Many businesses care about their online reputation enough to be deceitful about it and cheat their online reputation. Some companies or business owners might think this falsifying
shortcut might help their business grow, but it could ultimately ruin your online reputation forever.
Most platforms work hard to catch people before it happens, but sometimes it takes a while.
Falsifying information is a way you can lose all access to these platforms and could eventually hurt your business.
Cheat by Falsifying Information
Believe it or not, it’s not entirely uncommon for large companies to try and falsify information and numbers regarding the company.
Companies might produce newsletters with false information regarding their business, sales, or bottom line.
Lying about how much your company makes or any lie regarding your company is unethical and immoral.
The reason people research and rely on ratings and reviews is to gage whether a business can be trusted.
Writing Fake Reviews
We’ve touched upon this in more detail (check out here!), but fake reviews are among the most common ways companies fabricate their online reputation.
We all know how important ratings and reviews are, and it’s not uncommon for businesses to ask employees to write reviews and help their business.
As common as these are, they are easier to spot, and it’s even easier for platforms to catch since they can trace IP addresses, usernames, and locations. Writing your reviews is a great way to be kicked off online reputation platforms since it strictly goes against their policies.
Review Gating
Here’s another topic we’ve covered, review gating.
To quickly sum up: it is the act of soliciting feedback from a customer and then deciding whether to ask them for a Google review based on their response. In a way, think of this as cherry-picking the comments that fit the narrative you want.
However, this practice is strictly against any online reputation platform but is still tricky to catch.
It’s similar to issues of a fake review. Since reviews are imperative to a business’s online reputation, this can have long-term negative ramifications and is banned by Google and Facebook.
Astroturfing
This one is a little more difficult to spot since it’s an elaborate scam.
Astroturfing is the new-age version of false advertising and means “masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility.” (Guardian)
This action is considered having fake reviews or falsely creating sponsors or organizations that look organic but are fabricated by the business to boost their online reputation.
Paying for Followers
Social Media is a significant way businesses can skew numbers and falsify their follower count.
You can purchase followers, and many companies try, but it could eventually lead you to lose access to social handles indefinitely. This is common amongst platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
Most people know that having a massive audience can lead to higher sales, so social media and creating a community are crucial for growth. Therefore, companies that “sell” followers have become a common market.
Usually, this is an easy situation to catch because the company buying followers will have poor engagement rates, which is the most significant indicator of fake followers.
Automation Over Scams
Let’s face it: all these techniques are scams and dishonest to your loyal customers. It’s important to focus on how to improve and manage your online reputation to be the best you can be!
The best way to manage reviews is through automation software. At Review Inc, our mission is to follow and encourage ethical review standards, and we do not support review gating. We believe the key to a healthy online reputation is by management through review software.
The concerns of fake reputation are nerve-wracking, but they don’t have to stress you or ruin your online reputation, but the best you can do is focus on your success online!
Many companies rely on automation software to manage online reviews to better their business. Set up a demo today!
