A report published by Forrester Research and discussed in ReadWriteWeb indicates that company blogs are the least trusted sources of information among U.S. adults.

When asked ‘how much do you trust the following information sources?’ just 16 percent of the respondents to Forrester’s survey said they trusted company blogs. At the other end of the spectrum, 77 percent of people said they trusted email from people they knew.

What else is trusted or not trusted? Here’s the list:

• Email from people you know: 77 percent
• Consumer product ratings / reviews: 60 percent
• Portals / search engines: 50 percent
• Yellow Pages (offline): 48 percent
• Print newspapers: 46 percent
• Social networking site profiles from people you know: 43 percent
• Print magazines: 39 percent
• Radio: 39 percent
• Online content (e.g. news) sites: 39 percent
• Television: 38 percent
• Wikis: 33 percent
• Email from a company or brand: 28 percent
• Direct mail: 25 percent
• Message board posts: 21 percent
• Online classifieds: 20 percent
• Personal blog: 18 percent
• Social networking site profiles from a company or brand: 18 percent
• Company blog: 16 percent

I find these results fascinating. Among other things, the results indicate very clearly that the more you can become an individual (rather than a company or brand) your prospects ‘know’, the more likely they will trust you.

Source: Richard MacManus, “Report: Corporate Blogs Not Trusted”, December 10, 2008

One of my favourite direct response marketing companies to watch and learn from is Agora, Inc.

Agora, Inc. publishes a bunch of financial, travel, wellness and all sorts of other newsletters and publications. One you might recognize is Early To Rise. It’s also renowned for its command of direct response marketing.

But did you know that its flagship business is “Gazeta Wyborcza”, the largest and most profitable Polish daily newspaper, and that Agora is also a public company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange?

Confused? Well, if we’re supposed to believe the profile of Agora, Inc. given on ZoomInfo.com, Agora, Inc. has annual revenues of $143.9 million, employs 500 staff, is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, has a website at http://www.agorafinancial.com… and is also known as ‘Agora SA’. Agora SA is:

“one of the biggest and most recognized media companies in Poland and in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 1999 its shares are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the GDRs are traded on the London Stock Exchange.”

Either there’s more to Agora, Inc. than we’ve been led to believe… or ZoomInfo has totally lost the plot! It appears to have combined information about two entirely different companies – Agora, Inc. and Agora SA into one profile. Which leads me to ask: can we really trust ZoomInfo to deliver accurate information about companies and people?

Now, ZoomInfo allows companies to ‘claim’ their profiles and update these with accurate information. So, presumably, Agora, Inc. can simply claim its profile and make sure it’s accurate. But, why is it up to Agora, Inc. - or any other company - to create an account in order to correct blatantly wrong information that has been made public?

Of course, that’s not to say ZoomInfo is the only - or even major -culprit. I mean, how many companies and people have inaccurate profiles floating around on the Interne… and how much of this is assumed to be true? I think we all know the answer…

Source: ZoomInfo.com, Do a company search on ‘Agora, Inc.’

According to eMarketer, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) members – namely the main movie studios in the U.S. - spent $754 million on online advertising in 2007. By 2012 they are expected to spend a whopping $2.4 billion.

The online channel represented approximately 5 percent of all film advertising in 2007. eMarketer expects this percentage to rise to 13.2 percent by 2012.

A lot of online promotion for a given film involves creating profiles in the major social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, creating a YouTube channel, developing a dedicated website, and investing in a plethora of other promotional initiatives.

Source: eMarketer, “How Movies Are Moving Online”, eMarketer, September 10, 2008

In an effort to attract new readers and boost advertising revenues, BusinessWeek magazine plans to introduce Business Exchange, a site that could best be described as BusinessWeek meets Wikipedia meets Facebook.

Business Exchange will feature hundreds - ultimately thousands - of topic pages, on subjects as broad as the housing market and as narrow as the Boeing 787. These will include articles on BusinessWeek, articles published by other publications and also user-contributed content.

Users will be able to post new material to a topic page, or even create a new page, choosing the subject and the title, and write a brief introductory description.

The site will also be a social network, where users will be able to create their own profiles, build networks with other BusinessWeek readers, and share reading, posting habits and interests with friends.

Source: Richard Perez-Pena, “Topic Pages to Be Hub of New BusinessWeek Site”, The New York Times, August 18, 2008