So, the newest discovery in advertising/marketing today appears to be the trust factor? Yep, it is new. You may think you've heard about trust before, but no, you haven't. At least not in the way that some social media experts would like to make you feel you haven't.

While it may be true that your words can spread quicker and that you have the ability to interact with people on a grander scale, getting people to trust you is not a new concept. While the issue of trust could go back to the dawn of time, I'll share my experience with trust as it relates to part of my "business" past.

Back in the 90's I had the opportunity to consult with a dot-com start-up that was heavily funded by a venture capital firm.  We were all about bringing CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to the world. CRM was the big buzz word of its day, similar to social media of today. Everyone thought they needed it. Everyone thought they should sell it. Everyone thought it was the newest and best thing for business.

To sell our way of doing CRM, we developed a philosophy based on a principle called KET.

Knowledge + Experience = Trust

To me, this wasn't a tough concept. It just was something that was put down on paper and talked about like it was the newest thing since sliced bread. It goes something like this: In order to do business with someone or a company, you must first have knowledge that they exist. Once you have that knowledge, you need to have an experience or multiple experiences (depending on the company). After having successful experiences, you start to build trust in the product, person or company. Once trust has been established, it becomes much easier to conduct business and, in theory, to do more business.

So, was this a new theory in the 90's? NO. Is it today? NO. Since the era of cavemen, dinosaurs, big bang, Adam & Eve (whatever you believe), you can bet people went about life in this very same way. You wouldn't walk up to a stranger and say "hi, let me tell you my deepest secrets" much like you wouldn't expect someone who doesn't know you to suddenly believe everything you say about your product or service. (Well, some of you might, but you might need counseling. See my "Narcissist post" from a few days ago.)

So here are my thoughts. Stop using old language to say something is new. It's not, but it still is something good. Use the KET principle (or whatever you want to call it), to describe how important trust is in every relationship, be it business or personal. Show that it still works today like it did when people first began buying cars from Mr. Ford. Just because we're quicker today, doesn't mean trust has changed.