Why advertise? - when the first thing someone sees is this...

Instagram is taking off with estate agents in a big way. Mostly to showcase individual properties for sale, like this, from Knight Frank...

...patently primarily directed at potential purchasers. But there are also businesses out there who are beginning to use Instagram to promote their services to fee earners. In the following example we have hidden all references to the business's name for reasons that will become apparent. What we can tell you is that they ran an advertisement on Instagram targeted at landlords and tenants.

If you see an advertisement, especially one for a high-value service (as opposed to products), we know that a significant proportion of you will check the business out on Google. We did for this South London estate agent. And what did we find? We found these...

Not only these, but we know everyone always reads the negative reviews first. In this case the business has followed best practice and responded to most of the reviews, and here's the central point we are trying to make here: when you read the review and the response you just know that a Google review is not the best environment to be airing these grievances, for the business or its customer (or for future customers).

Moderation adds immense value - for all concerned 

If this business was using HelpHound, and these customers had posted their initial review to the business, in private, the overwhelming majority of them would have never seen the light of day. Why? Not because helpHound has some magic way of 'disappearing' negative reviews, but because almost every single one of these reviews contains a misunderstanding of the process in question - they are ultimately misleading (unless you want to know that tenants seldom get their full deposits returned and then blame their landlord's estate agents irrespective of where the genuine fault - if any - lies).

Moderation adds value...

• for the business, because it at least has a chance t o correct - pre-publication - errors of factor statements that have the potential to mislead future customers

• for the customer, because few actively want to publicly post reviews that mislead their fellow consumers or unfairly injure a business 

So: before you splash out on any kind of advertising or marketing - Instagram or otherwise - don't you think it might be a good idea to consider engaging in professional - moderated - review management?