The Future of Digital Marketing (Trust, Part 1)

The future surely holds many changes for digital marketing that are impossible to predict.

However, one thing is clear- people are losing trust in the internet.

There have been a number of recent scandals that have caused people to lose trust in the Internet.

1. Search engines have been manipulating what information we see

Google, the most popular search engine, was the subject of 2 recent news stories-

• Trump accused Google of rigging search results against him.
• Internal Google emails revealed staffers brainstormed manipulating search results to combat Trump’s travel ban.

For a better understanding of the impact of search results on politics, here is a general research paper that deals with the subject-

Search and Politics: The Uses and Impacts of Search in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United States

2. Search engines and social media data breaches or voluntarily sharing data with 3rd parties

Examples Include:

• The information of millions of Facebook users was used improperly for political purposes. Read about the key moments from Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress.

• Unreported Google data exposure affects hundreds of thousands. See the full story here.

As a result of all these scandals, trust will continue to become a more important issue. Therefore, companies need to prioritize trust building factors. This includes branding and verifiable good recommendations.

Social Media recommendations from friends will also gain currency. As well as tools that can verify recommendations as not being manipulative.