Personal Brand, Social Media and Distributed Trust

It is impressive the change that has occurred in our way of making decisions in recent years.

In the year 2000 we were influenced by advertising in a 90% of our purchasing decisions (mass consumption). Today advertising occupies 30%.

Today, Internet and social media, influence a 81% in these decisions. And the influence is not from social media, but of people and the ecosystem of personal recommendations. That is known as "distributed trust".

If you're short on time, I'll explain it to you in a minute.

What is distributed trust?

As the name suggests, The distributed trust takes power away from a single source and distributes that responsibility among a wide range of sources. “The easiest way to think about it is trust that flows through networks., markets and platforms”, says Oxford University professor Rachel Botsman. “And so it takes the trust of an institution away from top to bottom and decentralizes it using technology.”.

The development of technology is often linked blockchain to distributed trust.

Features of Distributed Trust

Imagine a network made up of nodes. According to a I am a student dated in 2019 by Christian Cachin, University of Bern, our behavior towards that network could be summarized as follows.:

• We don't trust a single node
• We tolerate corrupt nodes
• Everyone has influence
• Most are right
• The system remains intact despite nodes that lie or misbehave
• Distributed protocols tolerate uncertainty, failures and attacks

I mean, The distributed trust it is not always based on reality, but in the social perception of that reality.

We research the network to take the 81% of our decisions

An interesting Lee Rainie's studio, Director of Internet and Technology Research at the Pew Research Center highlights interesting facts about who we trust to make decisions.

When it comes to where Americans place their trust in gathering information before making an important decision, a large majority (81%) he says he relies heavily on his own research.

The curious thing about the graph is that the own research adds a 96%, something above family and friends (93%) or experts (84%). Let's go, For me, this assumes the reverse order.

Another curious fact is that among the own research, the opinions expressed by people whom we do not know anything on the Internet occupy a great source of that trust. And that links to the next point..

Guest reviews, the power is in the experience

Lee Rainie's previous study says that reviews and ratings help people in their research.

"The rise of digital resources on the web and apps has come at a time of declining trust in institutions like government., the media and higher education". We also saw that in the last edition of the Edelman Trust barometer. 

The Internet allows a multitude of people to post reviews, ratings and reviews about the things we buy and experience. This Internet-based and crowd-based activity is part of that distributed trust.

About people's use of online reviews and ratings, a large majority (93%) claims to have read customer reviews and ratings at least sometimes when they first purchase a product or service.

In general, we usually rely on opinions and ratings, and we think they can be beneficial: Most claim that reviews have at least one positive effect on consumer confidence. (The 88% think they help a lot or something), product safety (80%) and the responsibility of the company (78%). Not bad, No?

The personal brand as a prop of trust

Insist, we don't talk to brands or companies, we talk to people. And in the same way, we trust people, even without knowing them.

Booking, Tripadvisor, Google, InfoJobs o Glassdoor not only allow to place up to 5 rating stars, but add feedback based on experience, and that has more value than the best advertising campaign in the world. In addition, these platforms are improving their algorithms and filters to prevent manipulation.

People, and our experience in a service or product, we have the power to change or reaffirm purchasing decisions like never before. Perhaps traditional advertising should insist more on the REAL customer experience, Patient, voluntary... to gain credibility.

I'm not an influencer, maybe you don't either., But 5.000 people like you or me reviewing the experience on a trip, in the use of a machine or the menu of a restaurant... we are, and more than the biggest celebrity on the planet: distributed trust pure.

Here's the podcast episode with this theme. You can hear it in iVoox, Spotify, And Apple Podcast.

Postscript

Who needs a new personal brand for the 'great disbandment'’

Tino Fernández has published a Article in the newspaper Expansión with this title, in which I participate giving my opinion with my colleague Andrés Pérez Ortega. 

Two personal brand events a few days apart

I have already discussed here about the next Personal Branding Lab Day 2021, which is held online and free of charge on 27 November, and in which you can register for free on the web www.personalbrandinglabday.com.

And a few days later, The 10 December, will take place on Personal Branding Experience, PBEX, also online and free, organized from Brazil by my colleague Daniela Viek.

Stock Photos from arbalet / Shutterstock