'Opinion Mass' on the Web
Read a thought provoking article (as always) by Seth Godin earlier:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/direct-from-consumer-marketin... It made me think that yes, companies react to negative PR on the web now but is that to do with the novelty of the medium (eg Twitter)? How would this social opinion on the web help form my opinion if (say) if had to choose a trans atlantic flight? I mean I could search twitter (great fun in itself!) or (and perhaps more relevant) search the greater fun http://cursebird.com for references to BA and Virgin. Gut feel is that there will be complaints about both parties (people like to complain a lot more than they do to praise). Most of who I will not know. This then falls into the same distrust I have for reviews on websites where everything is either 5 stars ("it's great!") or 1 star ("it sucks!"). I smell a rat and, therefore, I do not give it equal (any?) weighting with other inputs when forming my decision. What will change this though is social meta data - knowing the opinion of my friends (and their trusted friends) is much more important because we are dealing with a web of trust - in short the "opinion mass". Imagine visiting Amazon etc and you have the option to see only product reviews from people 'n' hops from you in your circle of friends (facebook/twitter and next gen apps). This could be a pretty big audience and the content could be that more trusted. Also 'n' hops could be configurable - ie don't see any reviews in your circle of friends+2 hops? Then try circle+3. Reporting "spam" comments/reviews is also more benefical as your are essentially performing housekeeping on your own "opinion mass" (and cleaning up it up for others as well). This "opinion mass" could also be harnessed by producers - if I visit BA or Virgin and they are aware of the "opinion mass" then they should alter there prices accordingly. If my "opinion mass" is decidely anti BA then this is an opportunity for them to put a smile on our face. And if I visit Virgin they might see this as an opportunity to compound this negative BA opinion. Obviously the bigger the opinion mass the more away it holds. Long live the revolution!
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/direct-from-consumer-marketin... It made me think that yes, companies react to negative PR on the web now but is that to do with the novelty of the medium (eg Twitter)? How would this social opinion on the web help form my opinion if (say) if had to choose a trans atlantic flight? I mean I could search twitter (great fun in itself!) or (and perhaps more relevant) search the greater fun http://cursebird.com for references to BA and Virgin. Gut feel is that there will be complaints about both parties (people like to complain a lot more than they do to praise). Most of who I will not know. This then falls into the same distrust I have for reviews on websites where everything is either 5 stars ("it's great!") or 1 star ("it sucks!"). I smell a rat and, therefore, I do not give it equal (any?) weighting with other inputs when forming my decision. What will change this though is social meta data - knowing the opinion of my friends (and their trusted friends) is much more important because we are dealing with a web of trust - in short the "opinion mass". Imagine visiting Amazon etc and you have the option to see only product reviews from people 'n' hops from you in your circle of friends (facebook/twitter and next gen apps). This could be a pretty big audience and the content could be that more trusted. Also 'n' hops could be configurable - ie don't see any reviews in your circle of friends+2 hops? Then try circle+3. Reporting "spam" comments/reviews is also more benefical as your are essentially performing housekeeping on your own "opinion mass" (and cleaning up it up for others as well). This "opinion mass" could also be harnessed by producers - if I visit BA or Virgin and they are aware of the "opinion mass" then they should alter there prices accordingly. If my "opinion mass" is decidely anti BA then this is an opportunity for them to put a smile on our face. And if I visit Virgin they might see this as an opportunity to compound this negative BA opinion. Obviously the bigger the opinion mass the more away it holds. Long live the revolution!
