Spill It: Can Bloggers Be Trusted Anymore?
One of the major challenges facing traditional advertising and media is the trust factor. Even when commercials or advertisements make us laugh or cry, we still don’t necessarily believe in what we’re hearing. We’re savvy. We’re skeptical. We’re smart.
Blogging is newer. In fact, it’s a part of this abstract thing often referred to as new media, and before it became a marketing medium, it enjoyed a day of innocence. Plenty of blogging “marketers” have seized upon the opportunity and have sold product after product. The FTC has involved itself in the affairs of bloggers, requiring more complete disclosure of monetization tactics. In short, people trust bloggers less.
One of the ideals we espouse here at Fuel is that blogging is a great artform. It’s more than just good writing, it’s writing persuasively and in a way that connects people in a community around a person or brand. But is the artform being tainted by over-commercialization?
This post is not designed to criticize marketing or monetization methods in particular. In fact, a strong blogosphere depends on smart economic practices. Rather, we simply want to raise a question that is far more practical and positive… What should bloggers be doing to keep the trust factor up?
Share with us in the comments your thoughts about what bloggers can do to restore trust to the industry we call home…
In addition to serving as Editor of Fuel Your Blogging, Brandon is also a Pastor at Saddleback Church and Online Community Coordinator for Pastors.com. He’s also a web designer, blogger, and church communications consultant. Catch him on his own blog or on Twitter.
One solid beginning would be to determine which type of blog we are discussing with this topic.
Professional blogs certainly need to be trustworthy and reliable in order to maintain their brand identity to the public. One good way to do this is to post relavent, topical, and/or researched writing – much like a professional journal might.
Personal blogs are far more opinionated and do not need to necessarily be researched before being put out into the ether of cyberspace. My own personal blog, for example, is more of a rant about the motion picture industry and reviews and critiques about the media, something I am passionate about. Sure, I went to film school, keep up with Variety, and read lots of books on filmmaking, but I am not about to write an educated article for every single post for this blog. It’s for me, a place to get my opinions out there. It is just my opinion.
So how do you develop trust in a blog? Be clear about the type of blog it is and be consistent. If your blog is trying to be professional, then be professional about writing it. If it’s just about your personal opinion and letting your friends know that you had an awesome weekend, then be clear about that. Just like developing trust in real-life relationships it takes time and consistency.
But keep in mind, this is the internet. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Everything in today’s society, fortunately or unfortunately, needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
A very thought provoking post.
I personally don’t appreciate blogs that are covered in advertising to a point that they compete with the content. However, I think that the question is really one of credibility of the writers. I have to date avoided writing a blog as I ask myself ‘will I be adding value in an industry (web development) that has a number of exceptionally talented people who blog’? The answer is probably not.
How do I develop trust? Well I look for people who demonstrably know what they are talking about and aren’t “winging it”. I agree with Eric if you are writing a professional blog then be professional in your approach and consistency will win through.
It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging for personal pleasure or corporate enterprise, you have to stay transparent.
Stay transparent. Stay alive.
I just did a video presentation about your reputation and trust as a blogger. This is why I constantly remind other bloggers to make sure that they truly endorse what they promote, their reputation is at stake.
Declare a sponsored post proudly, to keep your honesty intact with your readers.
It is all about trust. Nothing will happen on your blog untill your get your readers trust, and once you have it, I think it is harder to keep it.
Being transparent, honest and straight forward is the only way to kget and keep that trust.
Great blog, My first visit and comment.
I think that trust is a matter of showing you really have value in your products. When you develop something to sell or even give away for free for promotional purposes, you’re basically saying “this is how much effort I put into making your life easier.” If your product is crap well..there’s that.
Trust isn’t just about being transparent. It’s also about showing you’re dependable for quality information and resources. That includes anything from posting on time to consistently replying to comments to putting real effort into developing products and services and responding to emails.
Awesome post and a great question. ^_^
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to read?