This approach to earned media and brand accreditation has worked relatively flawlessly to date, because the press has been viewed as a highly reputable, unbiased source of information. But in recent years, we have witnessed the credibility of the news media (especially in the U.S.) plummet and hover at all-time lows, periodically, as more Americans have grown skeptical that the press is always objective.
The result? A rise of other independent news sources like podcasts, blogs and social media, which have further fragmented American news sources — and made it even more important for brands to know where their target audiences are actually consuming news.
It’s important to note here that a heightened distrust in the media, if it persists, could eventually become problematic for businesses that once relied on piggybacking off the credibility of top-tier press to build their own brands’ credibility, if Americans no longer agree on what media outlets are reliable.
So what now?
It’s time for businesses to take matters into their own hands by taking a grassroots approach to building rapport with key audiences — and integrate it into their PR.
Below are five tips for how business owners can build brand credibility in this rapidly evolving media landscape — including what they need to do to build trust among consumers, who are more skeptical than ever and constantly questioning brand authenticity.
Five Steps to Building Brand Trust
1. Do what you say before you say what you do.
This can be boiled down to ensuring you “walk the walk” before you “talk the talk” — a principle that can be applied to any brand or individual. This means refocusing your goals and actions on earning trust based on who you are as a company or as a person versus who you pretend to be or how you wish to be perceived. Ultimately, it’s about making sure your storytelling and “storydoing” are one and the same across all channels.
In practice, this primarily means “showing not telling” — as with any great storytelling — through substantiating claims with case studies, data, proof points, research and real-life examples.
2. Be authentic.
As previously noted, brand authenticity has taken center stage when it comes to what consumers value. If a brand fails to be truly “authentic” in what it stands for and what it’s willing to hang its hat on, it runs the risk of losing once-loyal customers or alienating new ones. People are becoming increasingly aware of businesses and leaders that are only in it for themselves versus those that are there to serve others.
It boils down to this: Authentic storytelling means your brand can be heavily scrutinized and not found wanting. This gives the market trust in your brand.
This may require a strategy session among your brand’s key stakeholders, to clearly align on the company’s core values and what the brand represents. Once those are defined and agreed upon, it becomes easier to stay on message.
3. Be consistent.
A brand also needs to be consistent to be trusted. This means everything it does, says or supports all stem from the same place — and that brands do not just support trending socio-political issues simply to appear socially conscious and on-trend. This is another topic I’ve written about for Newsweek Expert Forum. Brands should never jump in to support a cause that is inconsistent with their past stances, because then they run the risk of looking opportunistic and inauthentic. In other words, before you pick any hills to die on, make sure you show that you climbed those hills all the way from the bottom and have been on that journey consistently, for a long time.
4. Regularly self-audit.
This plays into the prior three steps of the trust-building process. As a company leader who is focused on building your brand’s credibility and earning consumer trust in your products and services, it’s important to keep an eye on the company’s overall public image. This includes frequent media monitoring and brand health checks to see how you rank among the competition and what potential customers really think about your offerings. This could also pertain to employee reviews (current and former) and how your company is rated on sites like Glassdoor and Indeed.
This self-auditing process is one that could be done monthly, quarterly or even annually to better understand your brand’s position in the industry and what improvements can be made.
5. Acknowledge any lapses from the brand mission and readjust.
There may be times during the self-auditing process when you realize your company has veered off course and is no longer staying true, authentic or consistent with what it historically wanted to represent. That’s okay! It happens. The best thing you can do as a company leader is acknowledge it happened and come up with a plan to get things back on track or collectively decide to pivot altogether.
Depending on the severity of the situation and how far off your brand has diverged from its original mission and goals, you may consider hiring a reputable PR agency that can assist with any immediate crisis communications. The most important thing is to bring all key stakeholders to the table and align on key messaging around how you plan to move forward and regain trust.
These steps toward building trust are by no means the only ways to go about it, but hopefully they will help lay the foundation for what can be done internally versus relying solely on third-party validation from the media.
