Are You a Real Expert or Do You Just Play One on the Internet?

There’s a lot of advice being given out these days.

People are publishing pointers, tips, and suggestions on every topic under the sun.

But how valid are the viewpoints expressed therein? Is the everyman author as credible as we seem to be giving him credit for?

Data suggests that what our “friends” are saying online is no longer as valuable to us as it once was.

From Steve Rubel, on findings from Edelman’s Trust Barometer:

“… over the last several years there’s been a decline in trust in “a person like myself.” It’s down four percent in the last 12 months. Some 47% said they trust this group, which is down from 68% in 2006 .

Second, the Trust Barometer revealed rising confidence in credentialed experts (70%, an increase of 8%). This is a trend that began last year. In addition, for the first time we looked at the credibility of technical specialists inside a company. Trust in this group is off the charts (64%).”

In this chorus of voices online – a chorus that grows every year – people are increasingly straining their ears to single out the one with perfect pitch. People, it turns out, want to hear what the expert has to say.

Can the Brand be the Expert?

How can organizations take advantage of this trend toward consumers wanting expert advice? By empowering their internal experts and recruiting subject-matter experts to provide content on their behalf.

Instead of marketing to consumers via traditional channels, smart brands are using expert content to answer their questions directly, with a “brought to you by _____” approach.

In a recent piece for the New York Times, David Carr cites several examples of forward-thinking brands who are already tapping into the “brands as publisher/brands as subject-matter experts” approach.

• Best Buy recently launched a content site focused on content surrounding the products they sell.
• Net-A-Porter, an online luxury fashion retailer creates content alongside product that has an audience that dwarfs rivals InStyle.com and the Harper’s Bazaar website.

Smart organizations are bypassing the traditional publisher as the middleman and going straight to the consumer with high-quality, expert content.

People are used to tolerating advertising to get the content they need. But the branded content model removes the interruptions and just serves up the content directly.

Sure, the backdrop is their branding but people don’t seem to mind. They got the answers they wanted along with a newfound respect for the brand that clearly knows what they’re talking about.

If your organization provides the expert answer to a consumer question they might just thank you with their business.

[image: loop_oh]