Odd Couple: Trust and Social Media.

Last week I attended a fascinating event in Manhattan called “The Trust Summit Breakfast”.  It featured two pairs of authors who collaborated on two business books on the topic of Trust.  Specifically: Charles H Green and David Maister, co-authors of The Trusted Advisor (with Rob Galford). And Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, co-authors of Trust Agents.  Both are considered must-read books.  I plan to read them carefully and share my thoughts about them in the near future.  The program was well moderated by Robin Carey of Social Media Today.

I’ll start by pointing you to many other summaries of this event.  It was quite well attended (I’m guessing about 300 people showed up).  Here are blogs that I have found so far (let me know if you run across others):

• Amanda Rykoff: http://amandarykoff.posterous.com/trust-trust-baby-vanilla-ice-chris-brogan-and
• Fred Abramson: http://nylawblog.com/2009/10/review-of-chris-brogans-trust-summit-be-a-priest-and-build-a-church/
• Andrew Marshall: http://home.thinkprimed.com/archives/418
• Nazli Ekim: http://prbrew.com/?p=172
• Katy Zack: http://articulatepr.blogs.com/weblog/2009/10/talking-bout-a-trust-evolution.html

and of course…

• Charles H. Green; one of the speakers: http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters

The event started with ample time to meet people and network (the verb).  My friend Stewart Hirsch commented that it seemed like a wedding since some people said that they came to see Chris Brogan, and other said they came to see Charlie Green.  I noticed that the amount of grey hair was a pretty accurate indicator of which.  Brogan and Smith are well known in the youthful Social Media world.  Green and Maister are well known in the world of CEOs, especially among professional services folks.

The initial part of event featured the four speakers — each giving a few minute set of thoughts that positioned themselves in the arena of trust.  Here is what they had to say (25 min):

And then there was ample time for audience questions (yes, I was one of the people who asked a question).  Here is the 75 min Q&A:

The event concluded and people resumed their networking activities — with many racing to greet their speaker of choice.

It was a fascinating event for many reasons, and I’d like to share some thoughts about it.  I may be inclined to blog a bit more on this topic in the near future too.  (Let me know, are you interested in the topic of Trust and Social Media?)

Brogan was eloquent and spoke about the way in which we need to reconnect marketing to sales.  Meaning — that you measure business by sales.  So marketing is effective when sales are increased.  Social Media provides a new marketing channel — and we use it for business purposes, not just because we want to use it.  That said, Social Media opens a new opportunity to engage in transparency and by doing so, improve trust.  Smith echoed this sentiment in his words too, emphasizing that Social Media marketing is still rather experimental and we have lots to learn in the process.

Green started off with his thoughts on how business schools (such as Harvard Business School) teach us the mantra of competition, but not of cooperation.  And this erodes trust in the world of business, resulting in unhealthy and unproductive markets and crises.  Green noted that 1. he is an HBS graduate 2. we were assembled at the Harvard Club, and 3. that his challenge is not solely directed to HBS, but that they are a great example of the problem.  Maister echoed the point, emphasizing that business have to focus on their real purpose –that is to provide some value to society.

The conversations were heady and intellectual and many were punctuated by some great stories.  Seriously take some time and listen to the clips above — yes, it’s long but there’s nothing good on TV anyway.  I left learning a lot, both from what I heard from the speakers and also from the types of questions that people asked.  And I now have two must-read books that I must-read.  But I also found the event lacking in some areas of coherence.  So I’m going to put on my critical “analyst-glasses” and ask the questions I have learned yield good insight:  Who was the intended audience?  Why is it about this moment in time that makes this conversation important or different?  What happens now that this event took place?  What motivated people to come?  What motivated the organizers to make this event happen?  What unique contribution did each panelist bring that justified them to speak?  Did the panelist all agree with everything their co-panelists said (I hope not; that would be boring.)?

I asked a question about a topic that really bothered me.  The social media folks tell us that transparency creates trust.  Julian Smith noted that in the future everything will be out there, revealed, connected.  Today I noticed this bit on CNN – Privacy is dead.  But there is another side of the story too.  I trust that my pharmacist, accountant, and lawyer do not practice transparency with my private information.  In the olden days (of which the speakers hearkened) you trust someone who does not disclose secrets.  Chris Brogan picked up on my question and answered very well:  Telling the world that you just had a meeting with a prospective client that you name and you hope you land the deal — that’s a bad tweet.  It erodes trust and risks your relationships.  So Trust plays at a balance between transparency (as the social media folks correctly note) and privacy (as we all know).  We trust people who get that balance.  We distrust people who are totally transparent, and those who are totally secretive.  We trust people with good sense.

The issues of trusted relationships and socially mediated conversations are actually rather complex. I think the event touched about them, and sparked thoughts with those who participated.  But it left me wanting more.  Near the end I struggled not knowing what the next action was.  The closing message finally helped me understand.  Charles Green explained that this was really a big “thank you” event that allowed the speakers to give recognition to each other and to give to the audience.  In that sense — it was a smashing success.

Tagged as: blogging, book, collaboration, conference, event, knowledge management, leadership, marketing, social media, trust