Most of what I read about social media is geared to audiences that either need to be converted or need to convert others, and who potentially have budgets in the tens of thousands to spend on social media. However, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith is the first social media book that I found helpful for newbies as well as active users, no matter what size the budget.
I’m going to gloss over all the “here are more reasons why you can no longer ignore social media,” and focus on items that are more tactical or a unique way of looking at social media.
One has to appreciate a social media book that opens with a totally non-techie intro. In this case, the authors use a story about an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the mob to paint a compelling picture about how it takes time and patience to build a reputation as a trust agent. I thought this was a great point because I could just see non-social-media-savvy managers mandating their marketing departments to start being “trust agents.” Much like a marketing department can’t make a viral video because it’s the public that decides what goes viral, it’s also the public that decides who is a “trust agent.”
So, what is a trust agent?
The definition of a trust agent: “digital natives using the web to be genuine and to humanize their business.” Need more than that? Here’s another definition from the book:
Trust agents build networks almost reflexively by being helpful, by promoting the good work that others do, by sharing even their best stuff without hesitation, and by finding ways to deliver even more value on top of all that without asking for anything in return. Instead of sucking up to the big guys . . . trust agents reach out to the up-and-comers.
The 6 Characteristics of Trust Agents:
- Make your own game (i.e., stand out by being different).
- One of us (you are not above your market; you are part of your market).
- The Archimedes effect (it’s all about the leverage).
- Agent Zero (start your networks before you do actual business).
- Human artist (learning the soft skills).
- Build an army (you can’t do it alone).
What’s so great about writing stuff on the internet?
“Writing everything online, where it’s eternally visible to everyone, forever, has value.” I totally agree with this for two reasons:
- Just the other day, someone stumbled (http://www.stumbleupon.com) upon an old blog post of mine and put it in the feminism category. It’s led to a steady stream of traffic to our DWC Women’s Dish blog.
- Brogan and Smith also point out that if someone asks a question, you could answer it by e-mail OR you could post your answer on the blog and help not just that one person but many others who may be Googling the same issue. I’ve found that you also help yourself when you do this because it saves you from responding to the same question over and over again–you can just direct people to your blog.
Jumping gates and playing games
I liked the section on gatejumpers, but if I were to totally gush over everything, then who would take me seriously? One minor flaw of the book, which isn’t necessarily a flaw–as it could possibly be an entirely separate book–is that sometimes the authors will drop names of gamechangers such as Perez Hilton, but not talk about the actual steps they took to become gamechangers.
There is a good example of how Timothy Ferriss used the term “lifestyle design” to jump his gate. He used this term instead of work/life balance and time management. Note to self: Come up with a new term for “women’s business group that helps do-it-yourselfers do it themselves.” I’m open to suggestions!
To be a gatejumper, “figure out who the gatekeepers are, then decide which rules you can break to make yourself a gatejumper.”
I also liked the section on viewing the world as a game because games have concrete goals and simple ways to measure what’s working and what’s not. The focus is on beating the system, not other people. “Once you have the system figured out, ask yourself which rules can be ignored, changed, modified.” I thought this is a great section for all women to read, because too often we are still playing the “good girl” role and not taking enough calculated risks. Social media is about putting yourself out there . . . and women are such great communicators, we should be all over this new medium.
Social Media and Trust
Social media is about selling the same thing as everyone else–only differently.
Social media can be about tinkering–it’s a great way to test new things without too much expense.
But make sure your connectors still work. This brief section resonated hugely with me. If you are going to be a gatejumper and start doing things differently, you have to still be able to plug back into a market where everyone may still be doing things the traditional way. This was a bit of my problem with the Downtown Women’s Club. We moved online a bit prematurely for our core audience. This meant we spent a year marketing something that our core audience (thirty- and fortysomething businesswomen) didn’t know or care about. We finally figured this out and have continued to market along a dual track. Ironically, more recently, our focus on our digital offerings and virtual teleclasses has brought us a whole new audience–boomer women. While there were many organizations geared to senior women who wanted to network in person, there weren’t many that focused on teaching them social media and other online networking skills.
I noted that this section was followed by one about the importance of moving first! LOL– it’s all about moving early but staying connected to the status quo.
“Despite all the changes on the web, the basis of trust is still the same; it’s the signals that have changed. Having credibility is a major factor, but credibility is established through what other people think.” One of the best tidbits was the one on pages 83 and 84, which talks about signals of trust on the web: from design to longevity to what you have on your “About” page (I had identical thoughts about “why the about page is the most important page of your website”).
The Business Value of Friends
Brogan and Smith hit on something that those of us who use social media get and non-users don’t. “These ‘friends’ we’re discussing aren’t the ‘move your couch’ friends. They’re people you know online, and you value their opinion and respect the relationship.”
- Becoming friends means that we’ve accepted your network connection. It means we’re at least curious about who you are.
- Consider “friends” to mean that you can pay attention to what we’re doing and try to find a conversational entry point.
- Marketing to a new friend will almost always result in unfriending–and possibly an angry blog post.
- It’s simple: This is like saying hi at a party to someone you don’t exactly know. It’s a good start, but what you stay next is probably more important.
- Reveal little things, naturally, without making them a focal point, and people will develop a more complete view of you as a person and respect you more for it.
I also thought the example of GM’s two social media marketing examples was noteworthy: asking people to make videos for them to use in their marketing backfired (environmentalists were all over it with negative videos); but asking people to share their passions about their GM cars was successful.
It’s Not Too Late to Start
Six games you could have made and still can:
- Write a content marketing blog about a passion of yours.
- Build a small, powerful network.
- Become the name brand of a specialty.
- Master leverage and use it for good.
- Sell by generating human trust.
- Make an army to power your change.
I actually thought the ending hid the most illuminating statement:
All this humanizing is normal; in fact, the only reason we think that it’s crazy is because most of us were born in the brief period where mass media was the only game in town. But, remember, that’s only been the case for a few decades; for the rest of the time, people have communicated mostly with other people in small groups.
I agree with this statement wholeheartedly, especially as I see a rise in network marketing (in a good way) and small businesses.
Top shelf bottom line: Trust Agents is a must read for both the social media novice AND the more experienced user, no matter what size the business or level of social media expertise. It’s also an easy and fun book because of the conversational voice and the pop culture references.
P.S. I’m headed to the Inbound Marketing Summit on Oct. 7 and 8 in Foxborough, Mass. (although only for Oct. 7). If you’re going, please try to find me and say hi! If you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for? Visit: http://city.inboundmarketingsummit.com/boston/.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “How to Be a Trust Agent by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith”
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September 29th, 2009 at 11:47 am
[...] about Perez Hilton as of September 29, 2009 How to Be a Trust Agent by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith – topshelf.entrepreneur.com 09/29/2009 Most of what I read about social media is geared to [...]
September 30th, 2009 at 3:37 am
This is a very good article. Trust agent is a great term. It falls in line with the new mindset of attraction marketing. Attraction marketing is simplistically an approach used to attract others to you and your business by giving value and solving problems. I’ve seen marketers talk about it, but very few practice it. A true trust agent can stand out in the Internet jungle by solving others problems.
Thanks,
John Holcombe