Interesting study that tells us that you trust someone you know online vs. well known A-List influencers from a post in Micro Persuasion titled Trust in Peers Trumps the "A-List," Study Finds
"..people who engage in social networks and communities put far more trust in friends and family who are online than in popular bloggers, or strangers with 10,000 MySpace "friends." Nearly 80% said they were very or somewhat more likely to consider buying products recommended by real-world friends and family, while only 23% reported being very or somewhat likely to consider a product pushed by "well-known bloggers."
This new batch of data largely backs up what my employer's Edelman Trust Barometer found earlier this year. Some 58% of opinion elites 35-64 in 18 countries said they trust "a person like me." Meanwhile, only 14% trust bloggers - a figure that has largely remained flat since 2006. (See chart below from our latest study.)
That goes with my own belief that people will stick with the known tried and true over something else they don't know as well - for better or worse.
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