Niche Information and Reviewing
Much like cloud computing, in the near future, we will be taking our networks with us wherever we go. As long as we “allow” the sharing of information to our networks, there will soon be a day when you can log on to Amazon and not read random people’s reviews of products but instead read the reviews written by people within our personal networks. These networks are quickly becoming our best currency on the web; the integration and merging of information within our networks is the next popular trend. How much more valuable is it to you to see a movie review written by a friend or even more importantly written by a friend who’s taste you agree with? This type of segmentation within your own networks will be realized.
Reviewing: The New Advertising
Here’s what PR and ad firms and brands are starting to realize in trend-setting: product reviews are the new advertising, and they don’t cost as much.
We’re talking about reviews by your every-day consumer, not product evangelists or tech review-specific sites.
Trendwatching notes:
There are many more research studies, findings, dissertations, and so on that confirm the same fact:reviewing is the new advertising. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: just as with other trends, what’s unfolding now is a ‘forever need’ among consumers, one that’s now being satisfied in a superior and previously unattainable fashion. In this case, the need is for trusted advice and recommendations—for feeling in control, for knowing the facts, for avoiding mistakes and disappointments—in order to make that perfect purchase. Which has become even more pressing as choice-overload continues: never before was there so much to choose from, in mature consumer societies, and thus such a need for reviews.
Not all companies have jumped on this revolution band wagon, but as the results and surveys come in, they will. The savvy brand knows this before others do; the successful brand leaps into this arena at the start.
The Future
The future growth and success of many of the current social communities and commercial shopping portals today will seek relationships with niche communities and build stronger alliance based on the understanding of the culture of niche community. Product reviews come into play here — if several members in a niche give favorable reviews to a mutually-interested product, most likely more members of that community will purchase the brand and become loyal customers.
The value for advertisers here is to focus marketing expenditures and product placements to reach demographic targets and data. Then, allow the reviews to generate and use such reviews to target other social networks.