People don't trust corporate blogs

Li and Bernhoff, the authors of the book Groundswell have just published research showing that only 16% of people. trust what they read on corporate blogs. A summary of their findings can be found on their blog (which looks to me like a corporate blog of sorts but ho hum), or you can have a look at this bar chart (click for a bigger version):

















Several things about this data. Firstly, it is from the US, but I'd guess that figures in the UK would be roughly the same. Secondly, the numbers are really quite low across the board for all communications channels - people really are very discerning when it comes to absorbing information. Thirdly, personal blogs fare little better than corporate ones.

The main lesson seems to be one which the PR industry learned some time ago - that messages are most effective when they come from a trusted and non-partisan source. It should come as no surprise that people don't trust the voices of strangers in the blogosphere. Nor should it be a massive shock to the system that corporate blogs are perceived as prone to bias.

So what are the most trusted outlets of information? Well traditional (ie print and broadcast) media ranks more highly than most social media, which should provide web 2.0 PR gurus with some food for thought. But ranking highest of all are good old fashioned friends and family, and consumer reviews.

The appearance of consumer reviews is interesting in this context because in theory the source is exactly the same as that of blogs (ie the general public). However, the difference as I see it is that unlike blogs, consumer reviews are aggregated, depersonalised, focussed and usually very brief. There is also a tangible honesty and credibility in consumer reviews that stems from having just shelled out an amount of money on something, and if the barchart above is to believed, this really seems to count.

Consumer reviews can also be very funny.