Have you ever read an online review of a brand's product or service that seemed too good to be true or, conversely, overly negative? There may be a reason: astroturfing.
Astroturfing is a social media or online marketing campaign that is formally planned by an organization or agency, but is disguised as spontaneous, grassroots behavior. In other words, sometimes conversations and reviews expressed within online communities are coming not from legitimate, sharing consumers, but rather from hired posters who don't disclose their connection to an organization.
In order to find out what marketing professionals thought about astroturfing, R2integrated (R2i) surveyed 284 professionals from several leading industries from July 26 - August 4. The data results showed that 85 percent of marketers believe that the proliferation of social media has increased the practice of astroturfing, and most think the practice is "highly unethical" and "unprofessional."
If the majority of marketing professionals agree that astroturfing is bad, then why does the practice still occur?
One reason may be the nature of online purchasing behavior. Forty-nine percent of survey respondents indicated that online reviews influenced their purchasing decisions "most or all of the time." Nearly the same percentage indicated "sometimes."
Online peer-to-peer recommendations clearly play an important role in the buying decisions of consumers. Maintaining review authenticity about your brand's product or service within online communities is important to attracting new customers and retaining customer trust.
More than 70 percent of R2i survey respondents said that they would stop buying from a brand or consider stopping if they found out that brand had planted reviews. What's more, brands or agencies suspected of or caught astroturfing can and will incur complaints via the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Reviews that exist within online communities are powerful and they do influence purchasing decisions. Because of this, brands and agencies have to be completely honest and transparent with their endorsements and information sharing, and closely monitor their social media outsourcing. Contrary practices such as astroturfing place your brand, its reputation, and its future at risk.
What do you think about astroturfing? Does social media increase its likelihood? How can brands and agencies work together to avoid practice?