Can digital reputation help build trust for institutions during times of uncertainty?
Going by the results of the Philippine Trust Index (PTI) 2017, a proprietary research undertaken by the EON Group, there seems to be a strong connection.
According to the PTI 2017, Filipinos are professing greater trust than ever in Philippine society’s key institutions, including the government, business, and the Church —a direct contradiction to countries elsewhere around the world where a crisis of trust has led to distrust for institutions.
These results, alongside the findings of EON’s Groundswell social listening tool, underscore a very important lesson: The role of one’s digital reputation in building trust.
PTI 2017 highlights
First, let’s look at the results of the PTI 2017.
For the fourth straight year, the Church remained the most trusted institution, with a trust level of 93 percent.
Filipinos’ trust in almost all key institutions continued to rise, with business (75), the government (80), academe (93), and NGOs (59) logging their highest trust levels.
Two institutions stand out for posting the biggest jumps in their trust levels. First is the government, with stupendous increase of 30 percentage points (PP), far higher than the trust ratings of media and NGOs.
Among government sub-institutions, the Office of the President commanded the highest trust level of 82, with 39 saying they have extreme trust for the office.
This is consistent with President Duterte’s very high satisfaction ratings in all surveys.
The second top gainer is the business sector, with a noteworthy 20 PP jump. Business sectors that had the highest trust levels are health services, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, energy and power, and telecommunications.
Understanding trust drivers
The PTI had other interesting findings on how social media affects people’s perception of institutions. Those who do not use social media, for instance, trust institutions by 4 PPs more than those who are online. Also, residents of rural areas tend to be more trusting of institutions than those who hail from urban areas.
Groundswell discoveries
Last year, EON used Groundswell, its proprietary and award-winning social media listening tool, to tune in on online chatter for a one-month duration to find out how Filipinos talk about trust in the six institutions, and to see whether the sentiments expressed by Filipinos online actually reflect the on-the-ground realities that we would uncover with our national survey.
The findings of Groundswell and the PTI support each other. We discovered three things:
First, we found that just as the government is the greatest gainer of Filipino trust this year, it is also the most discussed on social media, and compared to other institutions, it had the smallest share of negative mentions.
Even on the level of sub-institutions, there were parallelisms: the Office of the President (OP) and the Office of the Vice President were the most mentioned sub-institutions, and mirroring the trust levels in their respective offices, the OP also garnered the most positive posts while the latter had the biggest share of negative sentiments expressed online.
Second, we found that out of all the issues covered by the different trust drivers of the six institutions, peace and security were the most discussed online, and not only was it discussed in relation to the government, but to the church and to the media too.
Finally, we found that the majority of online conversations about both the church and the media focused on government-related topics, and these were also from where the negative sentiments stemmed.
At least on social media, trust in institutions and sub-institutions seem to be tied to how the President feels about them.
Whenever he criticizes an organization, institution or personality, negative sentiments toward them also rise online.
We recognize that social media conversations tend to paint a more critical picture of public sentiments. This is often less the fault of institutions or organizations and more the general behavior of people on social media.
Just the same, institutions would do well to take control of and improve on their digital reputation as this just as well might be what tips the scales of trust in their organization, especially in this time of great uncertainty.
Insights on trust-building
These results underscore three important lessons about trust building.
First, trust is built through repeated and regular interactions. People can only truly trust what they know and understand—and this is something that social media can do.
People will also trust those organizations that they interact with the most, underlining the need for institutions to engage meaningfully with their stakeholders, by using tools accessible to them, such as digital platforms and social media.
Second, good communication is important. People need stories and information that they can understand and relate to, using a language they understand and a medium that is accessible to them. That necessarily includes the responsible use of social media.
Third, institutions need to take charge of online conversations surrounding their brand.
Without a doubt, traditional media is important in building credibility and reaching a wider audience, but this year’s PTI discovered that Filipinos online actually trust social media more than media as an institution.
This clearly means that it is critical for organizations to engage stakeholders using digital communications and pay attention to building their digital reputations responsibly.
Having said that, let us not allow digital reputations to blind us to reality. At the same time, let us remember that trust ratings are not proof that we do well and do good; they only mean we are perceived to do so. These perceptions are not always the same as reality.
We should also remember that trust is not an end in itself. It is not enough to build trust using social media, nor will it suffice to build trust for a single brand, organization, institution or prominent personality.
What is needed is greater trust in each other—trust that is built through inclusive, respectful and meaningful interactions.
As members of our own organizations, communities or institutions, we all have a responsibility to use our trust and influence in upholding truth for good, and yes, that involves the responsible use of social media.