Monthly Inspiration – Preexisting Trust in PR (BPR Newletter 11-1)
The PR industry does not have a tangible product. It is a business of creating trust and helping clients gain trust for their own businesses. However, trust is a complicated and abstract concept. The process of turning the intangibles into the tangibles is both an art and a science.??
Dr. Brad Rawlins of Brigham Young University has a wonderful definition of trust: “Trust is one party’s willingness—shown by intention and behavior—to be vulnerable to another party based on confidence...that the other party is benevolent, reliable, competent, honest and open.”?
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Clearly, we cannot expect trust at first sight. Recently, I took a long and expensive online business class - which sounds like a stupid idea to me a year ago. But what changed? Why did I pay for it, even though I believed most of those courses were a little scammy???
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The real reason is because I started reading a blog a year ago. The author is in the medical field – not related to my current field at all. He writes more than 3000 characters every single day, while maintaining his business. It is hard to imagine the amount of energy he has put into maintaining both the blog and the business. His content is never an empty big-and-correct cliche, nor attention-seeking gossip. He speaks about the details of running his programs with real people and real examples. I learned a lot from his blog and felt grateful someone would write those insights. When he recommended a business course, I took it. Not surprisingly, this business course has been helpful to me, just like how his blog has been: I have avoided big investment losses and am able to shape my niche side business in the right direction. Therefore, the preexisting trust I have in this author has been well maintained. To establish the preexisting trust is also the very reason why he consistently writes the blog which connects more people in his industry.??
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PR professionals work to establish, maintain, and leverage trust on behalf of their clients or organizations. It also involves building and maintaining relationships with various stakeholders, including employees, customers, investors, and the community. The trust that exists beforehand can significantly impact the effectiveness of these relationships. Using PR and gaining trust is not to “manipulate” or deceive the audience. To maintain trust, credibility is crucial. We must consistently provide accurate and truthful information.??
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Having a preexisting reputation for transparency and honesty is also crucial when dealing with a crisis. If an organization is already known for being forthright, it can help manage a crisis with less damage to its reputation. I particularly like the way the WEF president Aimee’ Killeen puts it: we should consistently celebrate small successes and promote good news to the public, so that the public will have a better understanding of what’s going on when bad news happens. If we do honest work, promoting transparency can help us.??
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To dissect the dimensions of trust:??
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A high level of trust in all three dimensions is often associated with strong and enduring trust relationships. It is a valuable framework for evaluating and enhancing trust. The message is: we want to benefit the working partners, and we are capable of delivering the results in principled and low-risk manners. Organizations and individuals seeking to build and maintain trust should pay attention to these dimensions and actively work to establish credibility in each of them.?