Writing Ethics 1: Fake Testimonials
July 23, 2007 by Lillie
Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business has an interesting discussion going on about fake testimonials and the ethics of writing .
Her original post quoted an ad she saw on a freelance site asking to have 25 testimonials written to sound like they are from “allegedly satisfied readers” of the book – for the princely pay of $20 for the lot!
The commenters agree on two things:
- Using fake testimonials is unethical for the company, and writing them is unethical for the writer.
- Professional writers should not work such low pay ($20 for about 2500+ words)
I’ve heard several marketing gurus recommend that companies contact satisfied customers and ask them for testimonials. The company will write the testimonial, and all the person giving the testimonial needs to do is put it on their letterhead and sign it. Of course, they can change it if they like, but the company is not asking them to spend much of their time to give the testimonial (a plus for the customer). Doing it this way ensures the company gets the things they want said included in the testimonial. I was attending seminars and using consulting when I was in business in the “real” world, in the ancient days before the Internet.
In today’s virtual world, companies would load the testimonials up with keywords for search engine optimization.
I was never comfortable doing that. In my interior landscape business, we used to send out customer satisfaction surveys. If someone wrote a nice compliment, we would ask their permission to quote it. The testimonials on this blog are either quoted from acknowledgments in published documents or are something a client provided when I asked if I could quote something they said to me in conversation or in e-mail. I’ve never used a testimonial that didn’t originate with the client.
One time I terminated a contract with a marketing consultant hired to improve my company’s sales after he told me, “You’ll never succeed in business. You’re too ethical.”
But it appears some companies don’t share my “problem” of being too ethical. They are using completely fake testimonials. And some writers are willing to write them! I’ve turned down several projects because the subject matter didn’t fit my values. I can’t imagine professional writers writing what they know to be outright lies!
A couple of things were raised in the comments, though, that made me think. In my next three posts, I’ll talk about writers asking for votes in readers’ choice contests, paid and other solicitation of favorable reviews, and methods to increase Amazon rank.
[tags]writing ethics, fake testimonials[/tags]
























Great to see you continuing the discussion here Lillie. It certainly was an interesting one. I look forward to following your series.
Lillie,
Great synopsis and commentary on Yvonne’s post and its comments! You’ve captured its essence well!
Jeanne
Too ethical to succeed? That guy’s bound to be losing more business as we type. As for those fake testimonials–I hope the poor souls who agree to do these unethical, low-paying projects (I can only assume they must be desperate for work) know better than to stuff them in their clip file.
Thanks Lillie. Here’s a couple of links to show what can happen to you if you post fake testimonials – this company (DVD Dropship) did and got caught out:
How NOT to Post Testimonials: DVDDropShip Example
Dropshipland.com
AS long as you do have satisfied customers, then why would you want to pay for testimonials? I just ask people if I can use things that they’ve said in emails to me. I don’t see the point in lying, although I suppose you can’t really tell the difference, and if you pay someone to say things, you can have an ideal quote. Whereas real life is very rarely ideal.
Amy,
I imagine most people who use or even consider fake testimonials are either new in business and thus don’t have customers to get real testimonials from or people who can’t get testimonials because their customers aren’t satisfied.
Nice post. A good way to start getting testimonials for a new product or website is to ask experts to do a review. It’s better to get real testimonials even though it’s not from your own customers yet. Once you get some customers emailing you and saying how great your product is, ask them if they can write a nice testimonial. Most will do.
Jean,
Good suggestion. As long as people are ethically trying and reviewing the product (rather than just writing a positive review for payment), it doesn’t matter whether the person actually purchased the item. It’s not buying the product that makes the testimonial legitimate—it’s using and evaluating the product.
How long can somebody survive on fake testimonials?
I have often seen quite a few people using this on their website, probably to attract more customers, but eventually, every customer who uses a product will have a viewpoint about it. It is immaterial if the company publishes their negative experience or, not, because their feedback will travel through everything – forums, blogs, newspapers etc. and the faked positive testimonial will be of no use.
Kumar@Creative Writing Jobs´s last blog ..Creative Writing Jobs – How to Get one?
Kumar,
You are right. Negative feedback travels far and wide, and fake positive “feedback” can’t compete with that.
Responses to this post: