Digital Digest: Earning and Maintaining Trust

Digital Digest: What Edelman Canada is reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy. Fresh links served up Fridays.

“There’s trust that the product will be excellent, and then there’s trust in the company,” said Jim Godfrey, Vice President, Public Affairs EMEA, Starbucks, in a recent interview with Edelman (Starbucks is a client). Trust is now an essential line of business that grants companies their license to operate and insulates against reputational damage according to the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer (the 2012 findings are due in the New Year). But in a challenging economy many companies can feel pressure to focus on pumping out their core product in the most cost efficient way possible, jettisoning the good behaviours and responsible practices that are fundamental to earning and maintaining that license to operate.

But companies must deliver on their promises to customers by getting the core products and experiences right “in times of economic sunshine or rain,” said Godfrey. That’s why this week’s edition of Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest looks at six ways to build trust, or forfeit it, from the respect you show your stakeholders, to how you safeguard your customers’ data, to how you comply with regulation.

Case Study: Dealing with teens on social media

Politicians and brands should treat teens on social media like adults, even if they don’t always behave like them, according to this Fast Company article. When Emma Sullivan, a Kansas teenager, tweeted her state’s governor to tell him he “sucked” the governor’s office and her school demanded she write an apology. But that only encouraged Sullivan to dig in her heels and refuse to apologize on free speech grounds, and by getting involved the governor’s office let a tweet to 65 followers make international news (Sullivan now has 11,000).

Fast Company: Dealing with teens on social media

Three ways to cultivate reporter relationships on Twitter

Twitter may not be replacing the email or phone pitch with 140 characters any time soon, but the micro-blogging platform is popular among journalists and can help PR professionals “build relationships with reporters and call attention to that source they need right now for a story.” Read these three great tips on managing reporter relationships through social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn (an Edelman client).

PR Daily: How to cultivate reporter relationships on Twitter

Case Study: Tumblr Fashion Director Out After Conflicts With Brands, Agencies

Tumblr, a blogging platform fast-rising in popularity, took a reputational hit recently when it emerged that they had backed out of an event agreement with a “highly known fashion retailer” at the last minute, in favour of another brand that fashion director Rich Tong preferred to work with. Tong has since been dismissed from the company, but will that be enough to restore agencies’ trust in the startup, which sees marketing partnerships as a way to start bringing in the revenue it badly needs.

Mashable: Tumblr Fashion Director Out After Conflicts With Brands, Agencies

Keeping Your Social-Media Marketing Legal

Blogging and tweeting about social media became a bit more complicated in 2009 when the Federal Trade Commission, an American regulatory body, issued new guidelines on the use of testimonials and endorsements in social media. Many organizations are finding their social media programs are getting caught up in legal; and those without proper legal oversight are seeing penalties of up to $250,000. Fortunately a New York startup, CMP.LY, aims to provide “solutions to automate compliance and keep brands on the right side of the regulations.” Similar services like DisclzMe, which helps brands and individuals disclose material connections online, are appearing online as well. (DisclzMe is run by Edelman Canada’s Rob Clark, who has a material connection in the success of his service).

Ad Age: Keeping Your Social Media Marketing Legal

Facebook settles with FTC over privacy claims

Facebook, perennially under fire for bungling the privacy of its users, recently settled with the FTC (see above) on charges that its privacy policies were “unfair and deceptive, and violated federal law.” The settlement will see the world’s largest social network open up for independent privacy audits every two years for the next 20 years, and will force the company to obtain consent from users before making any further changes to its privacy settings. Complaints about Facebook are almost as ubiquitous as the social network itself; so can this settlement restore the public’s faith that Facebook is being responsible with their personal data?

The Guardian: Facebook settles with FTC over privacy claims

Case Study: Could Facebook give away your brand page to a competitor?

Sibling rivalry runs deep. Two pharmaceutical companies, Merck KGaA and Merck (the second is and Edelman client), are locked in a battle with Facebook over the rights to www.facebook.com/merck. Merck KGaG, which is based in Germany, claims it entered into an agreement with Facebook in 2010 for the exclusive rights to www.facebook.com/merck, which is now in use by its American rival. Both companies stem from the same firm, set up in Germany in 1668 and divided in two as part of the reparations package imposed on Germany following World War I.

BBC News: Could Facebook give away your brand page to a competitor?