Websites actually would do well to quote from these forums and even to (on occasion) link to them. These forums are also a HUGE help to copywriters for doing research, getting key phrases and concerns, and more.

- Jeff

I have actually started a company which is trying to create actionable knowledge out of forum data.

Thanks for pointing me to tombihn.com. After checking out the site, here are my thoughts. First, the good:

1) If they don’t have a review of the bag in question, they invite you to check out their forum.

2) Once you’ve opened up the pop-up window to read the reviews, it’s pretty cool that they, also provide a list of External Reviews by magazines, newspapers, etc.

3) I like how they allow reviewers to provide links to their own blogs or websites and how they post the date and time of the review. These things make the reviews seem more authentically real.

4) The fact that they had the forums was pretty cool and the content within the forums was helpful. I especially like that they had a product reviews AND a product pictures section.

Now the bad:

A) It might be just me, but by only putting gone review up at the top of the page, it’s easy to mistake it for a testimonial rather than a review. This mistake is made more likely by the fact that the bluish-grey “more reviews” link is not high contrast with the grey background and is not underlined. I initially scrolled down looking for the reviews and then had to scroll back up to find them.

B) If you had not specifically mentioned the forums, I would never have found it on my own. The link to the forums from within the reviews window is up at the top in tiny, tiny type. This is the kind of crap people skip past in order to scroll down to the first actual review. The place to have a link to the forum is at the bottom of the reviews. There should be a link or option to “read more about X in our forum.”

C) To really capitalize on the material in the forum, many of the product pictures should be collected and made available directly from the product page itself as “alternative views.” I was looking at the Buzz Sling Bag and there were some incredibly detailed and well-taken photos over on the forum. My guess is about 10X more people would see them if they were collected and put on the product page.

One of the best implementations of reviews I know of is at tombihn.com, where the forum has a section for reviews of the products, which being quality bags, tend towards long term use.

What’s great is that the reviews also build the brand and help people decide which to buy, by people sharing the places they’ve been and the things they’ve done with the products.

A further section for product suggestions is kind of like ‘future reviews’ and from which the company has created and modified products.

I stress that clients should resist the urge to turn them into testimonials by editing out the negative ones. One negative review adds significant value/credibility to the positive ones.

The issue is always generating a reasonable volume of reviews — so many sites have the functionality but few if any reviews.

Currently working on an approach that combines review generation and an existing loyalty program. The idea being that people that return to the site and review a product they bought get a reward in loyalty points that will go toward future purchases.

Back in the day, Babies”R”Us was integrated into Amazon.com. I’m guessing that’s changed now, but back then, Amazon was the place to go for reviews on baby strollers.

-Jeff

Yes. I am saying that product reviews are often seen as being less filtered or biased than testimonials. Most people assume that testimonials are solicited and are filtered. Businesses never put out less than stellar testimonials, but web visitors are used to seeing 1 and 2-star reviews. There’s even evidence to show that negative reviews can help conversion as they tend to show that the reviews are unfiltered.

In fact, Sean, I believe that much of your (truly excellent) advice on testimonials is centered around ways to overcome or address some of these credibility shortcomings of average or garden-variety testimonials.

-Jeff

‘03 at BRU… that’s deja vu for me as well. Although, we were completely agog at the massive wall of bottle systems. Luckily, we had another parent nearby who was willing to share her long term experience.
I can’t say that my current employer is actively soliciting product reviews at this time.