In September we would like to giveaway up to €1,000 in One4all Vouchers in packs of €20 each. That’s 50 vouchers to give away until September 21st.

To get your hands on on a €20 Voucher, simply post 25 reviews, which will give you at least 1,200 WhoseView points. Post 50 reviews and get 2 x €20 Vouchers. Once you’ve posted your 25 reviews simply claim your Voucher on the One4all page here.

Terms & Conditions:

1. This offer begins from the 1st of September 2010. Therefore only reviews posted from 1st of September can be counted.
2. We have placed a value of 1200 points for this Voucher. e.g 1 review gives you a minimum of 40 points. Of course if your review is “a first” and include a photo you earn 60 points. However you still need a minimum of 25 reviews for this specific offer. Any points left over after you claim your €20 voucher can be used against the many other offers on the site. Therefore it’s a win win!
3. Reviews need to be a minimum of 4 lines and non repetitive.
4. Points accumulated before the 1st of September cannot be used against this offer.
5. Maximum of 5 Vouchers per person.
6. Offer ends on September 21st 2010 or when €1,000 of Vouchers are gone.
7. Vouchers will be posted on the 1st of October 2010.
8. Competition is open to everyone, irrespective of previous voucher number claims.

Brands spend billions of euro/dollars every year promoting their brand and it’s value’s, all with the end purpose of getting us to buy their product/service. In simple terms, advertising is about persuading us to spend money. Before the internet, traditional advertising was the only mass means of shaping a brands perception. Brand owners loved it! They were in control.

The dawn of the Internet began to change all that. Brands no longer had control. Consumers where no longer passive receivers of a branded message. In fact consumers were moving to proactive influencer’s, controlling a brands perception.

Therefore it comes as no surprise when we read that 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust unknown users, 27% trust experts, 14% trust advertising, 8% trust celebrities (Econsultancy, July 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics). So only 14% of people trust advertising!!! Wowwwww

WhoseView.ie and WhoseView.co.uk are playing a very active role in this. With close to 7,000 daily visitors and over 15,250 customer reviews, we have become the communicators of what a local business/brand stands for.  IKEA for example, could spend millions on a TV campaign, but this could all be quickly destroyed as I place far greater weight on WhoseView members 33 reviews, than their TV message.

Take Brown Thomas, with 45 reviews. Irrespective of what Brown Thomas state in their communications, people’s perceptions will now be shaped by these 45 WhoseView reviews. Our reviews are not confined to WhoseView and in fact have a long tail affect, giving them significant influence. We feed all our reviews to Google Maps. See Brown Thomas page here on Maps. WhoseView and it’s members control the brand of Brown Thomas on the Internet today. That’s a bold statement, but it’s true.

Starbucks recently advertised heavily on Facebook encouraging people to visit their stores. Irrespective of how much free coffee or promotions they offer, when I see that 60% of 20 people would NOT recommend my local Starbucks in Dundrum, I simply won’t visit. As for that long tail, check out Starbucks reviews from WhoseView on Google Maps.

Advertising still has a role to play in building awareness of new products and services. However established brands and services need to embrace social media and invest resources and money into listening and learning what people are saying or thinking of their brand. Only then can we hope to grow our brand in the face of ever increasing competition.

Every once in a while diners like to have an experience that is out of this world, or for that matter out of the country. All around Dublin there are restaurants offering just that. From Indian to Greek food, the options to dine on something different are plentiful. With users reviews here is a guide to some of the best foreign food that you can have in the city.

If Mediterranean food is something that perks your interest then Keshk Cafe in Ballsbridge is a restaurant that you should make the trip to. Traditional middle eastern food is served in a relaxing atmosphere that can be enjoyed by all customers. Roxanne said, “This place is such a gem. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but it serves up a REALLY unique and delicious cuisine that is rare in Dublin. This place does middle eastern food in an authentic and non-gimmicky kind of way. This place is cheaper than most for dinner type meals so I definitely recommend a visit; I can’t wait to go back and try more things because I was drooling over what was going down on other tables!” Another middle eastern region that is highlighted in Dublin is Lebanon. Byblos in the South City Centre is a place to have a real Lebanese meal. Ken O. raved, “I went straight for the main course feeling quite anxious.I ordered a lamb dish and on ordering i was told it was a great choice so i was looking forward to it.It was not long before i had my meal in front of me, served by the very nice staff and the food was cooked to absolute perfection.They have a very good menu which I am looking forward to trying and I would definitely recommend this place anyone.have a try.”

Another type of exotic cuisine that might satisfy your hunger is Indian Gate. This restaurant offers a variety of dishes for individuals who are looking to have a good meal. An incentive to visit Indian Gate is you can either take away or have a sit down dinner. Anna commented, “I must admit that I’m a regular to this superb restaurant ‘India Gate’. The food is quality. The staff are friendly and helpful. I strongly recommend the chicken tikka masala-you’d even eat the sauce on it’s own, it’s that good. This is one of my favorite places to eat out or to take away!”

Turkish food is something that many do not think about for dinner in the city, but Layla Turkish Restaurant will change your mind. With classic dishes from Turkey diners will be able to have their fill at Layla’s. Berni raved, “The food is very good. For starters we ordered the dolma (stuffed grape leaves), yumo. This followed with the chicken kabob, this too was superb! It was served with rice and yogurt, which was perfection My friend ordered a pides it was heavenly! If you haven’t had a Turkish pide, go and try one.”

The last type of exotic food that should be dined on at least once is Thai food. Some individuals in the area have had “Thai” food, but Papaya Thai Cuisine proves to have real authentic dishes for customers. Aoife said, “This is a gem of a Thai Restaurant. I have been here on several occasions for the early bird. The early bird is outstandingly good value and offers a great selection of dishes. The chicken massaman curry is literally to die for. The staff are so friendly - in particular the owner who will frequently stop to chat to the guests. Please try this restaurant out.”

If you are feeling a little curious on trying new cuisine these restaurants are a good start. With all of the different regions covered in the city of Dublin you will always find some kind of exotic meal fit to your liking.

There has been endless debates about the demise of traditional directory enquires such as the yellow pages. While they will continue to serve a purpose, their usefulness is being ever eroded by people’s need to find the best as opposed to the available. People’s addiction to customer reviews and word of mouth is not a new concept, but is growing in popularity every day. Take us for example,  12 months ago we launched our social review based site www.WhoseView.ie. Today we surpassed our 14,000th customer review and record an average of 6,500 unique visitors every day between Ireland and the UK.

So how have we achieved this growth in such a short space of time? Consumers appetite for reviews is growing every day and it will only grow in popularity over the coming years. Search Engine People recently wrote an article on 12 statistic’s around customer reviews which nicely summarises this growing revolution.

1. Traffic to the top 10 review sites grew on average 158% last year (Compete.com)
2. 97% who made a purchase based on an online review found the review to be accurate (Comscore/The Kelsey Group, Oct. 2007)
3. 92% have more confidence in info found online than they do in anything from a salesclerk or other source (Wall Street Journal, Jan 2009)
4. 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust unknown users, 27% trust experts, 14% trust advertising, 8% trust celebrities (Econsultancy, July 2009, Erik Qualman, Socialnomics)
5. 70% consult reviews or ratings before purchasing (BusinessWeek, Oct. 2008)
6. Reviews on a site can boost conversion +20% (Bazaarvoice.com/resources/stats ‘Conversion Results’)

The other 6 statistics can be viewed over on Search Engine People. Therefore if you are a local business that wants to leverage and promote your position on WhoseView.ie, please sign up as a business member and avail of one of our business packages.

Update: 27th July: Only 2 teams so far in competition; There for the taking with a bit of competition!

____________________

Competition Time again and this time we would like to give away €200 in One4all Vouchers to 2 lucky friends on WhoseView. That’s €100 each!

To win, all you have to do is find a friend and together post more reviews than any other team pairing before August 15th 2010.

To enter, simply email michael@whoseview.com a link to both you and your friends profile page on WhoseView. This way we will know your in to win!

Terms & Conditions:

1. Reviews posted must be at least 4 lines in length and non repetitive.

2. Competition is open to reviews in both Ireland & UK

3. The winning teams combined reviews must be greater than 200 reviews.

We celebrate our 1st birthday today, having opened the site to the public on July 17th 2009. Prior to this date we were 18 months in the planning, from business plan formulation, capital raising, partner selection to development to closed alpha to finally an open beta on July 17th 2009.

On that day, 1 year ago, we recorded 54 unique visits, who posted 1 review in total. 365 days on and some key stats include;

1. 4,300 daily unique visitors on average
2. 110,000 monthly unique visitors
3. 15% average monthly growth in traffic
4. 13,100 posted customer reviews
5. 50 to 70 daily reviews being posted on average
6. 1,179,000 words written by members
7. 2,044,171 WhoseView points earned by members
8. 530, 820 WhoseView points claimed against special offers

Other notable achievements we are proud of include;

1. Winning the Best Indigenous Website at the 2009 Golden Spider Awards in Nov 2009.

2. Launching our iphone App in April 2010, which has been downloaded over 1,000 times.

3. Launching into the UK with www.WhoseView.co.uk on June 1st 2010 with close to 200,000 businesses in 6 UK cities.

4. On top of all this, we improved and increased the functionality on WhoseView by close to 100% since July 17th 2009.

It has been a long year for me, which many up’s and down’s, but thankfully they all balance out in the end. For every tear there are two smiles:-) For any young start up Internet company, the best advise I can give would be;

1. To help raise start up capital, ensure you spend enough time formulating your business plan. It main sound obvious, but always go back to your objectives when building your proposition. Don’t be afraid to allow elements to evolve and change. However your objectives should remain constant!

2. If you require a 3rd party partner to help bring your business plan to live, ensure you follow due diligence and take your time in selecting the right person or company. It will pay off in spades:-)

3. Ensure you have a good project manager (be it you or someone else) and set realistic expectations for milestones in development and beta stages. Unrealistic expectations only lead to disappointments and stress:-)

4. Work hard on realizing your business plan and it will work out for you:-) O yes and don’t forget to enjoy the experience:-)

We have set important milestones for WhoseView over the coming 6 months,

1. To grow our customer reviews to 20,000 and

2. Unique monthly visitors to 200,000 a month!

But for now, we are going to turn off our computer and enjoy a nice bottle or two………….:-)

As one of the largest cities in the United Kingdom, London has everything that the ultimate shopper needs. Regardless if you love it or hate it shopping has to happen at some point. Although, we all wish that the closet can fill itself up it does not happen that way. With users suggestions, WhoseView is here to help make this task a little bit easier for you.

On Picadilly in St. James is Fortnum & Mason. This store has everything for the one stop shopper. There is a floor dedicated to groceries, another for menswear and another for womens’ clothing. E.N. said, “Everything about this shop is classy. The exterior and the interior are architecturally wonderful. Their colorful displays of lovely packaged sweet and coffees are really a treat to see. Their section on house wear is really good and they have really wide selections of goods. Despite the fact that some things here can be quite expensive I would definitely recommend going here.” Also in the Picadilly area is Harrods. Another one stop shopping place for the eager shopper trying to get everything they need at once. Nigel D. raved, “A day is hardly enough to ‘explore’ this luxury store- everything imaginable on sale from antiques to yacht charters and everything in between! Even the bookstore is extensive, and the toy department heaven (even for an adult!).Every conceivable fashion , jewellery , perfume for everyone. If you want to buy an apartment there is even an in-house estate agency and travel deopartment. Food halls galore; retaurants ranging from ‘to go ‘ to 5* sit-down pampered luxury. Right next to the Piccadily tule line direct to /from heathrow too.An unmissable visit in London!”

A classic store throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland is Topshop. These stores carry everything imaginable for individuals who are in the mood to shop. The Topshop located in Mayfair is no different. Lynsey C. said, “If you love clothes and Topshop, you will think you have died and gone to clothing/shoe/accessory heaven when you enter this store. It is multi-floored and has just about everything you could imagine - it even has a cafe, hairdressers and toilets - you really don’t need to leave the place at all! It’s like an entire shopping centre for one store - love it love it love it!” In Soho, a multi level shopping centre named Kingly Court is a shoppers paradise. Full of eclectic and one of a kind shops this lets’ individuals have their pick and choose of merchandise. Laura B. commented, “This is a charming, somewhat hidden, little shopping centre just off Carnaby Street. It has 3 levels and is pretty much entirely made up of small boutiques and coffee shops. It’s so quirky and lovely! It has a few vintage shops and some other boutiques. Everything is a little on the pricey side.”

The last shopping place that the WhoseView users recommend is Orla Kiely in Covent Garden. Clothes, bags and other various things line the walls of the plush store. Kaz F. raved, “Over the new year i made a trip to this lovely store. I made my first ever Orla Kiely purchase and i am still delighted with it. Even though i think you would recognize an Orla Kiely bag instantly as they are all along the same look the selection is varied. Obviously this shop has a bigger selection and so the range of colors and sizes was really amazing.”

So for all of those shop till you drop types of personalities or just the person who needs to fill up their closets, these recommendations come from the people who know best, our users. Next time you are in London you should pop into one of these for the things you are looking for.

A good hotel is hard to find sometimes. Dealing with online booking and checking in can be a real hassle, especially in the summertime months. Have no worries though because WhoseView is here to help. Three popular cities Dublin, Galway and Cork have some wonderful accommodations to make your trips worth the visit.

Location is a key part to having a great hotel experience. Many travelers want to be right in the heart of the city so attractions can be easily seen. Bentley’s Hotel located in South City Centre on St. Stephens Green is a prime hotel for a city atmosphere. Michelle said, “I stayed in the Bentley’s with 2 of my girl friends as a shopping weekend treat. Grafton street is only a short walk away. its a small hotel but it is lovely. The bedrooms are beautiful. The ambiance in the restaurant was lovely and the food was simple, but very tasty. To sum this hotel up I would say good location, great service and great value for money. I would stay here again in a heart beat.” Another place to get a city feeling is the O’ Callaghan Stephens Green Hotel also in South City Centre. Close to everything that is needed for a visit to Dublin this hotel offers visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the Dublin lifestyle. Lea F. raved, “O’ Callaghans is my favorite Hotel in Dublin City Centre. I highly recommend it to anyone I know who is coming over to stay. They staff are second to none, especially the front desk staff. Every person who I have recommended this hotel to has also given rave reviews.”

Just a short distance away from Dublin is the city of Galway. This city gives individuals a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city to take the time to relax and enjoy the restaurants and nightlife. Overlooking the beautiful scenery of Galway is the Galway Bay Hotel in Salthill. This hotel offers delicious food and a pleasant stay to guests. M said, “There is a lovely seating area off the lobby where you can look out at Galway Bay, lovely and bright on a sunny day. It seems to be a very age friendly hotel with people of all ages there. Staff are very courteous and friendly. We had lunch here on two occasions. The scones, soup and desserts were lovely. There is plenty of parking outside. Nice location if staying here as the views of the bay are lovely and it is near Salthill.” More in the heart of Galway is the G Hotel. This one of a type decorated hotel supplies the high class stay people expect. L.N. claimed, “This hotel is exquisite, inside you can see your reflection the marble walls are so shiny! All the tea rooms are different themes and colors and the dining room is fabulous-big colorful seats, with cool paintings and the bonnet of a BMW is very cool! Staff extremely kind and helpful and cater for coeliacs remarkably well!”

The last city on the hotel tour of Ireland is Cork. This location has lots to offer guests who are visiting. Also, it is just a drive or train away from anywhere in Ireland. For more of the luxurious feeling on your visit to Cork there is Fota Island Golf Resort & Spa. This hotel provides people the chance to be completely waited on and have a stress free living environment for their stay. Sharon said, “I stayed here for a one night special deal last year. The staff were very friendly checking us in. When we got up to the room I was delighted. It was quite large which a big bed, flat screen T.V. and Ipod dock. The bathroom is stunning. We ate in the restaurant downstairs which was gorgeous. The food was top quality and a nice atmosphere.” If you are a traveler and looking for something close to the airport then Cork International Airport Hotel is a hotel that will fit your qualifications. This quirky place is perfect for the person who needs a place to stay for the night. Noirin commented, “I travel quite a bit for my job, and have stayed in many a random place, but none more so than this hotel! It is without a doubt the strangest looking place I’ve ever been in! But in the best sense.”

These hotels are just a few highlights in the three cities listed. Throughout Ireland there are many beautiful hotels for guests to visit, but these are highly recommended by our WhoseView.ie users. On your next stay in one of these cities you should try resting your head at one of the listed locations!