Trust is a gray area to measure using quantitative metrics. Measuring an idea as\u00a0subjective\u00a0and nuanced as trust is difficult because you can never escape the simple fact that trust is relative. Someone may have a personal blog with only 20 readers, but those 20 readers soak in every word and trust the author deeply, taking any calls to action suggested and studying each word carefully. That person may be more trusted by their small, but loyal following than far more popular bloggers with greater numbers.<\/p>\n
In a previous post defining\u00a0the real value of your network, I touched on the point that raw numbers are irrelevant, what matters is if your network is activated, connected and determined \u2013 all indications of strong trust.<\/p>\n
Hopefully we\u2019re all on board with the fact that popularity is not trust. This of course begs the question, is it possible to put trust into an objective measurement?<\/p>\n
The web loves to measure popularity and influence, and does so via several number-driven methods and tools including (but not limited to):<\/p>\n
What these numbers measure is popularity and arguably authority, but not trust.<\/p>\n
Steve Rubel wrote previously that\u00a0PageRank is the ultimate measure of online influence. Steve is smart, you\u2019ll note if you scan the page the word trust is not used a single time. He\u2019s well aware influence is not trust, however what he does mention is authority.<\/p>\n
We need some solid definitions if we\u2019re going to move forward with this and talk semantics, which is worthwhile as all three of these words are thrown around frequently without much thought (I\u2019m guilty of it too, which is why I\u2019d like to draw a delineation between them). Disclaimer:\u00a0 these are my interpretations, yours may vary:<\/p>\n
Influence<\/strong>\u00a0is the power of someone to be a compelling force on the actions of others.\u00a0Robert Scoble\u00a0is an influential person in getting us to try out new web services because he gets so jazzed about them we just have to try them out.<\/p>\n Trust<\/strong>\u00a0is reliance on the integrity in someone (essentially confidence). If you stop and think about it, we trust each other a great deal in the social web.\u00a0 Consider something as simple as all the shortened URLs you click each day, we trust our networks won\u2019t send us a spam link.<\/p>\n Authority<\/strong>\u00a0is power or right delegated, given or in the case of the web earned.\u00a0\u00a0Lawrence Lessig, a law professor who has written several books and works hard as an advocate of free culture on the web is an authority on copyright (amongst other things).<\/p>\n With these definitions in mind\u2026<\/p>\n And now to answer a quick reader question\u2026<\/p>\n Katie Harris, director of qualitative research at\u00a0Zebra Research\u00a0recently\u00a0asked:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n How do you choose who to listen to\/not listen to?<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n She asked this on Twitter, to which\u00a0I replied\u00a0I needed more space to define. Now that we\u2019ve flushed out the background, I\u2019m able to answer her question more succinctly:\u00a0 I listen to those who have earned my trust.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trust is a gray area to measure using quantitative metrics. Measuring an idea as\u00a0subjective\u00a0and nuanced as trust is difficult because … <\/p>\n\n
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