KomodoPR PR london agency

A colleague recently pointed out an article from 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, as members of WOMMA (the Word of Mouth Marketing Association), we’re bound to a strict code of practice that means that we have to have to be totally transparent in how we operate on behalf on our clients in the digital space.

However, as UGC content becomes more engrained into audience channels, so too does the opportunity for clients to ‘engage’ with audiences (rather than try to ‘influence’ them). We advise clients to give beta testers the product and listen to their feedback – both positive and negative. We like to ask clients to pay particular attention to the negative feedback and engage the proponents of it by asking for suggestions about how they could improve things. This way, the target audiences have a stake in the product or service, and are much more likely to be more engaged with the brand.

It’s always a good idea to give the beta testing a dry run, behind closed doors, before it goes public, that way clients can make adjustments and prepare for any potential perceived weak-points in their products or services.

Now, the one sticking point with this approach is that it requires clients to be brave and accept potential negative feedback in a public space. But if they’re prepared to listen to this and make changes, there’s a great opportunity build more trust in brands.

For more on WOMMA’s code of conduct click here.