Astroturfing is a social media, marketing, or public relations campaign that is formally planned by an organization or agency, but is disguised as spontaneous grassroots behavior. In other words, sometimes reviews expressed within online communities are coming not from legitimate, sharing consumers, but rather from hired posters.

A recent survey by R2integrated (R2i), found that most marketers believe that astroturfing of online reviews occurs, that the practice is wrong, and, most importantly, may stop buying from a brand if they learned that the brand was doing it.

When R2i asked 284 marketing professionals from several leading industries about their attitudes toward astroturfing, more than 35 percent thought it “highly unethical,” and more than 42 percent thought it “unprofessional.” Nearly 85 percent of respondents agree that the proliferation of social media has increased the practice of astroturfing, and more than 87 percent of respondents believe that companies plant reviews.

In terms of buying behavior, 49 percent of respondents indicated that online reviews influenced their purchasing decisions “most or all of the time.” Nearly the same percentage indicated “sometimes.” When asked if they would stop buying from a brand if they found that the brand had planted reviews, nine percent checked “yes,” 63 percent indicated “maybe, it depends,” while 28 percent checked “not if I liked their products.”

It is clear that online peer-to-peer recommendations play an important role in the buying decisions of marketers as consumers, and that they are sensitive about the authenticity of reviews. Because fraudulent reviews can greatly impact buying behavior, brands have to be completely honest and transparent with their information sharing, and keep a close eye on their social media, marketing, and PR outsourcing if they intend to retain customer trust or attract new customers.

What do you think about astroturfing? How can brands best benefit from outsourced social media services while remaining honest and transparent?

No two teams and their fans practice this time-honored tradition like the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks to the power of social media, the verbal interaction between these teams’ fans is no longer confined to tailgate parties, the stands, or local bars.

This week, R2i partnered with WMAR-TV in Baltimore to deploy R2iSMASH in order to capture and display the virtual dust-up surrounding the Ravens-Steelers game on Sunday, November 29 at M & T Bank Stadium. R2iSMASH is a social media platform that enhances interactivity around events like football games by combining feeds from popular social networking sites into one presentation window. Check out the video with Matt Goddard (R2i) and Jamie Costello (WMAR-TV) to learn how the site works:

The Baltimore-Pittsburgh R2iSMASH football site will collect fan-generated Tweets, texts, Flickr and cell phone photos, and blogs—all simultaneously, yielding a real-time gallery of content, commentary, and general heckling.

Fans can actively contribute to R2iSMASH by sending text messages or e-mails to ravens@r2ismash.com or steelers@r2ismash.com or by including #ravens or #steelers in their Tweets. Fans with mobile devices can send photos to ravens@r2ismash.com or steelers@r2ismash.com or tag their photos in Flickr with “NFL Ravens” or “NFL Steelers.” The site will automatically aggregate content from Twitter and Flickr where either team is mentioned. Additionally, all content garnered by the site will be archived for instant replay.

Get into the action and support your team at www.abc2news.com/ravens