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What’s the impact of a bad review?
An interesting post last week investigated how negative service and product reviews impacts consumers’ purchase decisions. A recently released survey found that 80% of people have changed a purchase decision due to a bad review they saw.

But what makes these findings so revealing is that most people search for products online. In other words, positive word of mouth online is one of the very most important things a business can have – as witnessed by the explosion of people now trusting blogs on what to purchase:

“There is also something that’s lacking in traditional media that we can get more from social media, and that is the capacity to tell a story,” Huffington said during the second day of the InfoTrends technology event happening in São Paulo last week. “We are too concerned with data in traditional media and I think it is much more difficult to get people’s attention that way than it is with stories,” she said, citing the Huffington Post as an example. “We don’t just give our readers information. We also provide them with a platform where they can share their points of view and interests,” she added.

Gamification is the latest shiny new object for marketers. It’s the practice of adding game dynamics into your campaigns in order to drive participation and engagement.

Excellent insight on Gamification from Tom Fishburne...