Last week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a new rule designed to prohibit online marketing shenanigans such as using fake reviews, suppressing honest negative reviews, and paying for positive reviews.
If enacted, the FTC would prohibit businesses from selling or obtaining phony consumer reviews and testimonials, prevent “review hijacking” (when a review written for one subject is repurposed for another) and buying reviews. The rule also seeks to stop companies from having their workforce write reviews or testimonials of its products or services, stop the creation or control of a website that pretends to offer independent opinions about a category or product, end the practice of selling false indicators of social media influence (such as fake followers and views) and cease the practice of legal threats and intimidation to remove negative consumer reviews.
“Our proposed rule on fake reviews shows that we’re using all available means to attack deceptive advertising in the digital age,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The rule would trigger civil penalties for violators and should help level the playing field for honest companies.”
Perhaps this could be a classic example of too little/too late. A few years ago when I wrote a book about the Patterson-Gimlin Film – that shaky strip of celluloid that allegedly captured Bigfoot walking through a forest clearing – there was a remarkably negative review of my book on Amazon. But I quickly determined that it was written by another author who had his own Bigfoot book in release and was going out of his way to discredit my work. Mercifully, the folks at Amazon acted quickly and his phony review was taken down.
I appreciate how the new FTC rule would prohibit a professional calling in back-up to add disingenuous praise. I’ve also seen that happen – some years ago I used a dog groomer who injured my dog, but when I shared the experience in a review site the groomer assembled a small army of people to quickly post reviews insisting on her genius in caring for canines.
More recently, I was reminded about the dubious nature of online reviews when I was looking to buy new pillows. I considered the MyPillow brand, but I noticed that carried an abnormally large number of reviews, both positive and negative, and the extreme nature of the writing suggested the so-called reviewers were sharing their thoughts about the brand’s polarizing founder Mike Lindell rather that the product line. I can’t imagine how the FTC will respond to the MyPillow review swamp.
For the real estate profession, word of mouth and positive reputation is critical for an agent or broker to succeed. But what happens when unpleasant commentary about a professional’s skill-set and performance turns up online? One can respond to comments online, but that can open a tit-for-tat potential with the malcontent reviewer endlessly one-upping the subject of the complaint. There is also the option of following my example and petitioning for the review to be removed, but that’s not always possible.
Maybe online reviews are the ultimate lose-lose situations – you can never be sure if the thumbs-up input is sincere or if the thumbs-down input is the digital equivalent of an axe to grind. Or maybe I am looking at this the wrong way?
Here is my question for our real estate profession readers: How do you approach online reviews? Do you encourage them, or are you caught off-guard when they appear? And what happens when you are saddled with a negative review? How do you respond?
And, for that matter, what is your opinion of the FTC’s proposed rule?
Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section below. I am curious to hear how this readership approaches the subject.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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