Are Corporate Blogs Trusted

[Jonathan Blank]

Forrester Research recently did a study on what sources of information consumers trust. A conclusion that is currently being discussed a lot on social media blogs is that "corporate blogs are only trusted by 16% of consumers."

The report, http://bit.ly/vNft, does show that people trust the posts in social networking sites they opt into. I think these conclusions show that corporations should focus there attention on becoming the site for people to collaborate on specific topics, rather than a source of information. Of course the exception to this is Andy's blog which people trust because he is the man. :) Do you trust corporate blogs?

[Rick Mans]

Yes blogs are trusted, however people aren't stupid ;). You have to be real, fakes are filtered automatically

Checklist for a healthy corporate blog: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/12/10/health-check-how-trus... (Capgemini is doing pretty well in my opinion).

[Jonathan Blank]

Thanks Rick. Jeremiah's checklist is quite helpful. And I agree with your conclusion. Well put.

[Chris Yapp]

Jonathan,

My post on don Tapscotts new book links to your very important comments.
The key word is authenticity.
let me make Andy blush or maybe e-blush.
What young people do is they test ideas from a number of sources, not one. If Andy's blog gets externally referenced in such a way as to suggest that it is authentic it gets trusted. However, if Andy says one thing and the blogosphere says " i know that's what he says, but.." no amount of corporate b******t will affect the percieved wisdom.
Therefore, coporate blogs need to be authentic. That may be around individuals, themes or other matters.
It may seem to be an Oxymoron, but it is about honest marketing.
A corporate blog will be trusted by an individual or a community if their experience of individuals from the organisation or the organisation itself is consistent with the blog. What is different is that they can so easily find out the level of authenticity that others have found.
If I put out a marketing message that mine is the best call centre in the world as a marketing director, no amount of marketing dollars can overcome the people who say not so..

[andy mulholland]

Thanks for the complement but i think it is a little more complex than that though i do think 'personalisation' plays a big part in it! Carl Bate introduced me to the following formula;

Trust = Intimacy times Credibility divided by Risk

i think you have to add to other factors that influence this;

Value = Period times relevancy divided by accuracy

in other words one or two blogs created and posted clearly around an event to give a message are obviously 'marketing' messages in the form of blogs. I believe the trust comes when people follow a blog because they want it to be relevant so they can feel 'informed' and it should be reasonably accurate over a period in terms of what comments are made.

summed up? its not the medium, or even the message, its whether the blogger can built a realistic 'relationship' based on predictable and recognizable value, and the challange is that corporate bloggers tend to focus on the message, and not on the realtionship