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Who do you trust?

Yesterday, Forrester's Josh Bernoff published a chart (shown below) ranking various product information sources based on the amount of trust people place in those sources.  Like many other 'trust barometer' type studies, Forrester found that, when considering products and services, people trust other people just like them -- their friends and acquaintances, for example -- most of all, while even online reviews by regular consumers (in other words, reviews by strangers) fare pretty well.  But, for me, those aren't the most interesting bits.  The part I find most interesting is that bloggers' opinions rank dead last, with 30% of respondents reporting that they trust product reviews by bloggers.

So here's my question, because I honestly don't know and Josh doesn't address the point in his post -- should we read this as:

  • 'only 30% of people trust bloggers' reviews' (in which case, it kinda makes you question how much effort social media marketers should put into blogger outreach) or should we interpret it as;
  • 'a full 30% -- almost one-third -- of people are influenced by the opinions of bloggers' (in which case, you'd be wise to invest in outreach.)

Groundswell_trust

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