Trust is definitely one of the key characteristics that public relations professionals want to have among their key stakeholders and publics when they are working and practicing in the field. If people do not view you as a credible and trustworthy source of information, they will either go somewhere else for their information, or their perception of you will not be as positive. With social media and people getting online to get their information, public relations professionals not only have to look at their messages that they are communicating, but how to present this in a way that builds trust.
Mashable had a great post on the elements of trust on social media and presented a few recent and interesting case studies that involved how corporations are trying to regain trust in their brands after a crisis. The two key examples that were presented were Domino’s after the YouTube crisis in 2009, and the recent incident with Southwest Airlines and director Kevin Smith. Both companies had to respond on social media, and they had to be aware of what their stakeholders wanted to know and what would be the best approach to use to communicate their side of the story.
In other words, we as public relations professionals make sure that we conduct thorough research to determine what are the elements that makes someone trustworthy, and how we can strategically apply this with social media. There are many research opportunities in this area, so this is very exciting for the public relations field. Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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