Consumers Say Your Corporate Blog is Not Trusted

Categories: Web UsagePosted on December 9th, 2008

Click the above image to advance to Josh’s full post

While in the back of our minds, we all knew this was true. Corporate blogs, like Jonathan Schwartz Blog and Bob Lutz of GM frequently talk about one thing –they’re companies and their products. In fact, some would argue corporate blogs don’t live up to the dream of naked transparency as we saw from Robert Scoble way back in 2006. Instead, many corporate blogs have become a rehash of press releases written in more of a human tone, yet fail to address the real conversation that’s happening in the marketplace.

In the above graphic, Josh Bernoff has conducted research and found that consumers said they trusted corporate blogs very little. How little?

“Not only do blogs rank below newspapers and portals, they rank below wikis, direct mail, company email, and message board posts”

–in fact, a mere 16%

While I certainly discussed the findings with Josh before the report was published, he has far more details on the report, and answer what you should (and survey methodology) do from his post.

For what it’s worth, I spearheaded the corporate blogging program at Hitachi Data Systems, helped my two recent CEOs start blogging, and am an active ‘corporate’ blogger myself. Love to hear your thoughts on this, were you surprised?

Update: The Blog Council (a third party organization) has addressed the data, and has listed out many of their trusted blogs, I think most are part of their council. I wonder what the Blog Business Summit, Shel Israel, Dave Taylor will say –did corporations follow their instructions –doesn’t look like it.

Update: You can download the report for free, after your register on the Forrester site.

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52 Comments »

Interesting.

For the purposes of the research, does it assume ‘Consumer Product Rating/ Review’ is carried out by an independent third party?

Posted by David Blanar on December 9th, 2008 at 12:07 pm

I’m wondering if the bigger story isn’t that personal blogs only beat corporate blogs by 2 percentage points. I’ve always thought that the power of blogging was it’s human-ness, the sense that you are getting the perspective of a unique, identifiable individual. Could this strength also be the medium’s weakness? A definite perspective, while suggesting authenticity on the one hand, at the same time suggests bias.

Posted by Matthew T. Grant on December 9th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

I am not surprised at all. I think most companies (speaking from personal experience) still need more culture shift to actually address the real conversations happening. It’s happening slowly and hopefully surely.

Posted by Wendy Harman on December 9th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Jeremiah, it depends on the tone of the blog. If the corporate blog is consistently beating their chest about how great their rpducts are, then the perception is going to be that of distrust. However, if the blog is insightful, transparent and blogger is aware of “what is in it” for the readers, then the blog will be more universally accepted. Corporate bloggers need to give to receive trust. It is no different then journalism. Journalists need to build credibility before they can be taken serious enough to be a news breaker.

Posted by Derek on December 9th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Not surprised but I’d love to see data on what separates corporate blogs that are perceived as more trustworthy.

I’m disinclined to read (let a lone trust) any corporate blog a) with no names or faces, b) write exclusively about themselves, c) have the tone/manner of a press release.

I don’t much trust corporate Twitter accounts either.

Posted by Eugene on December 9th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Most corporate blogs make the mistake of talking all about themselves without thinking about their audience. If we keep our audience/readers in mind and write the blog for them, rather than for our own ego, we will gain the trust of our readers and provide them something worth reading.

Posted by LJ Jones on December 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

This story is interesting but we are neither told who the sample was nor its size.

Ignoring this information, and looking at the examples you site (Jonathan Schwartz and Bob Lutz) we have two firms were managers try to protect their jobs. both firms are not doing that well.

As well, maybe owners or entrepreneurs blog differently – taking greater risks or using straight talk

thanks for this post.

PS. might be interesting to see if data from other countries looks different or the same.

Posted by Urs E. Gattiker on December 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

Urs

I hear your request for data, Josh has discussed some of this on his post, leave a comment there and let’s centralize discussion on methodology there.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on December 9th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

I never believe a salesperson unless I can confirm their claim elsewhere. I wonder if it’s the same/similar with corporate blogs?

Posted by Seth Gray on December 9th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

As long as profit is a motive, there will always be a perception that customer transactions may not always be mutually beneficial in an equitable, monetary way.

What companies need, perhaps, is what major newspapers have – some sort of “ombudsman” to balance the needs of customers (readers) against the needs of investors & management (editors). PR and IR departments really don’t do that.

But overhead like that will probably never fly.

Posted by Joseph "Giuseppe" Zuccaro on December 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

This is really debatable. A company blog – corporate of small business – does not have to contain only reworked press releases. There’s only so many things that can be written in a press release. A blog is real, it comprises of the human elements of the author/s in relation to their business and industry. A blog reaches the emotions of the reader, and even advertisers have realised that people buy which product they’re emotionally attached to.

Then, blogs are about conversations. And conversation is where marketing starts in todays world. The comments of readers on a blog might not describe the product you want to buy from a company, but it sure will set the tone – in a general sense – for what people are saying – and thinking – about your company.

A blog is essential especially for a small business. Trash the Web 1.0 brochure site, and have a blog – that is your “home” on the Web. The other components of your web strategy are valuable, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc – but those are all platforms you don’t own and/or control. You own the content on your blog, and you therefore own that conversation. When I talk blog I talk WordPress. Blog data, with comments etc can be downloaded and archived.

A blog is not just a blog. A blog has to have a strategy. You have to be contributing to people’s understanding of your industry and what you do. If you’re pushing products only on your blog, and beating your own chest as Derek says above, then you’ve lost the plot, and your strategy will fail. You can mention your products or services when required to do so, but that should be the exception not the rule. A blog is the conversation, its not an “AD” – so don’t treat it like one.

That’s my 2 cents from South Africa.

Posted by Jamaaludeen Khan on December 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

Seems to me that Josh’s post is intentionally provocative without providing any real insight. Is trust here a synonym for an unbiased source of information? Difficult to know without seeing the questions asked. And, if unbiased was implied, it’s the height of naivety to expect a corporate blog to be unbiased. Blogs are run by the marketing department, and a marketers mandate is to further the ambitions of the corporation. Why would anyone expect a corporate blog to be any different? It would be more interesting to see results of a survey that asked if a corporate blog lived up to the reader’s expectations.

Posted by Nigel Hall on December 9th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

It’s hard to look at the trustworthiness or value of a corporate blog in isolation. My sense is that corporate blogs from companies with a more authentic communications style in general, and an overall strong connection with customers, will be trusted. Those, like GM, that have a blog out there but otherwise are doing the same old lipstick on a pig promotions, won’t be trusted.

Meanwhile, I’m also intrigued that portals and search engines rank so highly; all they’re doing is aggregating all the other types of content listed, including, perhaps, corporate blogs.

Posted by Rob Leavitt on December 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

I have to admit that I’m surprised by the result.
I thought the corporate blog was the foundation from which a company launches it’s SMM efforts. Either people are more cynical than I thought and just don’t trust anything corporate, or the ones doing the blogging just aren’t doing it properly.

If it’s the latter, that’s just sad. Despite everything they’ve probably been told about blogging and being transparent and having their finger on the pulse of the community, they just can’t prevent themselves from rehashing a press release or promoting themselves.

To me that’s tragic and just delays the widespread corporate accpetance of SMM for no good reason.

Posted by Kyle Roussel on December 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Wow, this is a terrible report. It should have read, do the consumers trust “THESE CORPORATE BLOGS”, in which case the answer is no. For a comprehensive report that totally disagrees with this, read the Consumer Experience Report 2008: http://is.gd/537y

Posted by Douglas Karr on December 9th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

So its got personal blogs and corporate blogs covered, but what about those blogs like Huffington Post, Tech Crunch, BoingBoing that are written by teams of people and are more like a traditional media pub than a personal blog?

Posted by Parker on December 9th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Can’t say that I’m surprised that people don’t trust corporate blogs. No matter what anyone thinks, the corporate blog is exactly going to be that…corporate. Companies probably think that if they want to control the conversation, then at the very least, they’ll monitor it on their own blog.

Transparency? In a corporation? If I want to know more about what a specific company’s image or if I’m researching them for a job or whatnot, then I’m not going to resort to their site or blog. I’ll reach out to the community. Yelp, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites I can find on Google/Yahoo will be more helpful and offer me a candid view of what’s going on.

Posted by Ken Yeung on December 9th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

[...] HERE FOR MORE: Web Strategy by Jeremiah. Posted by garynielson Filed in [...]

Posted by Your corporate blog is not trusted | Jeremiah « GaryNielson.com on December 9th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

Would be interested in knowing how employees feel about corporate blogs, both internal and external. As an employee communications stratagist, I’m always looking for solutions to make the employer/employee exchange more transparent, balanced and relevant. So, if people don’t trust corporations, employees work for corporations and employees are people – we might be working against unrealistic expectations.

While I find blogs and other social media applications are/can be sound solutions for my clients’ employee comm. challenges, often times the processes and legal hoops to make these technologies come to life effectively kill the spirit of the media.

A couple years ago, my company did a study on CSR and the attitudes/opinions of average Americans (http://www.csrresults.com/). I see several similarities in terms of trust in various communications channels. I’m a fan of corporations in general. That said, I haven’t discovered the key to getting stakeholders to trust them – even when they are doing well, good and being transparent about it.

Posted by Becky on December 9th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

[...] Consumers Say Your Corporate Blog is Not Trusted. Only 16% say they are a trusted source of information. Source: Web Strategist [...]

Posted by Social Media News — Social Media Optimization on December 9th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Two things spring to mind…

1. Blogs are people-based so the idea of a “corporate” blog is an impossibility. If the site is written by a person with the goal of connecting with an audience then I don’t think the results will be the same. If the question was worded using the words, corporate, company, business, etc – with no linkage to a person then I am not very surprised. Using those words immediately pushes the reader to “advertising” instead of insight.

2. The word “blog” has to evolve. While the word may have sprung from “web log” and have been connected to a personal journal vs. business use – I think we’ve evolved to a new type of web journal – more business focused – still personal just not as personal (meaning a list of what I had for breakfast – that’s twitter) as its ancestor.

Posted by Paul Hebert on December 9th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

Is there part of a sentence or paragraph missing after –in fact, a mere 16%…? Regardless, I’m not shocked by the survey, but I am surprised that blog software — and Web software in general — hasn’t gotten better at tracking the conversations. Most corporations would sacrifice some control over their message (if they had any left) to have an easy way to gather, categorize, and act on the myriad conversations sprouting everywhere. Community managers can only do so much. The commenting, tracking, and response software needs to improve to the point that average employees can join in conversations without being overwhelmed.

Posted by Kawika Holbrook on December 9th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Paul
here here!

Kawika
No, there’s no sentence missing, I was just pointing out the data as it was a bit hard to see from the graphic.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on December 9th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

[...] Another fellow blogger added an interesting post on Consumers Say Your Corporate Blog is Not TrustedHere’s a small excerptAbout · Contact · Web Strategy Vault · Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing. Jeremiah Owyang discusses how web tools and social media enable companies to connect with customers … [...]

Posted by Email Marketing Strategy » Blog Archive » Consumers Say Your Corporate Blog is Not Trusted on December 9th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

Hmmm. I suspect this is more of an indictment on the way most businesses have executed corporate blogs rather than the true potential of blogs as a communications channel.

Posted by James Duthie on December 9th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

James

Exactly, Forrester has some upcoming reports to show what does work –if corporate blogs dont

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on December 9th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

very interesting finds. I must admit I don’t trust company blogs when I think about it due to the sheer fakeness and robot like posts they put up to be neutral in party and the used car sales men pitch.

Posted by JustinSMV on December 9th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

Great info, now where’s the story on the companies that are taking advantage of the most trusted source – email from people you know?

Posted by Dave Kustin on December 10th, 2008 at 3:55 am

[...] “The Forrester report in the end is a little unsatisfactory. Trust has to be earned and some corporations are actively making the effort to do that. As a result, there are some corporate blogs that you trust more than others. To claim that corporate blogs are the least trustworthy information source on the planet seems unfair – and untrue in many cases. This is one instance where the stats don’t tell the full story, in our view.” The Blog Council responds with a list of the company blogs they consider trustworthy, while Bernoff’s fellow Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang thinks the data only confirms what we already knew: [...]

Posted by Research shocker: Consumers don't trust corporate blogs | socialmediainfluence.com on December 10th, 2008 at 4:38 am

I’ve observed this for quite some time now and have tried to tell pop marketers that they just weren’t gettin’ it, but of course, they took it as a slap in the face or attack, when in essence, that very attitude has much to do with why consumers don’t trust them to begin with!

Many of the pop bloggers/blogs address consumer topics, but, as you stated,they “fail to address the real conversation that’s happening in the marketplace.”

It’s not difficult to see that they are so wrapped up with fellow marketers, glam, attention, and cash flow, that it’s more like they are marketing to marketers, as opposed to their target market.

When faced with trials and tribulations, or are exposed for something they have done wrong, they formulate attacks against the reviewer instead of making ammends or displaying willingness to set the matter straight. I have been on the consumer end of that and they nearly took the shirt off of my back, when all that was required of them was an apology. It’s truly pathetic to think that they could care less about the readers who were viewing their childishness. Baffling.

They talk ethics, while showing these sorts of atrocities in plain view. Can they not see anything but each other?

I think they their strategies are more focused on gain than creating/building true relationships. They view followers as just that “followers” not the other way around.

They preach about their products, services, and comrades as if that’s what they sleep, dream, eat, and wear. When in actuality, consumers are left starving for transparency, realness, a human being behind the mask. Who can trust under those conditions?

If I need a product, why will I choose them? Is there more to their words of ethics, and wholesomness, than simply words? THAT’s what we search for in a corporation/business/supplier. Why should we settle for anything less? It makes them look horrible, because sadly, many ARE untrustworthy, greedy and horrible.

We are no longer consumers that will buy from the first smiley suit wearer who says “Trust me”.

We want and are nowadays demanding reasons to trust.

sidenote: If you’ve not read The Cluetrain Manifesto, you’re missing out. It’s free and it plain and simply details what we expect as consumers and people. http://www.cluetrain.com/book/index.html

We’re tired of being treated like objects or means. I don’t doubt that this is also why our new pres was elected. We want more than a raw deal.

Posted by Kimberly Bock on December 10th, 2008 at 5:58 am

[...] I’m going to play doctor, in fact, I’m a specialist: A corporate blog doctor. Most corporate blogs aren’t trusted, and here’s a very simple heuristic health check to gauge whether your corporate blog is [...]

Posted by Health Check: How Trusted Is Your Corporate Blog? on December 10th, 2008 at 8:05 am

Just goes to show that blogs are an easy publishing “tool” but require much more sophistication to execute as a credible marketing strategy. You’d think that message would have gotten across by now. But hey corporate culture changes at a glacial pace…

I tend to be more forgiving than Forrester of corporate blogs that don’t quite get it (i.e. they’re boring). At least they’re trying.

Posted by Debbie Weil on December 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Thanks Debbie, maybe this is an opportunity for more people to read your advice in your book.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on December 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

When i first heard this, I was not surprised nor I suspect were other people. I have heard countless times, digital marketers telling companies to start up blogs. But there has to be a good reason behind it, a sound strategy in place and you have to be adding something valuable to all the clutter that’s out there.

Posted by inspiredworlds on December 10th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

The whole report assumes that a blog is a one-way medium for announcements. It cements that view by asking “what do you trust”.

All of this ignores that a blog is about conversation more than it is about announcement. The best blog posts do not (just) proclaim, they ask a question, and their value lies in the ensuing conversation taking place in the comments.

The focus on “trust” belies either Forrester’s being stuck in the one-way communications past or the general population’s lack of understanding that a blog allows them to talk back.

Or both.

Posted by Tom Voirol on December 10th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

[...] a followup post about misuses of social media, Forrester announced a variety of stats about how many customers trust a company blog. It stated [...]

Posted by Uses of a company blog on December 10th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Also covered here with some other thoughts about the lack of trust on personal profiles on social networks vs personal emails.
http://socialmediocrity.com/2008/12/09/lack-of-trust-in-corporate-blogs/

Posted by Richard Ireland on December 11th, 2008 at 8:33 am

[...] me, the key problem is the quality of the blogs, rather than blogs as a category, as one blogger (web strategy by Jeremiah) put it: corporate blogs don’t live up to the dream of naked transparency as we saw from Robert [...]

Posted by Corporate social media scores low on trust: study - Corporate Engagement on December 11th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

However good a corporate blog is, it always start as a messaging system toward consumers, in the good old “broadcasting way”. Good corporate blogs indeed have managed to transform them into constructive conversations but the official blog will always be tainted, hence the mistrust by default.
A complementary way of engaging consumers and building trust is by allowing them to talk about what they can achieve with the brand/product/service in their own communities. This what Pampers just launched with http://www.pampers.com/en_US/home or what Yamaha music does, in a more flexible and cost effective way on http://www.yamahaeducation.co.uk/ using Webjam branded services http://www.webjam.com/branded_services

Posted by Yann Motte on December 12th, 2008 at 5:35 am

[...] his blog that indicated that only 16 percent of consumers trust what they read on corporate blogs (Consumers Say Your Corporate Blog is Not Trusted), I wanted to see the survey myself. I guess that I tend to trust surveys even less than it seems [...]

Posted by Trust, Skepticism, and Corporate Blogging -SEO by the Sea on December 12th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

[...] le même sujet : – Consumers Say Your Corporate Blog is Not Trusted – Make Your Corporate Blog Believable December 14th, 2008 in [...]

Posted by Linutop’s blog » Blog Archive » Blog pros : le syndrome de la rockstar on December 14th, 2008 at 2:36 am

[...] Read my comment directly-#30. Read his follow up. [...]

Posted by Ethics, Transparency, and Talk Is Cheap Around The Web on December 14th, 2008 at 7:28 am

[...] examine why Izea campaigns are likely to be successful Recent research shows that corporate blogs are not trusted, but we know that consumers trust their peers, so savvy brands will want to benefit from word of [...]

Posted by Understanding Izea’s Sponsored Blogging Service on December 14th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

I think most consumers don’t trust any blogs including corporate blogs……..I enjoyed reading your article

Posted by Michael on December 15th, 2008 at 6:28 pm

[...] Take a look at this graph below provided by Jeremiah. [...]

Posted by ChurchCrunch - The Intersection of Technology and the Church » Blog Archive » Don’t Drink the Church Blog Cool Aid on December 16th, 2008 at 8:54 am

[...] Forrester Research: [...]

Posted by Busting social media myths one by one | Online Marketing Banter on December 17th, 2008 at 5:20 am

[...] Jeremiah’s own blog, where he writes in support of the izea model: Recent research shows that corporate blogs are not trusted, but we know that consumers trust their peers, so savvy brands will want to benefit from word of [...]

Posted by The Challenge» » Riding every single wave on December 17th, 2008 at 8:03 am

Posted by Social Media News | Social Media Smack Talk on December 25th, 2008 at 12:31 am

[...] For those of you who got bamboozled into starting corporate blogs… well those are no different from ghost-written blogs. They also suffer from a lack of credibility, and are therefore a waste of effort. You need proof? Read an excellent article by Jeremiah Owyang (Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research) – Consumers Say Your Corporate Blog is Not Trusted. [...]

Posted by Just say NO to ghost blogging! | Ops gone wild - rants and raves from the startup trenches on December 28th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

[...] which is the company speaking directly with the market, learn more about the five objectives. Given that corporate blogs aren’t trusted –and people that you know are –this is the way to go for [...]

Posted by Walmart Turns the Corner with “Energizing” on January 13th, 2009 at 7:43 am

[...] Consumers say your corporate blog is not trusted et le remède Health check: how trusted is your corporate blog ? [...]

Posted by Deux études sur les blogs corporatifs on March 17th, 2009 at 1:46 pm