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Tag Archives: trust
Trust does not equal influence – be careful how you interpret the data
The new Nielsen trust report is out. (Write up at Social Commerce Today.) Duck - here come the inflated claims from social commerce companies about how this proves the effectiveness of what they do. The problem is, it's not that simple. First, here's the data: The temptation is to conclude that because "recommendations from people I know" are most-trusted, a sure-fire strategy is to get your customers to recommend your stuff to their friends. The problem is that the whole reason friends are trusted is because they WON'T recommend your stuff to their friends - not unless they sincerely and spontaneously ... read more
The Economist: friend recommendations are the most trusted source of product information
The Economist has a special section this week on social networking. They include the chart below pointing out that friend recommendations are the most trusted source of product information. What's interesting here is just how far ahead friend recommendations are from the next closest source; eyeballing the "trust completely" bar, the factor appears to be almost 3X. So if trust is important in your sales and marketing, you really need to be thinking about how to harness the power of social networks.
Another study shows that input from people you know is by far the most influential
Here's an article in AdWeek summarizing the findings from a recent Nielsen study of consumer trust. "Recommendations from people known" is by far the most trusted source of input -- 20% ahead of the next closest. Nielsen gathered opinions from 25,000 internet consumers to produce this chart:
For product information, friends are the most trusted source
Most of the books I "read" these days are audio books. Last year, that included Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's excellent Groundswell. (Here it is on Audible.) As a result, I missed this extraordinary chart, and just discovered it today. So it's not exactly breaking news. But even if you've seen it before, it's worth a second look.
Trust = Influence
There are lots of reasons why advice from friends is so much more influential than advice from strangers. Trust is a big one. The Wall Street Journal today has a piece about the growing sway marketers have over product recommendations online. "Paid to Pitch: Product Reviews by Bloggers Draw Scrutiny." I was particularly struck by the marketer who requires bloggers he hires to use a seal that says "Sponsored Post. 100% Real Opinion." It's so murky. Even if the overwhelming majority of amateur reviewers have no commercial interest (or hope of one in the future), the fact that some do ... read more
Strangers or friends?
The communications agency Universal McCann recently published a report called "When Did We Start Trusting Strangers?" looking at how much more influential the advice of strangers has become in purchase decisions since the rise of social media. Brands better not ignore this call to action -- like it or not, the phenomenon is real and powerful. And in many ways it's a good thing, putting more pressure on brands to produce superior products instead of just superior marketing. But it's not entirely a good thing. To the degree that these anonymous interactions replace authentic, personal ones, they represent lost opportunities. We ... read more