Steve Olenski, in his article “Is Your Brand Trust Worthy?” pointed out that the issue of trust or lack thereof can stem from the actions of a given brand’s CEO as it pertains to social media.

A CEO survey conducted by BRANDfog revealed that:

• Consumers are more likely to trust a company whose CEO and leadership team openly communicate via social media about their core mission, values and purpose
• Consumers are more likely to buy from a company whose values and leadership are clearly defined through CEO and executive leadership participation on social media

The above shown the ever-growing importance and need for the senior management to use social media as a means to engage its customers and earn their trust in the process. Think of how Barak Obama uses social media!

Another study done by MediaBrix  revealed that digital, social and mobile advertising appearing as content can be damaging to brand trust. From the survey:

• 86% of US internet users had been misled by videos that appeared to be content but turned out to be sponsored ads
• 57% of those who had seen them in the past 12 months found Facebook sponsored stories misleading
• 45% of those who had seen them in the past 12 months found Twitter promoted tweets misleading

Advertising that appear to be content can misled consumers and negatively impacted their perception of the brand being advertised.  So DO NOT try to trick or mislead the consumer by hiding under the veil of content marketing.

Indeed, brands’ online content is just as important as their online presence and usually negative comments spread faster than positive word-of-mouth. Hence, marketers have to be extra cautious when navigating the Internet terrain.