Cutline Speaks

Who Do You Trust? Trends in Trust and Influence for the Next Generation

posted by Meghan on February 27, 2008

I had the opportunity to attend the Churchill Club event last night on Trends and Trust. Speakers included:

Robert Cialdini, President, Influence At Work and Author of “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”

Richard Edelman, President & CEO, Edelman

Anastasia Goodstein, Founder, Ypulse and Author of "Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online"

Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook, Inc.

While most of the discussion wasn't around anything new or astounding from a PR perspective, one interesting point was made by Robert Cialdini in regard to building trust, from a psychological stand point. He noted that studies have shown the majority of times a person mentions a weakness first in their convincing argument, their next statement will be the most persuasive and influential one towards establishing trust. He brought up the Avis slogan, "We're number two, but we try harder," as well as the L'Oreal Ad, "We're expensive, but you're worth it." These findings were debated back-and-forth on the panel as how they should or shouldn't relate to PR and trustworthy executives. From a purely psychological view, slogans like these are all the proof I need to see that humble authenticity goes a long way.

The night's debate mainly focused on the fact that the next generation of consumers consider peer recommendations and reviews over the opinions of leading CEOs, corporations, government officials, journalist, etc. Today's influencers are you and me and the guy sitting next to you on the bus. Today's 25 - 35 year olds don't typically read the entire New York Times Sunday paper, but instead boot up their PC and check out top blogs, customized RSS feeds and tid bits of information they are particularly interested in viewing. This change in leveling out the playing field has a huge impact on advertisers and marketers. If done correctly, you could reach a niche audience with particular interests rather than blasting a message out to mass audience. However, for mainstream media, this form of new media is a major threat.

It'll be interesting and fun to watch the changing landscape as the next generation of social-networking-multiple-online-identity-Web-savvy consumers enter the market. Last night's discussion wasn't anything new (if you are paying attention to peer media and blogger influence) but it did point out that large corporations are still learning how to adapt their campaigns to reach this new audience that focuses firstly on social networks and peer reviews such as Yelp and bloggers when forming opinions. It's no longer a matter of will corporations leverage new media and social networks happen, but how.

Tags for this post: pr