I went to my first Churchill club event tonight all about trust especially pertaining to Web 2.0. The panelists were very diverse including a renowned professor who wrote a book on influence and persuasion, Robert Cialdini; the chief privacy officer of Facebook, Chris who-should-deal-with-trust-of-Facebook-and-not-Facebook’s-attempt-to-deal-with-our-relationship-trust; a YPulse staffer, Anastasia; and a the CEO of Edelman, Richard. The moderator, Katie, writer at the New York Times, had the difficult job of integrating all of these POVs into one coherent discussion.
The panelists first chatted about their own approach to trust, whether it’s methods that advertisers use to get through their audiences or how tweens are blindly trusting their online presence too much to how Facebook is using the natural sociograph to develop an intuitive privacy policy. General conclusions are that business can keep the trust they already garner from customers but need to keep transparency alive and give a full view of themselves. Some comments, like Katie’s negative review from one web anonymous, are harmful, but it also gives a full view of her body of work. Robert mentions that advertisers use a small weakness, the word “but” and the biggest strength in order to convince consumers that their product has the authority and authenticity. It’s used so much and so inherent in our speech that Katie used that formula subconsciously.
In general, I felt like the cpo of Facebook kept directing attention to his own agenda instead of fully contributing to the discussion. Of course it could just be a latent sense of betrayal that FB sold out it’s comfortable safety net and loyal users for expansion and revenue. Richard Edelman seemed mildly bored, a bit snooty and condescending towards Robert, an academic. Anastasia had a great time talking about the new generation of netizens (do we even use that word anymore?), and Robert kept driving home the idea of “what should we do now?”
Some McKinsey tool summed up the night perfectly. To me, who is constantly emerged in the social media world and still knows 5% of what I really should know, the night didn’t deliver any huge revelations. But I’m glad that the corporate participants can probably gain a bit more from the Churchill Club event.
Networking was actually a lot of fun. It’s so insightful to talk to people from different industries, backgrounds and generations. I have to practice being more comfortable (working on ending the conversation in particular), but overall, I had a lot of fun. (Notice the formula? :o)).
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P.S. Yao Ming is out for the rest of the season? WTF? I wanted to see him during the Warrios v. Rockets game. The last time I saw him about three years ago against the Raptors, he was basically a clumpsy wall. Poor dribbling. Timid. Almost polite. I heard he’s gotten much better and was excited to see him in action. *sigh*
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