So, this is actually my very first post in english. The reason? Well, there is a slight possibility that someone who doesn´t understand swedish will want to read it. The reason for that? Well, it all started about twelve days ago. I was reading a post on the BzzAgent blog, and found out that the book Grapevine had finally been released. It had been on my wish list for quite some time. In the post, Dave Balter finished with the words:

… First day you can post a review on Amazon [I’ve hated seeing the book up there with no reviews]

To me, it was a quite obvious hint to his bzzagents to go there and give their reviews. They had already gotten a copy of the book a few weeks earlier. I already had a bad feeling about this! Once I got to amazon, I checked the reviews. There were around eighteen there already. Maybe two of them were from BzzAgents who identified themselves as such (as they are supposed to do). Most of the reviews were raving, but how could I trust them? I knew the book had just been released, and the BzzAgents had gotten it earlier. How many more could have found out it had been released, ordered the book, gotten it delivered, read it and posted their reviews in less than three days? I figured there must have been more than two reviews which were from Dave’s “agents”. They were the ones who got the advance copy and would have had time reading it.

Anyway, since I´m a true believer in word of mouth and usually rely heavily on the reviews on amazon, I felt upset. My evaluation system had been corrupted. My trust in the BzzAgents was low (not as persons, but as endorsers of this book). I felt I had to voice my opinion about it all, so I did, right there among the reviews. First though, I made it very clear that I hadn´t read the book yet.

Anyway, I woman (who is a bzzagent) took offense in my words, and felt upset that I didn´t trust her. I wanted to explain my thoughts to her, but couldn´t reach her in any way. The day after, when I once again read my rss-feeds, Dave had been checking on amazon and posted about The war on amazon. Well, I didn´t start any war. It would be ridiculous to do so. I just want to discuss this way of marketing, and hopefully understand it better.

It also seemed the discussion continued among the commentaries on the blog. I finally saw my opportunity to explain to the woman who took offense, and also figured I could take the opportunity to open up a discussion with Dave and be able to make up my mind about their way of working, if I think it is viable in the long term. So, I posted my comments. I waited a day. Nothing happened. I posted again. Again nothing happened. I let it be for a while, until the 15th when Mattias Durnik sent me a tip about an article about buzz marketing in The Boston Globe, where they mentioned my review on amazon, and discussed this form of marketing.

I decided I would try to reach Dave once again. I couldn´t find his personal e-mail on their web site so at first I tried some possible variations of it. They all bounced back. I mailed their general address (bzz[at]bzzagent[dot]com), asking whoever received it to forward it to Dave. Nothing has happened since.

Since I havent´t heard a word from BzzAgent or Dave, and my commentaries are not being published, it seems Dave doesn´t really want to discuss this. I don´t know why. I guess they aren´t as open to discussion as they say they are. I´m actually quite surprised by the fact that they don´t seem to care, since I believe that if I feel less trusting towards BzzAgents (as BzzAgents, not as persons), there might be several more who feel the same. And if there are several more, this might be a problem for BzzAgent, and even more so in the long run. I think it is a question to be taken seriously.

I believe strongly in the power of word of mouth! I work with it! But I doubt that this way of doing it is going to benefit anyone in the long run.

Anyway, here´s what I wrote in my comment, the one that BzzAgent didn´t want to publish:

Hello Dave, jus2cusmile and everybody else!

After reading the BzzAgent blog for quite some time, and eagerly looking forward to buying Grapevine, I got very disappointed once I got to amazon. I knew I would probably react somehow, but I didn´t think my reaction would be so strong. I felt I simply couldn´t trust the reviews. I usually rely heavily on customer reviews for my purchases – I trust the word of mouth, but in this case I got really sceptical. There were mostly positive reviews, which was good, but then I started thinking… .. how many of these are BzzAgents? How many really disclose their relationship? I know agents are supposed to disclose, but maybe sometimes they forget. There are other reasons to my scepticism too, but more on that a little further down. Anyway, I felt I had to comment on this somehow, so I made a review myself, questioning a bit if this could be a form of marketing which will survive for long. I did not say that BzzAgents are paid shillsters. However, they are incentivized in some way. I did state the headline as a question, because I believe we have to ask ourselves if this will work in the long run! I also stated that these are my opinions, based in my own reactions to the fact that there were many BzzAgents posting reviews. And finally, I did make it very clear, to anyone who wanted only reviews from people who have read the book, that I hadn´t done that yet.

If we suppose that this works, and I guess that you say so (and I believe you) it will attract more marketers and more BzzAgents. It will do so until the benefit of it is equalled by the cost, which will happen sometime between now and when the whole market is full of agents. It will grow until the credibility of agents approaches zero, because that´s where the benefits no more outweigh the cost, and word of mouth will have lost it´s credibility. Where will we turn then?

A lady making reviews took offense by my sceptical review, and I wanted to reply to her, but I couldn´t, there, so I´ll do it here. I would like to say to her that I DO trust her personal opinion, but once she gets some kind of incentive to share her opinion, it will detract from her credibility, at least in my opinion. Anyway, the reason I couldn´t really trust the reviews were these:

Firstly, the reviews are incentivized (incentives are incentives, in cash or not) – even if they are honest, it detracts from their credibility, in my opinion.
Secondly, there is a large number of BzzAgents giving reviews – clearly statistically overrepresented. No statistician would accept such a sample. Last time I checked, there were 16 agents (disclosed) out of 30 reviews.
Thirdly, there is a also a great risk that the sample of BzzAgents giving reviews is biased – the ones who don´t like the book as much are less likely to write a review.
Forth, opinions might be influenced – there is a risk that BzzAgents who hesitate if they are going to give the book three or four stars might give them four. With such a large percentage of agents, the average is not trustworthy anymore.

So, Dave, since I haven´t read the book (yet), I would like to hear your opinion to make up my mind. Do you think that this form of WOMM can last forever, or do you think that it will dilute the power of word of mouth over time? I think I can guess you answer, but how would you explain the four issues I mention above?

best regards,

Kristofer Jonsson

In my opinion, Dave, BzzAgent and every other WOM marketer who uses the same or similar tactics as BzzAgent, will have to deal with these issues sooner or later. And the best way to deal with them is open discussion. To me, with my knowledge of WOM and social psychology, I think this form of WOMM will have a hard time lasting for long, but as I said in the letter to Dave, I´m willing to hear his view, if he´s open to discussion. I´m also very open to hearing your view on this!

Anyway, this was a very long post, so I´ll just make a quick ending to this. Feel free to discuss these issues in the comments!