Trust Agents, 10th Edition

8The Trust Agent

Art, Business, the Web, and Humans

This is an amazing and unique time. Attention is scarce. The established leaders in many business segments have toppled or are on the ropes. The Internet has leveled the distribution playing field for media, merchandise, communication, and many other areas. It's at once scary and ideal—ideal because this is where trust agents excel.

The web and new media give you the opportunity to reveal the human side of your business. Consumers can carry on conversations with brands like the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Whole Foods, Home Depot, or even Hardees foods via the web and its social networks. Not in the past 50 years or more has the balance of business interaction and communication been as favorable to smaller, more personal interactions as it is right now. Yes, some larger corporations continue to grind on and pay no attention to the little people, but that's not the norm.

Where will this take us? We've shared with you six lessons to help you navigate this space. Do you need to be a trust agent to do business in the modern world? Of course not. Many people will do their jobs without thinking about any of this. Most of those jobs exist inside cubicles, with little in the way of entrepreneurial thought required and with a strong sense that someone else is steering the ship.

We think you're different. Maybe you have the notion that you are capable of doing things better, that you have it in you to master these new radios. ...