That there is power in numbers is not in dispute – the way that large organisations like Facebook and Google collect data on where people go and what people like is testament to that. Pownum is the latest website to attempt to harness individual opinion to help consumers and organisations. The website works by inviting users to rate organisations between 0 and 10, based on their experiences of them, as well as allowing a short space for explanation of their decision. Eventually an organisation is given a total score from the average of the total rankings which users can then consult before making a consumer choice and which organisations can react to, if needed.

Pownum

From Passive To Active

A site like Pownum is a great advert for the benefits of social media. It proves that a consumer’s opinion has gone from passive to active. Your opinion now counts towards something that can affect the choices of other consumers worldwide and the actual behaviour of the organisations themselves.

Opinion: Reaction

For organisations, this kind of tool can only be seen as an opportunity to gauge public opinion of your workings and to do something about it. Organisations already spend vast sums of money trying to do this so Pownum can give an easy, uncomplicated indication of their standing.

Making The Right Decision

For the consumer, Pownum hopes to help decide which organisation they should choose. By aggregating a large number of opinions, the argument for Pownum is that eventually each organisation will receive a ‘true’ rating and that the cream will rise to the top.

Too Simple?

But, is the simplicity of Pownum actually self defeating? Each user has different needs, different personalities, different likes and dislikes and will have a vastly different experience of an organisation depending on these factors. So, is reducing that experience to a number out of 10 ever actually going to be useful?

Too Much Noise?

The other possible downside of a site like this could be the sheer number of opinions that it generates. As someone looking to make an informed decision, the range of opinions on offer could do more to confuse your decision-making process than improve it.

These kind of sites can undoubtedly be useful tools. My personal experience using a similar site (Trip Advisor, which works in the same way but specifically for hotels, b&bs, things to do and restaurants) resulted in a good experience. But the process of cutting through the noise, finding the right opinions and seeking out the exact type of service provider I required was a lengthy and sometimes frustrating one. Pownum, non-specific as it is, is more likely to succeed if it pitches itself as more of a general corporate indicator for consumers and organisations, rather than a site for consumers to make purchasing decisions and organisations to make actual changes to their behaviour.

About the Author

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, an organiser of Scrabble Sunday and blogs about stuff that he does here.