‘Usually not one to complain but…’: constructing identities in user-generated online reviews

This chapter focuses on identity in TripAdvisor, a user-generated online consumer review site. Online consumer reviews are a genre of social media which is referred to by the international marketing community as ‘eWOM,’ or electronic word-of-mouth (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). eWOM is a relatively new genre, which has no exact analogue in the offline world (Pollach, 2006). Before eWOM, consumers had basically two options for gathering information to guide their decision-making. They could rely on the opinions of a handful of experts, such as professional reviewers or critics, who published their reviews in traditional print formats (e.g., magazines or guidebooks). Or they could rely on traditional forms of word-of-mouth: assessments of individuals personally known to the consumer, such as family members, friends, or acquaintances. In either case, the scope of goods and services covered was restricted either to what could be experienced by a handful of individuals whose job it was to review them (experts), or to what could be experienced by the individuals in one’s immediate social network. However, online social media have radically enlarged the scope of firsthand information about goods and services available for consumers’ consideration. There are now millions of user-generated reviews available online about every imaginable product.