Reviews And Valuable Behaviors
The simplest behaviors are often the most effective.
Getting members to write reviews, for example, consistently ranks as one of the highest-impact tasks a member can undertake.
One study shows why:
Results show that users look for simple and quick reviews and content about products in online brand communities (i.e., guides developed by users, comments, artwork and screenshots). However, results also show that users do not guide their purchases based on user-generated content when the process of gaining understanding is more time-consuming (i.e., reading discussions, watching videos) or requires more active involvement (i.e., workshop presence).
Essentially, getting lots of members to submit simple, quick, reviews is a bigger win than getting members to engage in long, detailed, discussions.
It’s a bigger win than members crafting long-form articles like user guides.
The conversation with your boss might be very different if you can show how you’re getting members to create and respond to reviews on multiple sites.
Make your own comment on this post at FeverBee Experts
I agree that getting members to write reviews provides high-impact results! I also think what is equally important is that the community be structured so as to allow visitors the opportunity to easily search recent posts by the reviewer (so as to understand the context to a review). If the reviews are one-offs, then there is less credibility.