In the past year, research has revealed the negative health effects of social media and its negative impact on our society. Facebook has been heavily criticized for its laissez-fair handling of personal data, which has led to questionable privacy and data collection practices by social media networks and big data firms like Cambridge Analytica. A report from TRUSTe/National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) found that 92 percent of Americans worry about their privacy online while only 31 percent understand how companies share their personal information.
Consumers may have mostly ignored the details of privacy policies for years, but now that the negative consequences of those practices have hit people’s newsfeeds, consumer, investor and lawmaker confidence is eroding. The U.S. experienced the most extreme loss in trust ever measured from 2017 to 2018, according to Edelman Trust Barometer. Trust in U.S. institutions dropped from trusted (68) down to distrust (45). As a marketer what should you do?
Trust matters.
The Edelman Trust Barometer reports that 80 percent of U.S. consumers chose to buy from companies they trust, and 68 percent would recommend those companies. Yet, 63 percent would not buy from a company they don’t trust, and 58 percent would criticize those companies to friends and colleagues. A survey of food brands by Label Insight found that 94 percent of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a brand when it commits to full transparency, and 73 percent are willing to pay more for that transparency. As a marketer, you cannot afford to lose trust in your brand, and social media is a large contributor to brand trust.
Nobody likes a tradeoff.
Your customers don’t really want to trade information about themselves for better deals. Research by professors Joseph Turow, Michael Hennessy and Nora Draper found that marketers were incorrect in assuming that a majority of Americans give out information about themselves as a tradeoff for benefits they receive. The researchers found that marketers have been living under a trade off fallacy. Only 21 percent of Americans agreed that getting discounts, free services or better services for collecting online information is a fair tradeoff. In fact, 72 percent of Americans believe that what companies know about them from their behavior…
CEO & Managing Partner Trajectory Capital. Lifetime serial entrepreneur, CEO, Board Member, mentor, advisor and investor. Obsessed with the infinite realm of possibility in the disruptive innovation driving global digital transformation in tech, digital media & advertising, cloud-based infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and the blockchain.