5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5

I admit it. I love WOMing WOMM.  I’ve been WOMing WOMM since … 2005?

WOMM vs. ADV
The danger of and possible swan song of WOMM: People will eventually see shills coming, will recognize shill-talk, shill blogs – and ignore it all.

And there have been so many posts I can’t even link to them all.

If you don’t know what WOMM is, here’s a link to a methodical and rigorous explanation:

Where people already aren’t.

Not too long ago there was a piece in the NYT:

Time To Duct-Tape WOMM?
A recent ad posted by “Katmoney” … offered to write convincing negative reviews posted to a Yelp page of your choosing.

Now there’s another one:

In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5
By DAVID STREITFELD
In tens of millions of reviews on Web sites like Amazon.com, Citysearch, TripAdvisor and Yelp, new books are better than Tolstoy, restaurants are undiscovered gems and hotels surpass the Ritz.

And I thought Brand Ambassadors and Citizen Marketers were the bee’s knees.

More from the NYT piece:

Determining the number of fake reviews on the Web is difficult. But it is enough of a problem to attract a team of Cornell researchers, who recently published a paper about creating a computer algorithm for detecting fake reviewers.

And the NYT printed this:

Is That Review a Fake?

As usual, I don’t get it.  I’m not behind the curve, or ahead of it–just simply tumbling helplessly inside it.

Why would you publish and promote the algorithm?  Wouldn’t that tip off all those wonderful Brand Ambassadors and Citizen Marketers?  Doesn’t Google, for example, keep their perpetually morphing search algorithm a secret?  Aren’t there computer geniuses who spend their lives trying to figure it out?

I’d gladly pay anybody a fiver to give this post five stars – but I’m not sure where to put the stars.  Maybe on my forehead.

This ‘n that, here ‘n there again.

Think of this post as a bunch of beefy tweets.

Active baby boomers want no part of bingo, hot meals

Well, we know that.  If they don’t want to live in places with silly stuff, they certainly don’t want to frequent senior centers with silly stuff.

Marketers' Billion-Dollar Problem: Boomers

Interesting for me to wake up in the morning, make some coffee, sit down at my computer, and read exactly what I've been saying since 2003 (actually a bit longer) in a book, this blog, my speaking/consulting here and in Europe.  As if it's all new.

Meet Ken Osmond
For any card-carrying baby boomer, the mere mention of Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) takes us back to our formative years. Growing up, we took St. Joseph low dose aspirin when we were under the weather.

Brent Green unpacks that one.

Conversation With Baby Boomers
Deborah L. Jacobs
After 23 years of contributing articles to many different publications, I have decided to make my journalistic home at Forbes.

Okay.  I like Ms. Jacobs.  Let’s talk.

Is age the most valuable asset in PR?
Many talk about gender discrimination in the workplace, but is age discrimination on the rise? If so, companies and agencies bypassing older applicants for younger ones are making a grave mistake…

I’ll second that.

100-Year-Olds Just as Unhealthy as the Rest of Us

For my whole life I’ve tried everything I could to die young. Nothing has worked so far. Now I know why.

Rita Wilson Introduces Huff/Post 50, Website For Baby Boomers

Originally it was Huff/Post 40.  My suggestion: Huff/Post 60.  In ten years, Huff/Post 70.  In forty years, see previous beefy tweet.

Smartphones & Usability

Dick Stroud points us to a newsletter by Web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen:

How do you design mobile applications for older people? With great care.
The Jakob Nielsen newsletter has a very useful article about the challenges of designing applications for small screens.

His “bottom line” message is that: “Mobile devices require a tight focus in content presentation, with the first screen limited to only the most essential information.”

(Unless you have very slippery fingers…)

Dr. Nielsen backs up what I’ve been saying for over a year about advertising and smartphones:

Foretellings (01 May 2010)
The more people use smartphones, the less they’ll tolerate silly graphical doodads mucking up their small  screens.

Foretellings II
The Pew report … found that 87 percent of the smartphone owners surveyed used their device to access the Web or e-mail at least once a day. And 25 percent said they go online on their smartphone more than they do with a regular computer…

Just A Few Gazillion Dollars
… The death knell for the personal computer will sound like: ‘Mainly I use my phone/pad, but I still use my PC to write long e-mails and documents.’ Most people aren’t there yet, but that’s where we’re headed.

A pretty piss-poor advertising medium.
Consumers weren’t motivated by display ads, as evidenced by the share of the online audience that bothered to click on them.

Not everyone loves Jakob Nielsen:

Nielsen has been criticized by some graphic designers for failing to balance the importance of other user experience considerations such as eye appeal.

What a shock.  After all …

Goodbye, Fancy-Schmancy Web Sites
Online, content is a tool. We use it. It's not passive and neither are we. And if its design hinders that use, we get irritable.

There is no way anybody, no matter what age, will put up with graphic gizmo advertising on smartphones.

Simple Fact: The real estate isn’t there.

Don’t Call Them Old (Is Old)

I saw this headline floating on my monitor, and clicked:

Don't call them old
By Bruce Posten
31 July 2011
Many baby boomers are in their 60s but not ready to retire or seek services for senior citizens … many defiant baby boomers apparently prefer to believe in encores rather than final acts. For them, aging and retirement have become somewhat problematic in a variety of ways…

Looked familiar.  At least the headline.  I dug into my dusty ethereal drawers and found this from almost eight years ago:

Don't call them old
by Jean Starr
14 December 2003
No old standards
Chuck Nyren is a leading creative consultant, copywriter, and columnist, who focuses on baby boomer demography, sociology and culture.
"Not wanting to get/be/look older isn't anything new. However, baby boomers will do it a bit differently," he said. "Looking and being healthy will be more important than toupees and botox. While botox and the like are getting a lot of press, I'm guessing only a small percentage of people are using stuff like that. Being able to ride a bike, play tennis and garden will be more important than looking good and feeling (bad)."

The more things stay the same, the more they stay the same.

The Press Release Parade

I’m on the list.

That doesn’t make me special by any standards. Press Releases are like virtual confetti nowadays.*

Most are daft, pointless blather.  While the salutation “Hi Chuck” makes it appear as if the sender has some clue about what my blog is about, it’s usually a tip-off that whatever PR genius it is has never read my posts. 

And they usually have no idea what they’re writing about. A recent (expurgated) one:

Hi Chuck,
Meredith, the publisher of large-circulation magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal, is beginning to guarantee some of its biggest advertisers that major ad campaigns in Meredith titles will actually increase their sales by a certain amount. But will this be a big enough incentive to make advertisers switch to print?

Advertisers aren’t switching to print.  They’ve been using print advertising successfully for hundreds of years. If anything, they may be thinking about switching to ether. 

More from the press release:

The attractiveness of internet advertising lies in its innate ability to track returns and manage spending to a very fine degree due to the immediate nature of response it is able to generate.

Ah, yes.  Tracking returns:

Click this ad. 0.051% do.

The Click: Brand Marketing's Most Misleading Measure
… a tiny fraction of people ever click on an ad. In fact, 99% of stable cookies examined never click on an ad … optimization of campaigns to achieve higher CTR may in fact be reducing brand ROI.

I won’t comment on Meredith’s ‘guarantee’ and if it’s good  for them, or for advertisers.  My guess is that it’s simply a promotional vehicle that has to do with flattening ad revenue across all media – not a response to web advertising as implied by the misleading press release.  More than likely, Meredith is focusing on major advertisers, competing for print dollars and, perhaps, TV revenue.  Web advertising is actually a big dud:

The Real Thing vs. The Virtual Thing

* Disclosure: I toss handfuls for clients every so often.

Disclaimer: This post is in no way a commentary on the Public Relations industry. Many well-respected professionals condemn confetti press releases.