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Vega

Have you ever thought that a product review seemed a little less than objective? That John Everyman waxing poetic in that Amazon review box sounded a little too much like the used car salesman who really tried to sell you on that Chevy Vega back in college?

Turns out you are not alone.

Noise In The Signal

Burson-Marsteller and MSI International conducted a survey of adult web users and found that “E-fluentials” increasingly believe that online commerce is being poisoned by paid shills out to market directly too consumers using a more trusted voice.

48% (up from 39% in 2001) of the most vocal, most connected web users are convinced that commentators for hire are using forums to influence public sentiment about products and services. 30% of these same users say that this is a big problem, according to the study.

The problem isn’t the marketing message, it’s the deception. In general, people are neutral to marketing messages in their everyday life — just as long as the marketers are honest about what they are doing. The problem is that increasingly, web marketers are seeing social media as a place to slip in advertorials under the radar.

This sort of astroturfing is becoming an increasingly popular way to create viral content. Tactics ranging from Overstock.com employees creating a fake website to generate buzz around their name, to the Lonelygirl15 creators grabbing the publics attention before revealing that the entire thing was a farce. All of these bait and switch methods reduce the trust that netizens have in the information that they receive online.

Web 2.0 Roundup

The take away from this is that web users are becoming more cynical and for good reason. The problem is that Social Media can only work when there is a trust relationship between those who produce the content and those who consume it. When marketers ignore this fact, they risk shooting themselves in the foot.

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