From “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
Trust agents have established themselves as being non-sales-oriented, non-high-pressure marketers. Instead, they are digital natives using the Web to be genuine and to humanize their business. They’re interested in people (prospective customers, employees, colleagues, and more), and they have realized that these tools that enable more unique, robust communication also allow more business opportunities for everyone.
Who, exactly, are trust agents? They are the power users of the new tools of the Web, educated more by way of their own experiences and experiments than from the core of their professional experiences. They speak online technology fluently. They learn by trying, so they are bold in their efforts to try new on applications and devices. They recommend more, and more often, on social bookmarking applications than anyone else. They connect with more people than anyone else, and they know how to leave a good impression. As they do so, they build healthy, honest relationships. Trust agents use today’s Web tools to spread their influence faster, wider, and deeper than a typical company’s PR or marketing department might be capable of achieving, and with more genuine interest in people, too.
We need to become them – and to harness them.
As we delve more deeply into this topic, we intend for you to consider two things: (1) how to be genuine, real, and open with people while also (2) recognizing that if you can think strategically and understand certain principles, you can learn how to master tomorrow’s radios as well as trust agents do. You can bring the news to people. You can build influence, and benefit from the other currencies that such exchanges of trust deliver to you.