It's About Authenticity

Sport Illustrated writer Luke Winn just wrote one of my favorite articles of the Winter Olympics titled "Ain't not party like a gold medal party" about the celebration of the Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey Team. In light of the controversy created by what Winn called the "latest moronic piece of news," he writes an article about the "most authentically cool celebration [he's] seen at the games".

The IOC falls into a bucket of people that do not understand the forces behind the progressive maturation of our culture. Social technologies have made us all more transparent and honest in the way we communicate and act. We see more and more salutes to people in positions of power who lighten up and communicate openly and honestly rather than behind the veil of scripted, well rehearsed, politically correct rhetoric (as with Arnold's video tweet).

This isn't surprising to those of us that actively follow trends and research in today's communications. We try and help businesses understand research showing us:

• 75% of people don't believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements (Yankelovich)

• Consumers trust friends above experts when it comes to product recommendations (65% trust friends, 27% trust experts, 8% trust celebrities). (Yankelovich)

• 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know (EConsultancy);

These trends are telling people that there is low trust in traditional communications, the way we've scripted and shaped and delivered messaging. This is not just related to advertising, but to media and communications in general. People report their own news on blogs now and turn to each other for product and service recommendations.

Maggie Hendricks from Yahoo reported on Jon Montgomery's "needless apology", telling Jon and the rest of us that we don't always have to listen to our PR people. Luckily, Jon showed us all including the Olympic women's team that people want to see us be ourselves because we relate. Until I saw the girls celebrate, Jon's victory walk was my favorite moment of the games.

For those out there that remind us that this issue is about under age drinking and smoking bylaws, I'll submit that last week's story about Alexa Gonzalez showed us that 'zero tolerance means zero intelligence'. As Winn reminds us of how much we appreciate authenticity, perhaps the IOC can show us that they recognize the spirit of our athletes and the work they have put into their victory.

But as a more general theme about our changing communication, we feel that people want truth not spin. We want positive, not negative. We want to celebrate achievement rather then harp on disappointment. We want understanding, not judgement. And most of all, we want authenticity. Way to go girls - luv ya!

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How can you build trust and why is it important

The following is a good bit of content that Michael Charles wrote for our 'about' page on Mashedin.com. I'm publishing it here because I think it does a good job of explaining why trust is important. For more on this topic, see this post by Greg Ferenstein.

so, what exactly is this mashedin thing all about?

It's about creating a sense of trust among people who've never met.

In the offline world, when we're introduced to someone, we quickly discover mutual connections that allow us to make judgments about the trustworthiness of the new acquaintance. So you used to work at WidgetCorp? Do you know Jane Schlumpford?

We've created a way to replicate that experience online. Whether you're displaying the MashedIn widget on your website or blog, or just linking to your MashedIn profile on outgoing emails, now you can show strangers how they're connected to you through the social networks you already use. Maybe they're not strangers after all.

how will this help me build my online reputation?

MashedIn really becomes potent when you add the ability for visitors to leave recommendations that can be viewed by other visitors.

People no longer trust testimonials published by website owners rather than by fellow users. Why should we believe that "Bob from Arizona" is a real person? Wouldn't you rather be endorsed by someone whose authenticity can be confirmed by checking their Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn profile?

MashedIn makes it easy to gather recommendations from your existing customers and contacts - simply by sending them a link to your widget and asking for their kind words. Your MashedIn widget can be placed on multiple sites so recommendations can be gathered wherever you have a presence. All of your recommendations will be displayed everywhere your widget appears.

is this really the best way to build trust online?

We've got some evidence to back us up:

• "90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users." (Econsultancy, July 2009)
• "Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases, according to ZenithOptimedia." (AdAge, April 2008)
• "Consumers trust friends above experts when it comes to product recommendations (65% trust friends, 27% trust experts, 8% trust celebrities)." (Yankelovich)
• "67% of shoppers spend more online after recommendations from online community of friends."(Internet Retailer, September 2009)
• "Customer reviews are the most effective social tactic for driving sales, followed by question-and-answer features and a Facebook fan page where companies post information." (Etailing survey of 117 companies, September 2009)
• "Some 70% of Americans say they consult product reviews or consumer ratings before making a purchase, according to an October 2008 survey by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, a research and consulting firm." (Business Week, October 2009)
• "The Trust in Advertising survey of 26,000+ found that Consumer Recommendations are the most credible form of advertising." ("Social Media Marketing: The Right Strategy for Tough Economic Times", Awareness, 2008)
• "56% of UK website owners say that user-generated content lifts conversion levels; 77% say it increases traffic; and 42% say it increases the average spend on site. (eConsultancy survey of 360 website owners across all sectors, November 2008)
• "84% of marketers agree that building customer trust will become marketing's primary objective."(1to1 Media survey of the 1to1 Xchange panel, April 2008)

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What are the odds we're connected?

I've had a lot of people trying out MashedIn after our official release last Thursday. Most of them fill have a ton of common connections because I know them so the shared connections box fills up. But one assumption we are going on right now is that if a local small business, a business professional or a local contractor finds one or 2 common connections with a new visitor to their website or profile, it's a huge success. Is that a good assumption? How many connections is it necessary to show?

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A New Way to See Common Connections

Any of our current MashedIn beta users will notice that we have now included Linkedin as a widget option. This means that widget owners will be able to add Facebook, Twitter and now Linkedin to let visitors to see common connections. If you are already using a widget, the linkedin option will now be visible to your visitors. Give it a whirl and let us know of any bugs you see happening.

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One Great Way 'Friending' More People Can Help Your Business

Today more and more businesses are listening to the popular advice that they must use social media to market their business. Over 700,000 small and medium businesses have created fan pages. While following the trend to jump on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and join the blogging world, many business owners struggle to see concrete results that these activities bring.

Many small business owners are consumed with running their business operations and so time spent on other activities is precious. To actively build community online and engage social media, the appropriate time must be put in. As a small business owner, have you ever felt that it's a bother to reach out and connect to everyone you know on this social network and that social network? If you are a business owner who has yet to really dive into social networking because the returns are unclear, here's a reason to do so now.

It's common sales knowledge that if you have a mutual acquaintance or contact, that connection increases that chance you'll be able to generate a transaction. Traditionally, it's been hard to explore common interests or connections with traffic or leads that you source online. Well follow along: The average Facebook user has 130 connections according to Facebook statistics. Imagine that you're a go getter however and you go out there and hook up 200 people on your account (this isn't unrealistic at all). That creates a 26,000 possibles ways that you could share a connection with someone you don't know.

Now imagine that you also join LinkedIn. The average Linkedin user is estimated to have about 61 connections. Say you go out there and hook up with an above average 100 business professionals. Some experts find that there is about a 30% overlap in Linkedin and Facebook connections. Let's take 30% off both numbers so that you have 42.7 connections for the average user that do not overlap with Facebook; and we'll assume you connect with 70 people that do not overlap with your Facebook conections. You have 2989 possible chances of being connected to another Linkedin user.

Combine Facebook and Linkedin and you have 28,989 ways you could be connected to someone that's on linkedin and Facebook. I don't have Twitter stats handy so let's use the number we have for our purposes here but you can imagine how Twitter starts to add to this.

MashedIn.com has created a simple tool that you can mount on your website, blog or link to in email communications. It allows visitors to your website or people reading your email to see if they are connected to you in Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. On average, we see there could be 28,989 ways that someone could be connected to you. The chances that someone is connected to you increases as you add Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections. What you have is like a warm introduction to someone who is otherwise anonymous or rather, they have a warm introduction to you.

The Web2.0 movement brought transparency to the web. People who used to just read content now contribute content. Consumers of media have become publishers of media and as more people publish their experiences - conversations, organizations, businesses are all more transparent. Social connections provide context. The more transparency, context and information people have, the more trust we can build with them. MashedIn is one small tool that can help you build a little piece of trust with people that do not yet know you.

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