People trust organizations, whether companies, nonprofits, governments, etc., less and less.

Some of this may have to do with highly publicized disasters, like Enron, Tyco, very recently TJX, as well as a loss of the “job for life” or “career at company XYZ” concept for most of us. And there and many other factors worth discussing as well.

People do however trust people, at least people they know. Of course we don’t trust everyone, but we tend to trust people even if we don’t know them.

Last winter in Central Siberia while quizzically looking at the beer selection in a local store, a friendly native pointed out his favorites which I bought without hesitation. I didn’t know him or his taste in beer, but I instantly trusted him (and the beer was pretty good too - thanks Siberian dude with the massive fur hat).

People project there personality through there blogs, at least if they’re doing it write. Your readers get to know you. As they get to know you, they trust you.

If you are blogging and connected to a company, whether an “official” blogger or not, you add a face to a relatively faceless company, a personality to that impersonal company, and most of all, trust.

Quick Quiz: Who was the most influential person at Microsoft last year?
Bill Gates? Maybe, but I’d vote for Uber-blogger and all around good guy Robert Scoble

Although Robert moved on (yes, blogging can help you get a dream job), during his Microsoft days he arguably had more influence than Gates: thousands of people read about what he thought on Microsoft and technology, the good, the bad, and the ugly, several times a day.

He WAS the face of Microsoft, at a time when Microsoft desperately needed a human face!

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