media update’s David Jenkin looks at what this increasing demand for transparency means for communicators.

Trust in crisis

“As we think about trust, 2016 was really unimaginable,” said Jordan Rittenberry, managing director of Edelman South Africa, opening his presentation at the Marketing Indaba in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 24 May. He was speaking on findings from Edelman’s Trust Barometer with focus on how South Africa fits into the global picture.

“We saw a number of countries rejecting their established government and voting in opposition governments,” he continued, “As was the case with Brexit and Trump as well. We see businesses rocked by scandal after scandal – exploding cell phones, exploding Fords, a number of which saw executives indicted on charges. And when it comes to media, we saw the rise of fake news, which is a new phenomenon, recently created and receiving more and more traction.”

Edelman has compiled its Trust Barometer annually for the last 17 years, and the most recent survey drew on 33 000 respondents in 28 countries.

“Globally, we’re saying that trust is in crisis because this is the first time in 17 years that trust has declined across all four institutions that we study,” said Rittenberry, referring to government, media, NGOs, and business. South Africans, he said, faired a little better than the global average on some scores, such as trust in NGOs, which remained largely flat while declining elsewhere. Trust in government in South Africa, however, has effectively bottomed-out.

Communicators under pressure

Some of the biggest changes in Edelman’s findings were in media, now distrusted in 82% of the countries surveyed and at an all-time low in 17 countries, dropping by significant amounts.  

“Individuals are more likely to believe search engines and algorithms than human editors, due to perceived bias, as it might not be someone they agree with,” said Rittenberry. Social media, meanwhile, has become the least trusted source of information, with fake news overshadowing the citizen journalist. Official sources of information, however, are considered suspect as well, with leaked information trusted over press releases.

A trustworthy message

This means that those in the business of communicating, using age-old methods, cannot assume their messages are still resonating in the way they intend. Extra care is warranted to ensure the message is regarded as credible.

Consistency is vital, says Samantha Watt, owner of GinjaNinja PR. “You need to commit and invest in building your brand and customer relationships,” she says. “People are far more savvy today and will not react well to a half-hearted attempt to appear trustworthy or customer-centric.”

In PR particularly, consistency wins all the time, she says. “Communicate with your audiences on a regular basis, ensure they have a holistic view of who the company is, what the brand stands for, and the expertise and personalities within it,” she says.

She also advises having an integrated and cohesive communications plan in place, which speaks directly to a business plan that centres on the customer and how best to engage and meet the customer’s needs. “PR alone cannot be held responsible for the reputation and trust of a client,” she says.

“It must be said that in today’s more cynical times, PR is the outright tool of choice, but it has to be part of a bigger strategy and be implemented on a consistent manner. And if you have no PR strategy in place, get one, because you simply can’t do without it anymore,” she concludes.

‘Radical transparency’ was how Rittenberry described the necessary approach to communications. He stressed that any communication must not feel as though it were written by an attorney, rather it must feel spontaneous and genuine in the way people ordinarily speak, via the channels they use.

He said that the blueprint for communicating need not be complicated, but should aim to deliver what consumers are looking for – evidence of integrity, ethics, and honesty.

Winning trust through action

Some of the things businesses can do to improve trust, as outlined by Rittenberry, include offering high-quality goods and services, treating employees well, being responsible when it comes to a crisis, listening to customers and giving feedback. CSI programmes are also an important way for a business to show that it cares.

He especially encouraged businesses to think about how they engage with their staff. “In terms of spokespeople, employees are very important brand ambassadors,” he said, “They are the most trusted source of information, not only when it comes to treatment of employees, but also when it comes to earnings, operational performance, crisis handling, and even innovation.”

He listed five actions that quickly lose the trust of South African consumers in particular – paying bribes to government, overcharging for products and services that people need to live, paying executives hundreds of times more than workers, retrenching staff, and lowering product quality.

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Interested in the issues surrounding trust in today’s society? Read more in our article, As technology changes the world, the world will want trust.