KomodoPR PR london agency

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about User Reviews after an article appeared on Mobile Crunch about a PR firm who had apparently got a bunch of interns to write five-star user reviews to promote their client’s iPhone games on Apple’s App Store.

Now, the advent of Google Sidewiki has propelled the issue of User Reviews once again into the spotlight. And now seems a good time to touch on the dos and don’ts of user reviews.

Do:

• Before you launch something, it’s a good idea to get it beta tested by an independent third party. That way you can listen to the feedback and make adjustments and prepare for any potential perceived weak-points in your products or services. The more people who test it the better. If you’re not sure who to ask, we have contacts with friendly journalists who would be happy to road test something behind closed doors.
• Monitor user reviews carefully. All social media, whether it be Google Sidewiki, Twitter or the reviews sections of online stores are useful as radar for any issues. Often, problems are raised on social media before they hit the spotlight, so they act as a useful early-warning tool.
• If you receive positive feedback, be shameless and ask if that person minds posting their positive feedback somewhere public.
  Listen to negative feedback, accept where things can be better and show your roadmap for making improvements. This in particular is a great opportunity to build trust around a brand.

The don’ts are simple. In fact, there’s only really one don’t, but it’s a big one:

• Don’t pretend to be someone else. Ever.
• Don’t lie. Ever. You will get caught out.
• Lose the trust of the public and all of that hard work that’s done in building a brand goes down the drain. It’s never, ever worth the risk.

For further information about this, visit WOMMA – an organisation that we’re proud to be members of.

A mascot is of course de rigueur, for any PR agency named after an animal. So let me introduce you to Kojack (named by vote – although some in the office refer to him as ‘The Komodo formerly known at Kevin’).

Stuffed Komodos are hard to come by in the UK, so we actually bought Kojack from the US. And as you can see from this picture (that’s Chloe Lambert from The Times holding Kojack), wanderlust is clearly prevalent for our Kojack.

This picture is of Kojack in a spruce forest just outside of Oslo. One of the trees behind him will end up at Trafalgar Square next Thursday (Kojack was out there leading a press trip of journos working on features about the history and the symbolism of this Christmas tree for our client Innovation Norway and The Norwegian Embassy).

John and Edward, Jedward, King Jedward, the Grimes Twins – they go by many names, and over the space of just a few weeks have turned into one of the most talked-about X-Factor acts, dividing the nation into ‘for’ and ‘against’. Celebrities and the Chinese Ambassador have joined the ‘pro King Jedward’ team, and the media have changed from the usual Jordan, Peter and Jordan’s cage fighter/cross-dressing lover stories, to those of Jedward.

After Sunday’s show when another of Danii’s contestants was voted off, it seriously makes you question what people these days consider as talent? If it’s two quiff clad twins who happen to be tone deaf and enjoy bouncing around on stage to Britney Spears then the ‘terrible twins’ (meant quite literally) have a very fruitful career ahead of them. On the other hand, if they somehow manage to win this year’s show, then we as a nation will have to think of a new word for the old meaning of talent – it’s quite literally been lost in translation between England and Ireland, and as it now appears, the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the Komodos are placing bets on a) what their hire fee will be for photo shoots and b) which brand will be first to use them… Brylcreem perhaps??