Comments on: Corporate Blogs Aren’t Trusted: Forrester Research

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:13:13 +0000

I’m happy to have found The Agitationist. I am a Marketing Coordinator for a rapidly growing company and I just started a blog for us. I appreciate the straight talk and am striving everyday to try to have a more human approach. I spend a lot of my time researching for ideas, tips, success stories, and failures because so far I have no comments form consumers. Obviously it’s a work in progress but I appreciate your frank input. Nice job and funny too.

By: Corporate Blogs–Honest or Not? « Bits and Bytes about This and That

Corporate Blogs–Honest or Not? « Bits and Bytes about This and That — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:54:20 +0000

[...] recent posting on The Agitationist discusses the trust issue with an eye on what a social media team can do to help. The main gist [...]

By: Chris Baggott

Chris Baggott — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Thanks for the comment to my post on this Forrester report before the holiday.

Your points are excellent. Add Value!

I continually tell our clients that your employees are real people….let them tell stories about how they serve the customer.

Here is my reply:
http://blogging.compendiumblog.com/blog/blogging-best-practices/0/0/employee-bloggers-and-trust-a-ski-vacation-story-v1

By: Kimberly Bock

Kimberly Bock — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:30:47 +0000

haha, ‘tease out the practices.’

By: Michael Winn

Michael Winn — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:01:02 +0000

In our culture, trust, except for religious fundamentalists (who trust on faith), and although natural in children and puppies, is attenuated by experiences. Teasing that is common in childhood and in adult rituals, like “the roast” and social satire builds immunity. The result is that trust is not a given nor is it ever really permanent. Enduring relationships involve knowing what you and the other can be trusted for and conversely.

When I search for information, as Jennifer suggests, it matters not where I find it. Like the Nigerian email scams, when a corporate blogger screws with my search, trust in the source declines.

There’s no difference between a “corporate blog” that falsely represents information as if it were independent and the ads, now illegal, of tobacco, pharmaceutical and automobile industries that intentionally mislead. So what if the internet provides the medium–they are predatory and destructive of trust.

Like Jennifer and Kimberly, I have little time or tolerance for this. However, looking at this the other way, corporate blogs that respect those who seek information by helping rather than selling, take a step up the ladder of trust and earn my respect.

Your bullet points are excellent and I think we could refine your statement, congeal it into a simple, clear statement of principle and also tease out the practices. What do yo think?

Best, Michael

By: Jennifer Lindsay

Jennifer Lindsay — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:24:29 +0000

Excellent piece. I’m wondering though, depending on the goal/s of blogging in the first place, doesn’t it really begin and and with search, seasoned with a little ‘thought leaddership,’ just for kicks? That would mean that the user still matters – if I search and see a blog written by a company, I way not click on the link because I don’t trust the company, but, as you infer, if you’re writing posts for the customer, my sense is that when searching, if the answer lies in a corporate blog or not, I’m going to gravitate to where the information I need is. Right?

Full disclosure: I am a director of digital services, so I make recommendations on coporate blogging when it makes sense to, but *always* with the goal of being customer-oriented and have excellent content straregy in place. After a decade in the TV news industry, I would have lasted without being fixated on content quality, and I find a lot of crossover with the prinipals I first honed there.

My two cents, anyway.

http://jenniferlindsay.com
(in progress)

By: Agitationist

Agitationist — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:31:33 +0000

PLEASE rant anytime! Love your site – please keep up the great work.

By: Kimberly Bock

Kimberly Bock — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:01:38 +0000

lmao, did I write this?? I think I did. Like, repeatedly, but you’re funnier.

They can’t be trusted.

They’re thieves & liars.

They will never change.

They don’t care about anything but a temporary gain of a dollar.

They freaking suck.

uhem, thanks for letting me share.