User-Generated Content: Are hundreds and thousands of reviews about a product or service, (for example: restaurants) actually needed?

Absolutely. Sometimes you need hundreds of reviews to offset an enduring problem that Amazon, Facebook and others refuse to address. Reviews are really important in most industries. In B2B marketing, in particular, they are especially useful for smaller/newer vendors where trust is an important issue through the entire funnel; from research gathering to shortlisting vendors for competitive bake-offs. Internet marketing (thanks to email and marketing automation platforms) has made reaching less sophisticated buyers much easier. Buyers often seek corroboration of all those slick and compelling vendor pitches that arrive in their InBoxes. Thus, the rise of software review sites such as Capterra, Software Advice and others. B2B Reviews B2B vendors need a profile and presence on these review sites. And numbers matter, which is how I came across a curiosity this fall. While working for a client, I was growing our profile on one of the software review sites. While reading the profile of one my client's competitors, I noticed that 16 reviews were from one customer! Yes, that's 16 reviews posted by "users" at one company about the same product. All but one had been posted on the same day, and they weren't brief. I don't know how they "curated" all of them on the same day, but the takeaway was clear, this very fast-growing SaaS company believes that more reviews are better. November 2015: This is real! Sometimes you need hundreds of reviews to offset an enduring problem that Amazon and Facebook and others refuse to address. B2C Reviews It can be a battle of the ethical vs. the non-ethical. Read this first-person tale of marketing woe from http://inbound.org/in/LynelleSchmidt, who does marketing for a Boston jeweler. http://inbound.org/post/view/a-competitor-bought-200-1-star-reviews-for-our-facebook-page-here-s-our-story-1 Yes, when "someone" has just dumped 100 1-star reviews on your public profile, your only recourse may be to reach out to your customers and request a couple of hundred of your own as a counter. CPG Reviews In CPG packaging, you only have to walk into the wine aisle of a supermarket and find brands like Barefoot that trumpet "30 Gold Medals" on the neck labels of their Sauv Blanc. I can't discern if a Gold Medal from the Santa Barbara Wine Festival is more or less relevant than a Silver Medal from the Taos Wine Festival. I, like most consumers, will just assume that more Gold Medals is better.

Hi, I work for a company that helps eCommerce stores generate more verified reviews. We've found there's definitely a correlation between the number of reviewed products and future conversion rates, as you can see in the chart below. Our data also shows that having more reviews also leads to more reviews, which then drives more purchases. You can read more about our studies of the impact on reviews here: http://blog.yotpo.com/2015/04/05/star-ratings-influence-customers/ But in short, yes, when it comes to reviews - the more the merrier!

I also don't think they're needed because you will get to a consensus view pretty quickly.  However, I think the problem with the consensus view is that most places end up having between 3.8 and 4.3 stars out of 5 on most review sites.  So I'd rather have fewer reviews from more relevant people. Amazon actually does this quite well with their "good review / bad review" features - gives you a feel for the pros and cons.  More useful than saying it's a 3.9/5.

Having the most reviews shows users that your website is the best destination for reviews. The review game is a winner-take-all one. If a user sees that Yelp has over a 1K reviews and Google has fewer than 100, then the user is much more likely to visit Yelp and not bother reading Google's reviews. Some people also read reviews as entertainment, not as a utility. They don't need to read reviews to determine whether they want to patronize a business. They feel connected to others by reading their thoughts on a common interest. I found the most interesting reviews are found at the most loved or hated places.