You pretty much guessed that trust for government among Americans fell precipitously in 2017 and is at an all-time low, right?
I am also thinking that you will have no problem holding onto your hat when you hear that trust in the media fell last year.
But did you realize that trust in businesses and NGOs fell at a faster rate than that for the media? I didn’t think so!
There’s a treasure trove of insights and data in the 2018 Trust Barometer, a report published annually by the world’s largest PR company, Edelman, since 2001.
You can download your own copy of the report here.
The implications for businesses and NGOs undertaking risk assessments and issues management planning for the year ahead is that your safety net is flimsier than ever.
Should you face a real crisis threatening your business and reputation, you are less likely than ever to get the benefit of the doubt from the US general public.
The report’s findings suggest that the public are likely to think the worst of you right from the first accusation. They’ll believe that you were guilty of carelessness with that data, creating a toxic work culture, cheating customers, mishandling food or whatever the topic happens to be.
You are operating from a trust deficit before you’ve had the opportunity to make a statement!
By the way, the loss of trust in the media is only worsening the lack of confidence in companies and brands. Globally 42% of respondents said they did not know which companies or brands to trust as a direct consequence of the media not doing its job properly.
The media (the term covers social and search, as well as more traditional journalistic outlets) is now the least trusted institution in the world, lower even than government.
Yikes!
What this also means is you can no longer rely on positive media coverage about your company to be the escape route from the looming crisis. People are going to need more than that discredited source of information to form a positive opinion of you.
Who would the public trust to speak up on your behalf in a crisis?
In fact, trust in ‘voices of authority’ largely went up in 2017. The top six being:
- Technical expert
- Academic expert
- A person like yourself
- Financial industry analyst
- Successful entrepreneur
- Employee
If you’ve not updated your crisis plan in the past two years, now is the time to do so.
And understanding how you will build relationships and potential advocacy from these ‘voices of authority’ must be an integral element in your preparedness.
There is nothing in the 2018 Trust Barometer that suggests that the catastrophic loss of trust in US institutions is a temporary phenomenon.
