Trust is a funny word.  It can mean many things depending on the context.  Do you trust your manager?  Do you trust your manager to honor the promotion he/she promised?  Do you trust your manager with your children?  Do you trust your manager to NOT be an axe murderer?  Context, can change our opinions on trust.

Trust

Conversations about trust have been going on for a long time, especially in the context of brands, products, companies, and of course people.  Lately, trust and another word, credibility, are being used somewhat interchangeably.  Can you trust someone that isn’t credible?  Is someone credible trustworthy?

This got me thinking and more importantly prodded me to act.  A few weeks back I created a survey on PollDaddy.com’s platform that asked a simple question.

Please rank the following expertise, occupations, and/or roles from most “TRUSTWORTHY” to least “TRUSTWORTHY.”

Respondents were given the following options: Firefighter, Car Salesman, Lawyer, Social Media Marketer, Politician, Realtor, Police Officer, and Doctor. I’ve left the survey open, so feel free to view it live.

I found the results somewhat surprising.

Let’s break it down:

1. Fire Fighters and Doctors are VERY trustworthy.
2. Car Salesmen, Politicians, and Realtors are NOT very trustworthy
3. People tend to lean toward trusting police officers, but it’s not a slam dunk
4. Lawyers are for the most part in the middle, but people are leaning towards not trusting them
5. The most polarizing category was the social media marketer.  Roughly 50% of people have them in the middle.

I expected fire fighters and doctors to be at the top of the list. I also expected care salesmen and politicians to be at the bottom. However, I didn’t anticipate seeing so many people on the fence about social media marketers. Frankly, I find them to be the least trustworthy of all the people.

If you’ve read Malcom Gladwell’s book, “Outliers” or read an article about it, you’re probably familiar with the 10,000 hour concept. Gladwell’s data suggests that people who are EXPERTS have spent 10,000 honing their craft. I’m not sure the number is 10,000 hours, but the concept is something I can buy into.

That said, if we take Gladwell’s data to be true it would take someone approximately 5 years to be an expert at social media marketing. So if we have “experts” today, that would mean someone would have been practicing social media marketing since 2004. Folks, for all intents and purposes that’s impossible.

The concept of social media marketing is roughly 2 years old. Most of the tools and platforms, like Facebook, weren’t even around in 2004. So how, can you be an expert? Well, if we use Galdwell’s 10,000 hour mark and we look at 2007 as the birth of social media, an expert would have to be a 13 hour a day, 7 day a week, 365 days a year practitioner. Again, impossible.

I’m no on the fence about social media marketers.  I think there are some very smart people working in the space.  But, today, I don’t see too many pretenders claiming to be experts.  Don’t believe me?  Look at this search result from Twello.  Scary, isn’t it.

Frankly, a warning sign to me in any space is someone who calls them-self an expert.  Real experts don’t do it, because after all they let their credibility and accomplishments demonstrate how much of an expert they really are.

You’ve seen the data.  You’ve seen the results.  You’re a smart person.  What do you think?  Who do you trust?  Do you trust me?