any suggestions around this? A way to get it accomplished without getting booted off?
        Is this for one specific business or in general?
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        Aaron Doud - Sales & Success
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      • Profile picture of the author Anthem40
        Originally Posted by aharrold View Post

        Do you guys have any suggestions around this? A way to get it accomplished without getting booted off?
        If you are to put this in process, try to manage the volume the best you can. For example, if it is a killer offer and everyone wants to get the prize, Google will probably flag your account if you get 15 reviews in one day after you only had 4 reviews for the past 2 years.

        If it is a $10 Starbucks card and you get a handful per week, I think that is the best strategy and then after that has been going awhile ramp it up.
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        • Profile picture of the author aharrold
          Originally Posted by Anthem40 View Post

          If you are to put this in process, try to manage the volume the best you can. For example, if it is a killer offer and everyone wants to get the prize, Google will probably flag your account if you get 15 reviews in one day after you only had 4 reviews for the past 2 years.

          If it is a $10 Starbucks card and you get a handful per week, I think that is the best strategy and then after that has been going awhile ramp it up.
          Yes, it is always best to keep the reviews coming in at the same rate as your top competitors in the same category.
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  • Profile picture of the author aharrold
    In general, but primarily businesses that have access to customer telephone numbers.
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    • Profile picture of the author aharrold
      I checked google plus local and didn't see anything about this being unacceptable on their TOS??
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  • Profile picture of the author Arzak
    It's against the guidelines/ToS of some sites (e.g. Google and Yelp). Would you trust a marketer who's breaking guidelines and risking getting your business penalties or even banned from review sites? If they're doing that, they probably aren't reliable to begin with.

    You can probably do something like donating a dollar or something to a charity if they leave a review. Some people think entering people into a contest or giveaway is safe to do, but that's also against guidelines, and yes, businesses do get caught.
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    • Profile picture of the author aharrold
      Originally Posted by Arzak View Post

      It's against the guidelines/ToS of some sites (e.g. Google and Yelp). Would you trust a marketer who's breaking guidelines and risking getting your business penalties or even banned from review sites? If they're doing that, they probably aren't reliable to begin with.

      You can probably do something like donating a dollar or something to a charity if they leave a review. Some people think entering people into a contest or giveaway is safe to do, but that's also against guidelines, and yes, businesses do get caught.
      I like the donating money to charity idea, still wondering if this would be against the TOS of google and yelp though. Something else that came to mind was a raffle for a Starbucks gift card to all that have left a review, it's not directly compensating for a review.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Yes exactly, it's against "other" sites ToS to offer discounts or coupon as incentives "ON" their site. That's the key word here.

      What they don't want is a business with a profile creating coupons offers using the sites features to offer incentives, or they don't want you putting any offers or discounts in your profile description.

      They can't to anything and have zero control over what the business does on their own domain or in their own store.

      Originally Posted by Arzak View Post

      It's against the guidelines/ToS of some sites (e.g. Google and Yelp). Would you trust a marketer who's breaking guidelines and risking getting your business penalties or even banned from review sites? If they're doing that, they probably aren't reliable to begin with.

      You can probably do something like donating a dollar or something to a charity if they leave a review. Some people think entering people into a contest or giveaway is safe to do, but that's also against guidelines, and yes, businesses do get caught.
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  • Profile picture of the author dee4d
    Like Aaron asked, if it works for a specific gig, then go for it. The main thing is to get as many reviews as possible and let it work in your own favor.
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  • Profile picture of the author Darky91
    Of course it's not that cool to do, but whatever, it works. Probably they won't even notice it. Still you've to watch your steps as it's close to bad opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Burton Lancaster
    That's the wrong way to go about it ... what you can do is create a restaurant owned landing page and table toppers to refer the users to your site for reviews. On the landing page have a a question ... "Did you have a positive experience, or a negative experience" If they answer negative send them to an email form, if they answer positive send them to the desired review site.
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