FreshNetworks Blog

Online community reviews and comments are increasingly being used in (and by) traditional media. In the last 24 hours I was struck by four examples of traditional media using comments from online communities or social networks. The user-generated content from social networks was showcased in  TV (Sky News), Newspaper (Financial Times) and on two adverts (one TV and one outdoor).

It started yesterday at 11.30am when I was catching a train back to London from Milton Keynes. With winter approaching, I couldn’t resist reading an advert for skiing in Banff. What really caught my attention was the review at the top of the poster:

“TripAdvisor.com calls it the #1 ski getaway!”

In case you don’t know, TripAdvisor is the web’s most popular online travel community, with over 30 million reviews from anyone who cares to write one. Banff was picked out as number one based on the popularity of Banff on the site and the traveller ratings by the community. This makes the review far more powerful in my opinion (and clearly also in the opinion of the Banff Tourist Board) than a review from an traditional newspaper or magazine.

This was the first time I’d consciously noticed reviews of an online network being used in such traditional media as a billboard. What was more surprising was the number of other instances I noticed the smae thing happening in across other media.

The city lawyer, the intern and the strip club
Whilst sitting on the train I was listening to a podcast The City lawyer, the intern and the strip club. I love podcasts and Lucy Kellaway, a columnist at the Financial Times, produces one of my favourites. In this one Lucy discusses the community comments that had been posted on the Times websites and the FT websites about a lawyer.

“Simply stunning”, “Please please see this film”
Having returned to the office I started to prepare for a meeting. This led me to a blog where I chanced upon another recent example of user generated comment being used in advertising. This example has already created quite a stir. Last week, Disney brought out posters for their new film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and rather than using quotes from established film critics they picked out the best quotes from random members of the IMDB.com movie community website.

As an aside, some people think Disney should not use quotes from unknown bloggers such as Mjavfc1 and Theedge-4 as the reviews may be false and originate from Disney staff. I disagree. Assuming Disney are publishing in good faith (and it would break UK law for them to disguise their own work) then why not amplify fans’ word of mouth? For me the only reason why Disney should not cherry pick user reviews is that cherry-picking flies in the face of the ethos of user reviews – the value of Amazon reviews comes in seeing all comments, the good and the bad, and then gauging who you want to listen to.

The stories you’ve been talking about on our website
Anyway, back to the story. I finished my day off with a quick trip to the gym and a run on the treadmill. Keen not to miss any news about the latest financial powerhouse to have gone under, I tuned in to Sky News. After a few announcements they had a 5 minute segment about “the stories you’ve been talking about on our website”. The fourth and final example of UGC and consumer comments made on social networks or online communities being used in tradtional media.

We’d love to hear of any other good examples of UGC or community conversations being used in traditional media. If you notice any, please let us know.