Trust Issues: From Fake Reviews to Ethical Consumerism

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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Mindful Bytes podcast.
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Today we're going to talk about reviews.
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Can you trust them?
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Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in to the Mindful Bytes podcast.
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I'm Brian, your Gen X business leader, slash digital guy.
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And I'm Shawna, your Xenial digital dinosaur.
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I'm Olivia, your social media savvy millennial.
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I'm Ashton, your Gen Z tech enthusiast savvy millennial.
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I'm Ashton, your Gen Z tech enthusiast.
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So a couple weeks ago, sean, I heard you on the phone talking about reviews and you said something that I thought was very interesting is like about how, basically, can we trust them?
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You know, we used to buy products We've talked about this with clients and at conferences that we've spoken at and say, hey, how many of you buy products today because based off the brand name?
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And not many people raise their hands and that used to be the thing that people would buy it because of the brand name.
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But brand loyalty has kind of changed where now people buy based on the reviews, and it's been like that for a while.
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But as marketers catch on to these things, we realize that you know, reviews have become a key part of marketing strategies.
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So that's the knowing that those reviews can influence who's buying products, what decisions people are making.
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People have started adjusting that to try to start buying reviews, and so the question started surfacing like can we trust reviews today?
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And it just kind of give you like some insight.
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I know here, like when I worked at a radio station, one of our big things was, you know, we were launching a brand new app.
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So this is like one approach, but we weren't buying it.
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But I knew that on the app store to get the get a better results Like when people are searching for the app we need to get the reviews up.
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So the idea was, hey, we're at this huge conference I think there was like 10,000 people there or something and we got up on stage and we announced the, the app and stuff like that, and then gave them the opportunity to like download the app right now.
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They had like a like a contest.
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They could register.
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That was app only, but then if they left a review on the app, they got an extra entry.
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So this app went out and within hours, you know, of that concert, they had hundreds of reviews, five-star reviews, which was great, worked out great and hey, take that strategy, go use it, uh.
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But you know, the thing is like a lot of them hadn't even tested out the app, but they just gave it a five-star review.
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They loved the station.
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Uh, hadn't even tested out the app, but they just gave it a five star review.
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They love the station, uh, and they want to give the app review.
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It was a great app, so it was worth the five stars.
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So, but with that, sean I, when I heard you say that, I was like it's so true, like this has now become such a big marketing thing.
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I purchased things, get things in from Amazon.
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It's like, hey, leave us a review.
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Just the other day I'm I'm testing out an AI service to make a an AI avatar of me to do videos and doing some tests on that to see how that works, and it's been a.
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I guess it hasn't been a long delay.
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I thought it was a long delay, but then you pointed out it's only been one day longer when I reached out to him and said, hey, what's going on with that app that the AI avatar, it said two days, so long it felt like a week.
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It felt like a week and they're like, oh, it's, it's passed and they're they're building it right now.
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I'm like, right, cool.
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But as soon as they sent that to me and I was like, all right, cool, they sent me a question hey, rate our service a five, like our app.
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Would you rate our app a five or a one?
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Like what would you rate it?
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I was like I can't rate it at all because I haven't even tried it yet.
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It's like that happens to me all the time too.
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Yeah, they go for the reviews so quickly.
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So I wanted to bring this up for us to talk about.
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You know, with the rise of fake and paid reviews it's it's become a harder that we can we really trust what we're even reading online.
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So do you guys trust reviews?
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And shauna, I guess let's start with you.
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I heard you on that phone call.
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How did that even come up?
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Unless it's like a private conversation, you can't share it yeah, it's confidential.
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I'm sorry, uh, I don't actually remember what product we were talking about.
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I just you know, and if you see uh ads and stuff on facebook a lot which I'm really susceptible to, those products and those ads I'm like, oh, I need that.
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But the trouble is now I've learned to go ahead and go and research that company and search and find out if that company is like a scam, because it happens so often where I will see something that looks interesting to me.
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I just saw this thing about seeds like water lily, lotus, flower seeds, and I was like I really want those, and then I go and see it's a Chinese company.
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It's probably not even actually going to send you any seeds, so I didn't order from them, but I looked up other companies.
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All of that to say I don't trust reviews anymore, especially not on social media, because I've tried too many products that were not anything like they were supposed to be, and so then you ask yourself how did they get thousands of great reviews that all sound very similar too?
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I just don't trust them anymore.
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Yeah, I think reviews is, you know, not something you necessarily can trust anymore, um, but something I do trust and see people doing on social is if you do an actual post.
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You know, like I saw someone actually do it with mixed tiles.
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I don't know if you guys use those, but I have them and they're like a picture frame that, like you can easily stick on your wall and move around and it doesn't rip your wall off or whatever.
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Well, they are fantastic.
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So someone actually asked like on Facebook is this true?
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Asked like on Facebook, is this true?
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And the reviews from their actual personal friends were actually really good.
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So they were like okay, I trust my friend, so I am going to order it versus just looking at actual reviews, so that I feel a little differently about.
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But even now, if you not even necessarily reviews, but like influencers and products, they're getting paid, so that you can't even trust either.
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Some of my reason of bringing up this question is to be thinking about what's next, because, like, just like, people don't buy brands, you know, we know, obviously a lot of brands are trying to save money, so they're doing stuff cheaper and they started losing that recognition for being the brand that they are and people started using reviews.
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So reviews have increased sales, but now people realize that people are paying for reviews and stuff like that.
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So now what's next?
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And I liked what I never thought about the influencer side of this, so I'm glad that you guys brought this up and I'm curious is could reviewers or influencers, what happened if these platforms added an option where, just like on ebay, you can rate the seller, you can rate the influencer?
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So in these apps.
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You can see, like what is the rating for this influencer when it comes to the trust side of the reviews for these products.
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I like that idea.
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I have actually seen a creator basically have to shut their stuff down because they talked about this product and no one ever got it and it was like an $150 thing, so they just got so much, you know, flack, that they were never going to be seen as credible again.
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But that's still a lot of people that are out of $150 too, because they weren't getting their money back, so yeah, I think that's an interesting take on all this too, because I think when you go to the influencer side, it's a lot different, because it can affect, because it's like a personal brand, it's like their face, and there's a big consequence if it doesn't go out.
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If it's a review that's fake, that they're giving, it could really affect their business as an influencer.
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So I guess there is that part.
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But I would love to see that option.
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Like if you buy something on Amazon and you leave a review that says verified that you bought it, but with Shauna, with your statement over the phone, I'm like here's the thing we know that people are paying for those.
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We know that people are paying for those.
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We know that people are getting products and like, hey, you're going to get this percentage off or we're going to give you $10 if you leave us a five-star review.
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So people go to do it to get what they want.
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The review really doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the product.
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So those don't really have a consequence.
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Is that the right word?
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They don't have a consequence for the buyer because we're getting something and I think it's something that we have to be aware of, that this is happening, which a lot of us are, I think.
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Are we really going around the right approach here?
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But here's another twist to it, cause I want to ask you guys what are some signs of that?
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You guys have seen maybe some fake reviews, but here's another twist.
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Before we get there, I want to ask you like I started thinking about this when you guys were talking about influencers and stuff.
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But we see fake reviews for bad reviews, but I wonder if there's just as many fake reviews for bad reviews.
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You said bad twice.
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You said the same thing twice.
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Yeah, you said the same thing.
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Okay, let me say that again.
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This way it makes sense.
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We all know and understand that there's people paying for good reviews, but have we considered that there might be people paying for bad reviews?
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Like for another company.
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Yes, I'm going to pay you to leave bad reviews on our competitors Amazon.
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Oh my gosh.
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Because I look at the bad reviews.
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Yeah, I do too.
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I started thinking about that.
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Like when I go to the reviews I like to look at okay, first I look at how many is it close to a five-star reviews, how many people have reviewed it.
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So those are two things I look at and then I'll go down to the lowest reviews and say what are people saying?
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But I've never thought that there could be people getting paid to leave bad reviews.
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So I want to quickly ask you guys what are some signs that maybe, when you guys look at reviews, are there any signs that you guys look for to say, hey, should I trust this review or not?
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This might not be entirely fair, but one of the things that's kind of a red flag to me is you know how um obvious it is when someone has taken something and put it in Google translate.
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So, like you know, the grammar's weird and put it in Google.
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Translate.
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So the grammar's weird and the words they use are weird.
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Whenever I see a review written like that, I'm automatically like I don't know about that.
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That makes me nervous.
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That's probably a good idea because, with AI now I wonder how many people are going to be using if they're not already using AI to translate.
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They're paying like have an ai, go out and do these, leave these reviews on the fly.
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So that's a good I'm sure, yeah, repetitiveness happening.
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Um, I have a couple things.
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Number one, like what is the actual complaint?
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Because you can tell when someone is just I mean, they complain about everything, right.
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Or, number two, has the company responded to the negative review?
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Because, if they have, because you know, a lot of other clients that I work with are customer service based and that is a priority Whenever we get a negative comment it gets responded to, because I have been a part of accounts where a jilted employee went ham on the account with negative reviews.
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So yeah, it's Ashton.
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How about your thoughts when you look at reviews?
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Is there anything that you look for as a sign, like I don't know, this might be a fake review?
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Well, definitely repetitiveness If you see a lot of reviews saying the same thing over and over, you know it's probably not right, but also seeing if the things they're saying actually line up.
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I've seen reviews before that's like oh, oh, yes, the full metal construction of this thing is amazing.
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And you look and it's like it literally says in the description.
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It's all plastic and you're like yeah, you can already tell like this person either is like a first or second grader, or like they've never held a piece of metal or something is obviously wrong here.
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Uh, so just using kind of like a, the details that are given to you, the specifications are given to you.
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You know, sometimes people are like this is so big and you're like and it's like four centimeters, like it's not that big that's an insult to first graders, because first graders can tell the difference between metal and plastic.
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Yeah, you're probably right.
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I think you hit a lot of stuff there, ashton.
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Really pay attention to those multiple reviews, maybe even very generic, like a generic review, and also even a surge of reviews, maybe kind of like we did with the app.
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I mean, that was great and it helped out a lot.
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But on other things we have to be paying attention.
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There's a huge surge of reviews that are coming in, and why?
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Why might that be?
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So?
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Can you trust all those reviews if they're coming in at one time?
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But, yeah, unnatural language.
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I think that's good and I think that there's just.
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I guess we have to be what Shauna said at the beginning we have to really be willing to do more research.
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The thing when it comes to marketers is let's just be truthful, marketers that are listening that we can kind of ruin these things that work really well, because then we abuse these things, and obviously that's what's happening here is, they're being abused for to fill somebody else's wallet and people are becoming you know, we become aware of it.
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So, and if you're not, your eyes look at them like we've seen some pretty funny reviews.
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Actually, as we get ready to transition, I want to show you guys this is a funny review.
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I like fun okay so, okay, I'm going to share this on the screen, if I can here.
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We go share the screen right here and, uh, maybe people will be able to see us.
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This is this is there's a book here that people is selling on amazon.
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It says where is baby's belly button?
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It's great and you see the review.
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One star.
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Do not buy this book.
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You can see the ending right on the cover that's funny, but it's so.
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so mean to leave a one star, yeah.
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I know.
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Actually that really impacts an author, but it is funny.
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So the question is do you think a competitor?
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paid for this review.
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You know it's not a bad idea, like someone who thought this was like a deeper learning book and they're like what a waste of money learning book and they're like what a waste of money.
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So also you could spin this as a marketer and this could have even been paid for by the author, because you're giving them free advertising that's right.
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This is so funny, you're sharing it with everybody that's a great point.
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There's a lot of youtube channels.
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Now that review reviews um yeah, go through stuff like this so that very well could be paid to get extra traction world in regards to endorsement, because there are people talking about how some influencers are getting paid millions of dollars to endorse political candidates and there is no like laws or any protections set into place for things like that.
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So, again, there probably is a gray area when it comes to reviews and just different things like that.
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On like whether we believe it's ethical or not, there is no laws that says they're doing anything wrong currently.
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So these are big conversations that are happening and it will be interesting to see, if any laws are put in place, how these types of things will change in the future.
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I think that this goes hand in hand with what we just kind of watched on a church sermon Shauna about.
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You know, we've been talking about how connection we see connection as the future when it comes to marketing and, you know, building a brand and building those relationships uh, basically earning trust and the pastor that we were listening to said that we have to be aware of who we're listening to.
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Like we don't really know them, and I think that's something to even take into consideration when it comes to influencers.
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Could it lead to an increase, like in local purchasing, because people know people, like they know the people in the area?
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I don't know.
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Things are shifting and changing because obviously there's a lot less trust and the things that we did trust, like reviews and feedback.
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We're starting not to come back to what Olivia said, as far as people asking their own friends, people they already trust, for their personal reviews.
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I think that's it's word of mouth.
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It's always been the most powerful, I think so.
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I like OK.
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So I think that's pretty cool because if you think about like social media side, if you see your friends are going somewhere, it'll if there's an event, it event, it'll say, hey, your friends are going there, or this person sent you a friend request and you can see that your friends are friends with them.
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So could the future of these things be like hey, your friends purchased this, like.
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So if it's on amazon, it could show their social profiles like who's purchased it that maybe you're following on social media and I mean I need to get like a big check from these people, because these are great ways I actually don't like
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that I don't want people seeing what I'm buying well, you would have that option, like you know.
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Unsubscribe yeah.
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But I would imagine, like if I could say, hey, I was gonna buy this mic and I just don't know.
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I don't know if I can trust these reviews.
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But I see the videographers that I'm friends with, they bought this mic.
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I can reach out to them now really quickly and find out, hey, what do you guys think about it?
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And get a personal referral from them.
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So it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out over the next five years of all these things happening All right.
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So that's enough about reviews.
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So that gives you everybody a lot to think about.
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I would love to hear your guys' thoughts.
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Click that text link in the show notes and let us know your thoughts about this.
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That's all we have for today.
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If you enjoyed this episode, click, follow and don't forget to leave us a review.
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Well, should you even be telling people to leave a review after we just blasted reviews?
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Well, we didn't ask for it.
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Yeah, leave a review, but we won't trust it that's why we asked for the review at the end, guys.
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That's why we asked for it at the end.
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They listened to it, and we're not giving anything away, though.
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If you want to leave us a review, what we'll do is we'll just send us your address and we'll send you a.