Given the names of both concepts, trust and trustworthiness are logically linked. However, they do not mean the same thing: where trust mainly indicates to what extent someone wants to be dependent on another person, trustworthiness is based on the characteristics of that other person that one trusts. Trust can arise from these characteristics, among other things. The more trustworthy you come across, the faster people will actually trust you.
evaluation and perceptionIn a society where the offline and online worlds are increasingly intertwined, online trustworthiness obviously plays a very important role: without this perception , Bol.com would not sell anything, few online relationships would be established on Twitter and eBay would be completely out of business. In marketing terms: trustworthiness should always be part of your online (social) branding activities, and preferably flow logically from who you are as a person or organization. After all, online information is now fully included in purchase orientations and knowledge exchanges.
What should you pay attention to, which trustworthiness dimensions do people take into account in their online evaluation of people? From a social scientific point of view, 3 clear handles can be provided. Of course, other processes also play a role (such as general trust in others, the online context, the way in which the person interprets information online, and many other factors), but these are 3 aspects that every organization or person more or less has in their own hands and can use online to generate more trust. These aspects of trustworthiness mainly originate from the work of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman , but are also frequently cited in later scientific (online) research.
Competence
competenceCompetence is a somewhat loose translation of the concept of 'ability', and includes a combination of aspects such as knowledge, skills, attitude and competencies. In fact, it is all about how competent you appear. In the cognitive trust literature, competence is cited most often, and for a reason: someone's competence largely determines how much influence he/she has in a certain area. Note that the person does not have to appear competent in all areas. It is precisely about those subjects and disciplines that are relevant to that person. On the other hand, there are also general characteristics such as intelligence and expertise.
In real life, competence can be 'easily' analyzed by looking at the information people reveal lebanon phone number list about themselves, what they talk about, how they act and react in conversations, what social connections they have and how those connections talk about them. This can be almost entirely translated to an online context. Online competence perceptions within online social networks, for example, can be based on, among other things, a person's online profile information, the online connections and reactions of these connections to him/her, and the topics and information he/she shares and writes about.
Online you have the possibility to show your competence via different channels, both unconsciously and consciously. Whether this is via LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora or your own blog. I deliberately leave out Klout , as I am not yet fully convinced of their algorithm to really indicate which subjects someone is an 'expert' on. Without a certain degree of confidence in your competence, the information you write online about yourself or a certain subject will be accepted less quickly. This therefore requires reflection on who you are as a person or organization: what am I good at and within which specialization(s) can I profile myself online?
Goodwill It describes the expectation that the person or organization you want to trust will 'do good' for you without a direct external incentive for these actions. These positive intentions often manifest themselves in supporting and encouraging others. An important part of this benevolence is openness: the willingness to share knowledge and ideas with others. Ultimately, this can create a context of reciprocity ( also called reciprocity ), in which individualism is not central, but where people help each other.