Four Hot Topics Debated By The Smiley360 Advisory Board—Have Your Say!

On Tuesday, December 2nd we held our final Advisory Board call of 2014! Members of the Smiley team were joined by some of our most influential members and bloggers to discuss new happenings at Smiley. Not familiar with our Advisory Board? You can read recaps from our first two calls here and here.

1. Thoughts On The New Website

Our brand new website turned four months old recently and we asked our Advisory Board, what do you think so far? Overall the member feedback has been positive on the new website and our board was no different. Our board members raved about the new, simple look of the website and how much more user-friendly everything has become.

There was a lot of praise for the new “all-in-one” Sharing Tools that eliminate the need to share with each tool individually–you can “do it all with one button!” Specifically, one member of our board praised the Retail Review Sharing Tool. Gone are the days of emailing screenshots and waiting for points!

What are your thoughts after four months on the new website? Let us know in the comments!

2. Do You Trust Retail Reviews?

Making it easier for you to submit retail reviews made us wonder, how trustworthy are online reviews?  Our board came to the conclusion that trustworthiness boils down to a few things; what type of product is being reviewed? And, how thorough is the review?

Moms tend to trust reviews of products like children’s medicine because who better to trust than other parents like you? Additionally, a detailed review shows that the reviewer has really taken the time to provide insight into the product.

Another factor to consider is where the review is posted. The consensus among our board members was that they tend to trust reviews on established retailer sites like Amazon and Walmart and will filter through positive and negative reviews to find out exactly what others did or did not like.

Do you trust online reviews? What kind of reviews are most likely to trust?

3. Why Did You Sign Up For Smiley?

Our members join Smiley because they like to review products before they buy them and share their findings with their friends and family (oh and of course the free stuff!)

We asked our board members about their other online communities and much to our delight, many said Smiley was their favorite! They described Smiley as “welcoming”, “easy and inviting”, “not exclusive” and they felt that we are “using their comments productively.”

Why did you sign up for Smiley?

4. Picking The Right Children’s Cold Medicine

Our last topic of discussion was something near and dear to most moms’ hearts—children’s cold medicine. We wanted to know what makes moms choose a specific brand and are they loyal to the brand they choose.

What we found is that there are a few major factors in deciding which medicine to use. Having a personal history with the brand was at the top of most lists as well as a universally trusted brand name. Some said they were not necessarily brand loyal however, and would be willing to research a new brand if the reviews were good.

The conversation switched to cold medicine ingredients and while we always want to avoid ingredients we can’t pronounce, the consensus was that effectiveness is king.

How do you choose cold medicine for your child?

Until Next Time!

Have anything to add to the conversation? Do you agree with the points our board members made? We always want to hear from you so leave any thoughts you may have in the comments below!