Are Consumers Being Protected Or Fooled by Customer Reviews and Postings

You are surfing online. Suddenly, your eyes stick on a tempting advertisement; you click and are redirected to a fashion store that looks quite promising. You browse through the catalog; find the collection amazing. Till now nothing is fishy and you feel good about the store. As soon as you start preparing yourself, there is something that strikes your mind and it's pretty relevant. What is it? Of course, it is the question, "Am I buying from a reliable store?" When you start speculating, Online Reviews and Postings from the Customers seem to be your only friend. But are they trustworthy? Or are you being fooled by a handful of SEO & SMO experts? This is an aspect you must think about twice. Here are a few enlightening facts:

1.  If you think that each and every Customer Review or Online Complain that you come across is genuine and posted by a real customer of the store, you are highly mistaken. Please be clear that such Online Reviews, on most of the occasions, are a part of promotional strategy and thus present a biased view.
2.  A question may trouble you- Whereas reviews showering praise for a particular product or service seem purposeful what's the purpose of Consumer Complaints Online if these are not authentic posts? Well, here is an example. PlacementIndia.com is one of the fastest emerging portals for employers and job seekers across all industries in India. Its competitors may not be too amused by the fact and thus they run malicious campaigns through fake PlacementIndia. Now, you know the story inside out.
3.  How to differentiate between a genuine Feedback and a fake review posting? Well, it may be tricky. However, if you can find a pattern in all the reviews posted on a website, it's an idea they are all written by the same person and thus unreal. Presence of technical jargons and use of sophisticated words also indicates that something is unusual.
The bottom line is, you should not blindly trust the Online Reviews or Consumer Complaints. The possibility of them being true cannot be ruled out at the same time but you need to exercise your discretion. It's better not to shop online from stores about which you have no idea whatsoever. Rely more on the referrals from friends and relatives. Don't let an SEO expert sitting in some cozy office to be the master calling the shots as far as your buying decisions are concerned.