What is it about human nature that makes us so inclined to rely on the opinions of others? There’s something very compelling about a well reasoned recommendation from a person whose option matters to you or whose expertise on a subject is self-evident. But the key to a good testimonial is always the source and we have a few sensible ways to validate the value of that source by their past blogs, professional track record, and overall level of discourse. For example, Jeff Atwood from Coding Horror recommended Jacob Nielsen’s latest book on web usability, so I went and bought it on Amazon that evening. If Neil Jordan recommends a movie by another director, I’ll certainly add it to my Netflix queue. If Tiger Woods recommends a Nike driver…well, I won’t bother because my golf game is beyond help. My point here is that each person has to make up his or her own mind, but an honest testimonial from a trusted source filters out a lot of the noise and helps you to find real quality in a particular field.
And then there are the really cheesy, lame, and self-serving testimonials that shoot for the lowest common denominator. I find that the language used in testimonials is often the key to spotting a “fake” - just Google the search term “diet pills” and you’ll see what I mean! Terms like “try this, it really works”, “it’s costly, but worth the money”, “now is my time to shine”, or “have faith and believe you can do it” should induce teeth-grinding cynicism in most of us. Simple and honest testimonials don’t try too hard and you can just tell that the authors are sincere in their praise of a particular product or service. Of course, we all know that “good” (or sneaky) marketing can blur the lines between a real user’s genuine enthusiasm for a product and empty PR slogans dressed up as somebody’s “expert” opinion. Professor A. Scam from P.O. Box University might not have our best interests at heart, really…
What started me thinking about this subject is a testimonial that we received (spontaneous and unprompted) from a software developer called Ben Hoelting earlier this week. Ben found one of our free AJAX trials with CodeProject, remembered the company from a previous employer, and decided to tell his readers what he thought about InnerWorkings. You can read Ben’s post here - to my earlier points, this testimonial is from a good source, he knows what he’s talking about (read his other posts about ASP.NET tutorials, Grasshopper 2.0 and WCF), and he’s actually very familiar with our product. Thanks for your kind words about our product, Ben - I hope you’ll continue offering your personal opinions on the good, the bad, and the ugly as you see it. This is our only hope against the dreaded shopping channels and their quest to take over the world with crappy products and fake endorsements!
Pleasanton, CA - April 19, 2007 - InnerWorkings has signed a partnership agreement with 
