You Can Take Your Reputation With You

I only rarely re-post from other blogs I write but wanted to share this one with you because, well, it’s a bit of a thought piece about online reputation that I’m a bit proud of. So yes, I’m using my blog as a scrapbook of stuff I like to keep but thought you might find it interesting.

Below is the first part of my post. The really good stuff comes after. For the full thing, click here.

You Can Take Your Reputation With You (from The Social Marketplace blog)

Question: “If you have invested time building your reputation on eBay, why would you want to start from scratch on a new platform?” (Rachel Botsman, AFR BOSS)

Answer: “Because users deserve a higher level of trust and interaction in the community.” (Dave Kasriel, Shoplist)

This question is rhetorically posed at the end of an article in the November issue of BOSS magazine (Australian Financial Review publication) titled ‘The Reputation Economy’ by Rachel Botsman (page 54-56).

It is about reputation and trust online and what this means for transactional activity where decisions are influenced by peer review, in this article the example is buying and selling on eBay.

I asked Dave to comment. He is building a new platform – Shoplist – from scratch. He says, “eBay is becoming less transparent, particularly with the feedback options. Ratings don’t mean the same as they used to. Sellers can’t even leave negative feedback anymore. They can choose between a rating of ‘Positive’ and ‘I’ll leave Feedback later’.”

Social networking is part of the Shoplist experience, opening up the channels of transparency where “users will be able to trust that there is someone at the other end” (Dave). Members will be encouraged to bring across their online reputations from eBay and other sites in their profiles.

Social activity will be as much a key component of Shoplist as the actual buying and selling. Community members can connect with one another. Some may like to find people and form groups based around similar interests, and others may like to keep in touch with those they sell to or buy from.

 

Discolure: Shoplist is a client.

Cross-Blogination (I made that word up) for Shoplist.com.au

I’ve been working with Shoplist as their online community manager, contributing content to their blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.  It’s a new online shopping site launching in October, kind of eBay meets Facebook for the Australian market. People will list items to be sold online – via auction or outright – and there will be a social networking element as well.

This is a bit of a blatant plug but I also wanted to share with you some of my other blog work. Hope you also enjoy The Social Marketplace!