This morning Edelman launched its 11th Trust Barometer report in association with the Financial Times, charting media-savvy consumers’ trust in businesses, NGOs, governments and media.

Globally, trust increases in all institutions, though the findings show the UK as one of the most sceptical nations in terms of how they view all these groups except charities. In fact, media trust is at an all time low of just 22%, down nine points from last year. Yet this dramatically contradicts the discovery that in the UK, following Google as the number one place people will go to find out news about a business, come traditional online news sources (BBC at number two, then the FT, Times and then The Guardian). Perhaps people say they don’t trust the media, but by default have nowhere else to look? Or perhaps things aren’t bad as they seem?

What might be even more interesting to the Reputation Online audience is the change in which factors influence corporate reputation. As before, high quality products or services are the first thing people look for, but now, transparent and honest business practices are at second place and in third, ‘company I can trust’ scores 65%. The latter two issues are now perceived to be more important than fair pricing, innovation and even communicating frequently. Of course you could argue that in order to truly build a solid reputation, all of these things need to be considered, but the emphasis placed on being open is something many PR professionals have been talking about for years – and now the research reflects this.

Edelman’s barometer suggests that trust protects reputation, and the link between two is made crystal clear when you consider that 57% of respondents said that if a business was distrusted, they would believe negative information about that company after hearing it only 1-2 times – and only 15% believing something positive. If a business is already trusted however, the reverse is true, with 51% being more likely to take something good about the brand on board after hearing it 1-2 times, and 25% trusting negative information.

The final aspect of the study that seems poignant is the rebalancing of trust in the chief executive. In 2009, the CEO only 31% said that they’d find that person a credible source, while people said they would trust their peers 47% of the time. This year, the two swap places with 50% of people choosing to believe the official voice of a company and only 43% opting for peer recommendation. That said, an academic or expert remains the most trusted source, with analysts and technical experts within a company close behind.

Tags: business, CEO, digital, edelman, financial times, media, trust baromter