Ranking and Commenting are changing the way in which we buy products

I wanted a new grill. It was that simple.

My old one was on its last legs, and I was on the hunt for a replacement.

At Home Depot I saw an amazing NexGrill model. It had all the features I craved and bells and whistles I didn’t know I had craved. But I’m a cautious buyer, so I put it to the Consumer Reports test.

Consumer Reports loved the NexGrill. But something didn’t seem right.

I had a nagging feeling the data was too selective, too narrow, and biased. And while a third-party endorsement from an institution like Consumer Reports a decade ago might have convinced me to go with NexGrill… now we have more tools at our disposal.

So I went online and dug into the relevant sites. The Web is teeming with blogs and forums devoted to all aspects of grilling, just as it teems with sites devoted to all products and pursuits. So finding information straight from the source – grill buyers, rather than manufacturers or media – was easy. It required only a few clicks and an open mind.

Turned out my doubts were justified. The vast majority of comments and reviews about the NexGrill were negative. My fellow consumers – with no profit at stake, no reputation to burnish, and no slant (except a love of grilling, of course) – gave me straight talk. And it was: “Stay away.”

So I turned my attention instead to the Weber I’d spotted. Guess what? The response was overwhelmingly positive. Hundreds of reviews and comments heaped praise on it. Even better, there was nuance and detail and real-life experience I could never get from a magazine or store. Weber had put out a good product, its customers were thrilled, and they were more than happy to advocate its purchase. Online, my fellow consumers spoke with expertise and enthusiasm professional marketers would spend months chasing.

And that’s the power of ranking, voting, and commenting.

They’re a set of tools representing “word of mouth,” amplified.

People have always gone to friends and family for product feedback. Blog environments are the logical extension and even more valuable to consumers. People might not trust manufacturers. But a fellow traveler (so to speak) has no vested interest in misguiding you. In fact, a stranger who feels compelled to share his thoughts is almost certainly going to be more honest than anyone else.

People inherently trust the wisdom of crowds.

Think about how The New York Times website offers its “most e-mailed” and “most-commented” lists. It’s because readers want to know what other readers are thinking. Web giant Digg and similar sites use crowd sourcing to propel interest in stories. The Web is all about momentum, and momentum cannot be created in a laboratory or from the top down. It is organic and springs from groundswell.

As vehicles like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook get a lot of the press for activating momentum, organizations like yours looking to gain a foothold online are also wise to take advantage of simpler Web 2.0 tools that capitalize on the same core philosophy. Tools like voting, commenting, and ranking have made blogs far more effective in spreading message than largely static web pages.

The urge to vote, to comment, and to rank is something forward thinking organizations seize. Opinion and bias, after all, fuel the Internet engine. The sites that harness them are several steps ahead. Go to www.tripadvisor.com to find out the real scoop on hotels and travel adventures worldwide. Thousands of travelers routinely report on their real-life experiences as they travel.

You want to give visitors a reason to come often, stay longer, feel more connected to each other, and feel more engaged with the site itself. Incentivizing traffic spurs growth and sustains momentum.

As I’ve said before in this space: feedback is critical. Blogging into a vacuum is barely worth the effort. Allowing comments is an easy way to interface with your consumers. People want to give feedback, and they want to read others’ feedback. They value each other more than they’ll ever value a business itself. Great sites don’t just speak AT visitors, they also speak FOR them.

Your comments section can become one of the most vital parts of your site – in both senses of the word. Instantaneous feedback is a vehicle for change. And the sense of community that grows up around the commenter acts as the lifeblood of the site. Even as commenters help make your site more efficient, they also work to grow it from the ground up.

Foster the participation that helps developing sites take flight. Enabling ranking, commenting and voting with Accrisoft’s assistance couldn’t be simpler… and the payoff is huge.

Please share your story: how have you used voting/ranking/commenting to make a decision?