Very interesting post regarding trust from Edelman PR following their conference this morning. Thanks Hugh MacLeod for mentioning this in his blog.
It appears that research is showing traditional media and sources are being trusted less and less. No real surprises that the 'masters of spin' are past their sell-by-date. What is shocking is the rate of decline is so fast. Trust in Government fell from 33% to 16% this year. Trust in the media was only slightly ahead at 19%. Trust in business was over 40% but not so strong for CEO's themselves.
Social media enabled 'communities' have come to the fore as trusted sources of information. The concept of the independent reviewer has been around for a long time - look at Which. Certain individuals can build 'personal trust'. Richard an Judy and their book club for example. For the last couple of holidays and trips abroad I have used TripAdvisor (feedback from ordinary people - not PR spin or paid travel writers). I found that the input was honest but like all opinions - coloured by that persons experiences, beliefs and values. If mine were a close match to theirs I could see immediately what they meant but if not I did not always agree with them.
Edelman found that -
"A ‘person like yourself’ and a doctor/healthcare specialist are the most trusted people in the developed world (both 52%).
In the UK, the credibility of a ‘person like yourself’ is influenced by shared interests (72%), while same gender (7%), religion (6%) and race/ethnicity (2%) are far less important."
The challenges for companies is how to engaged an increasingly sceptical audience. One that does not always trust them, their CEO's nor the media they use to communicate with them. In addition the traditional marketing communication platforms of TV, radio and print are not as impactful as they once were.
What are companies to do?
They need to fundamentally re-think their communication strategy. Instead of the heirachical, command and control infrastructure that de-personalises the communication into corporate speak they need to empower their employees to show that they are 'just like the customer'. Social media provides tools to enable this to happen.