Book Review: Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

I’ve been catching up on reading over the holidays and finally finished Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. I’ve been reading the book off and on since fall, and I’m glad that I’ve taken my time with it, as a lot of its lessons are ones that should percolate awhile, to get the full benefit.

If you’re wondering about the mindset that made Brogan and Smith—two social media veterans—so successful doing business over the Web, then Trust Agents delivers on its promise to explain the thought process behind what they do. In addition to describing the six basic principles of being a trust agent, the book includes “actionable information, supported by research, strategies, and studies” (p. xii)—all presented in an anecdotal yet intellectual style, that’s both enjoyable and enlightening to read.

So, what’s a Trust Agent?

In the opening chapter on trust, social capital, and media, the authors define people “who humanize the Web” (p. 20), as trust agents (p. 20).

Trust agents have established themselves as being non-sales-oriented, non-high-pressure marketers. Instead they are digital natives using the Web to be genuine and to humanize their business. They’re interested in people (prospective customers, employees, colleagues, and more), and they have realized that these tools that enable more unique, robust communication also allow more business opportunities for everyone (p. 15).

Further, these digital natives are comfortable with a new level of transparency, on the Web:

They operate under the assumption that everything they do will eventually be known online. Realizing they are unable to hide anything, they choose not to try. Instead, they leverage the way the Web connects us and ties our information together to help turn transparency into an asset for doing business (p. 9).

According to the authors, those who understand how to build relationships on the Web, also know how to make business happen both on- and off-line, as an extension of their social capital:

When people come together and share a meal [or in this case, interests or goals on the Web], they not only end up fed, they also become tighter as a group. The mere act of gathering means that they will exchange things—stories, favors, and laughs—and will grow richer as a result. It may sound touchey feely, but these things have real value. And we don’t just mean that they keep you warm on a cold winter night, either, we mean they have real value, as in “you can take it to the bank” value (p. 22).

In this view, “online social networks (like the Facebooks and Twitters of our time)” are media, “not because they help us communicate, but because they extend human relationships” (p. 18).

Trust Agent Principles

The book is organized according to the six basic characteristics/actions of trust agents:

• Make Your Own Game: My favorite chapter, it provides examples of and strategies for “gatejumping”—what happens when you find a better way to do things, while everyone else is too busy to notice (p. 35). It describes three methods of gamesmanship, including playing, hacking, and programming, where the business objective is to “understand the systems, learn the rules, and then determine whether we want to hack the existing systems or create completely new ones” (p. 66).
• One of Us: Comparing the trust we reserve for those off-line,  Brogan and Smith suggest that “trust on the Web is more highly impacted by what other people say.” “…a lot of trust on the Web is established by groups, through a sense of belonging—in other words, by being One of Us” (p. 80).
• Archimedes Effect: “The Archimedes Effect is about leverage [on the Web]: putting in a certain amount of effort and getting a greater result than our normal human effort would give” (p. 115). This chapter shows “how the whole Web is one gigantic lever, and you can use it to accomplish pretty much anything more easily than before” (p. 139). 
• Agent Zero:  This chapter observes that “…no matter where they go, trust agents have a desire to connect good people together. We refer to this as being Agent Zero; being in the center of a network and being able to spread ideas” (p. 142).
• Human Artist: This chapter describes how essential people skills are to business. It provides tips on learning the etiquette of circumstances and understanding how to interact with people. It calls customer service, “the new PR,” and an area where trust agents “can crush your competitors and create great press for you” (p. 198). 
• Build an Army: This chapter explains that “leaders aren’t simply those who are best at doing their jobs; they are best at helping others to grow and gathering those people’s skills to their command when necessary” (p. 240).

The book concludes with a summary chapter “The Trust Agent,” which interweaves the various characteristics/actions discussed previously and shows how these principles tie back to your career, in immediate and actionable ways. It  describes how frames and perspective matter in business and how the trust agent “analyzes things with a particular strategy and end result in mind” (p. 243).  To this end, it advises starting small, providing six games you can begin making for yourself today.

Recommendation

This book really made me think a lot. That’s about the highest praise you can give a book, and why it’s such a provocative read. As I considered the six principles of trust agents, I was constantly playing devil’s advocate, in the sense that though I want to be on board, I intuitively know, as even the authors themselves observe in the concluding chapter, that in some settings, trust agent moves would be dismissed, as too amateurish or unquantifiable.

In other settings, I suspect the views expressed, and the implied loss of control they require, would be deemed outright heresy. Would a Robert Scoble approach really work for me, and most “regular” worker bees? 

The successful example of Frank Eliason, from Comcast Cares notwithstanding, I still ask myself how likely a trust agent is to flourish, from within. Is this a book only for those consultant/entrepreneurial types, already operating outside the system? or as Brogan and Smith consider in the concluding chapter, for small businesses who “would love a piece of the action that big businesses won’t touch” (p. 256)?    

And yet the proof is in the pudding. Brogan and Smith offer example after additional example, where trust agent principles have worked, not least of all in their own businesses. And to that end, they have written a wonderfully generous book, reflecting on their cumulative experiences on the Web, and making their lessons easily accessible to us, as the helpful mentors they consistently show us to be, at their respective blogs (Chris Brogan’s Blog and Julien Smith’s Blog). 

And so, we’re left to consider—is the Golden Rule the key to business success on the Web? and by the end of the book, as the authors seem to imply, in all relationships? Brogan and Smith think so:

…if you were to retain one piece of information, one tip, about the social side of trust, it should be this: You need to be liked, and you start becoming likeable by being worthy of being liked. Be kind. Be patient. Be humble, on time, and generous. Be that person you would like to be friends with. Likeability and the related trait, intimacy, is one of the biggest factors in trust, and it’s one of the easiest to develop with people online (p. 247).

Unfettered idealism? or the deepest pragmatism? Is helping others, for the right reasons, also one of the most effective ways to help yourself? Is it possible to do both, simultaneously, and remain genuine? You decide. 

Make no mistake about it, Trust Agents is a revolutionary book, showcasing how the Web helps create democracy, “in the ability for all of us to produce and distribute our materials” (p. 223).

In the same universe that has created Perez Hilton, you have the chance to succeed because you can circumvent the gatekeepers. People vote with their interest, with their attention, with their trust (p. 223).

In good democratic-style, the book’s conclusion challenges us to complete the next chapter, and answer for ourselves, the many implied questions that Trust Agents so powerfully raises. Read the book. Then go write your own chapter.

Related Links

• On Making Your Own Game: A Parable 
• Bringing Trust Agents and Six Pixels to You
• Inbound Marketing Summit Live, hosted by Awareness, Inc.