Peer Feedback on Social Rating sites (And Jeremiah on Am I Hot or Not)

Jeremiah on Am I Hot or Not
Last week, I decided to put my new profile picture on hotornot.com. I believe this site yields somewhat honest reviews from typically anonymous voters. Of course the expectation is that the scale is based on ‘hotness’ rather than ‘intelligence looking’ or ‘interesting looking’.

In my arrogance, I was hoping and anticipating to score an 8.5, leaning on the photo skills of Thomas Hawk photos are so generous. Reality kicked in, and I’m a measly 6.5. “At least I’m above average!” I told my wife.

This was a good social experiment for me on raw feedback from the masses, while not scientific, I’m sure there’s meaningful data to extract from.

By nature, Marketers are designed to tell you that they are Hot
Marketers and sales folks are paid to tell prospects and customers that their products are ‘hot’. This is the nature of the business.

In reality, social rating sites can often reveal that a product is Lukewarm, Cold, or even worse, no opinion at all
Social rating sites can often tell a different story to prospects and customers as websites like Cnet, yelp, and eopinions help product prospects find honest opinions and feedback about products. For those companies savvy enough to realize how to listen and build better products, there’s a goldmine of customer testimony in an online version of a focus group ready for your picking.

I hired a third party Analyst
Many companies hire analysts to review a product or service, there are some indicators that some analysts say increasingly positive things based upon payment. Since I wasn’t happy with the true peer review, I decided to do the same:

I asked my wife what she thought I would score, in all of her grace (or just to make me feel better) she said I rate off the chart! Of course she failed to indicate if that was above 10 or below 1. “The invoice is in the mail” she says, gotta love that!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 6:50 am and is filed under Feedback, Social Media, Social Media Measurement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.