Can You Measure Trust?
Last week, Britt left a comment on one of my LinkedIn posts that completely derailed my afternoon.
She asked:
"As AI makes it easier for everyone to create content, what signals do you think buyers are using now to distinguish a genuinely trusted voice from someone who's simply good at personal branding?"
I sat with that question for nearly five hours before I replied. Not because I didn't have an answer. Because I realized I had the wrong question.
That comment eventually became last week's blog, You Can't Fake Trust Anymore.
In it, I argued that AI didn't create a content problem. It exposed a trust problem. And I ended with a question that I couldn't stop thinking about: Maybe it's time we started measuring trust. But how? The funny thing is... I thought I was ending the conversation. Instead, I think that's where it actually started. Because since publishing that article, one question has continued to come up in conversations, messages, and in my own head:
Can you actually measure trust?
I've been thinking about it ever since. And the more I think about it, the more I believe we've been asking the wrong question. Maybe trust isn't something we measure. Maybe it is just something we recognize.
Trust Leaves Fingerprints
I've realized that trust itself isn't measurable. At least not in the traditional marketing sense.
There isn't a dashboard that tells you your Trust Score increased 17% this quarter. You can't open HubSpot or Salesforce and filter by "High Trust Prospects."
But trust leaves fingerprints. It changes behavior. And behavior can absolutely be observed. Think about the last time you genuinely trusted someone in business.
Maybe you introduced them to a customer.
Maybe you shared one of their articles with your team.
Maybe you quoted them during a strategy meeting.
Maybe you bought from them without evaluating three other vendors.
Those aren't random actions. Those are behaviors created by trust.
We've Been Measuring Activity
Marketing has become incredibly good at measuring activity.
Website visitors
Content downloads
Demo requests
Email clicks
Engagement rates
Influenced pipeline
Those numbers matter.
But they mostly tell us what people did. They don't tell us why they did it. That's the piece I think we've been missing.
Someone downloading your ebook doesn't necessarily mean they trust you. Someone recommending your company to a colleague?
That's different. Someone introducing you to their boss? Even more different. Every introduction costs someone a little bit of their own credibility. People don't spend social capital carelessly. When they recommend you, they're putting their own reputation on the line.
That's trust.
Attribution Doesn't Tell the Whole Story
Think about your own buying behavior.
When was the last time you bought something because of a single LinkedIn post? Probably never.
But maybe you've been following someone for a year. You've listened to their podcast while driving to work. You've watched them answer difficult questions. You've seen how they respond when someone disagrees with them. You've heard other people mention their name.
Then one day, you have a problem they can solve. You don't start from Google. You start with them. That's not attribution. That's accumulated trust. Most CRMs only see the last interaction. Trust was built in all the moments that came before it.
The Trust Signals I'm Starting to Notice
Lately, I've been paying attention to different things.
Not because they're perfect metrics.
Because they tell me something dashboards can't.
Are people coming back?
Are they bringing someone with them?
Are prospects referencing conversations we had months ago?
Are people challenging your ideas instead of just agreeing with them?
Are customers introducing you before I introduce myself?
Has someone said, "I've been following your work for a while"?
None of those fit neatly into a quarterly marketing report.
But every one of them tells me something about trust.
Maybe This Is Why Community Matters So Much
The more I think about it, the more I realize this is probably why I've built so much of my career around community.
ambush on air
Partner Supper Club
Mentorship
Speaking
Coffee meetings
Conversation in the lobby
Chats that turn into a dinner discussion
A partner bringing a customer to your booth without you asking
None of those were designed because they scale beautifully.
They were designed because relationships create something content alone can't. Familiarity. Credibility. Confidence. Trust. Maybe that's why I've always believed community is the new revenue funnel. Not because community replaces sales. Because trust changes how sales happen.
I'm Still Thinking This Through
I don't have a framework. Yet. Honestly, I hope I don't rush into creating one. Some ideas deserve to be explored before they're packaged into a keynote slide or a five-step model. But I do think we're entering a different era of marketing. One where attention becomes easier to buy. Content becomes easier to create but STAYS HUMAN.
And trust becomes the only thing that's genuinely difficult to earn. Maybe the goal isn't to measure trust directly. Maybe it's to get better at recognizing the behaviors that only trust can create.
I don't know if that's the answer. But I think it's a better question. And if you've got thoughts, theories, or examples you've seen in your own business...
Call me.
Beep me if you want to reach me.
I'm genuinely curious.
Party on.
