Consumers believe content published on brand sites and apps is more trustworthy, accurate and credible than similar resources found on social media, a new study from the nonprofit trade association Digital Content Next has found.
The “Trust as a Proxy for Brand Value: Understand the Role of Trust in Digital Content Consumption” report suggests content saturation on social media is now negatively affecting brands as almost two thirds of consumers said the abundance of “random content” is making it increasingly difficult to ascertain whether an article is credible or not.
The report also noted a rise in “Social Skeptics”, a younger audience who are moving away from sites such as Facebook and Twitter in order to get higher quality content via blogs on corporate websites. Four in ten of this group now have a content subscription, which indicates a growing preference for premium, long form pieces.
“This research confirmed consumers lack trust in social platform content and that it’s spilling over into their perceptions of brand sites and apps,” Digital Content Next CEO, Jason Kint said. “While we don’t recommend that publishers walk away from the relationships they have with the platforms, we do recommend they urge the platforms to better utilize and protect trusted news and entertainment brands.”
Higher trust in brand sites is also buoying advertisers that appear on them, who gain a significant boost in trust compared to when they appear next to content on YouTube or other social media channels. The report concludes by urging brands to produce high quality content to nurture and increase trust as it can act as a key competitive differentiator.
