Earned media vs. paid media impact

http://www.janrain.com/blogs/examining-trust-social-media

Scott Monty, who heads up social media efforts at Ford Motor Company, recently wrote a great blog post about trust in social media. Monty cites data published by eMarketer displaying the most trusted sources of information for people who use social media.

It comes as little surprise that the three most trusted sources of information are all peer-generated, and two of the three most popular channels are driven by friends in social network feeds. 64% of people trust posts by friends in their Facebook news feed, and 55% trust tweets from friends in their Twitter stream.