Why is it said that a first impression is the last impression
I was reading a press release this morning from a company that was practically begging people to reconsider the raves and rants found online. Specifically calling many of the review sites fakes themselves and that the rankings they contain should be “taken with a grain of salt.” That people should be educated on how to read a review and determine it’s valor. Each and every review on an individual basis.
Now I will be the first to agree that many, if not most of the review sites are loaded with illegitimate crud created by competitors or by the companies themselves. But I’m going to come right out and say, “that absolutely does not matter.” People believe what they read, and they are going to believe the online reviews they find whether they were genuinely generated or not. Calling the ratings sites themselves out does nothing but give this company (which I choose not to promote with a link because their press release was ridiculous) a reason to put their name out on the PRWEB wire. So I’m guessing they just didn’t have much to write about today and that was the best they could come up with.
The Power of First Impressions and Branding
Let me say this one more time to be clear. People are going to believe what they read. If they find positive reviews they will believe them. If they find negative reviews they’ll likely believe those as well. The best way to keep your online reputation in check is to work hard at keeping it clean. Be everywhere you possibly can when it comes to online social sites. Do everything you can to obtain legitimate, quality reviews from your clients and visitors. When the negatives do come, determine whether it’s best to engage them and turn them into a sales opportunity or to simply move on and continue to work on building more positive content to overcome the negative.
But do not waste your time trying to educate people on how to read a review and determine whether it might or might not be real. Your effort here is completely lost. Once again, people are going to believe what they read. Period. So focus on creating content that’s positive and let’s have them reading stuff that is going to bring them to your business.
First Impression Always Matter: Web Reputation
