Who’s acting as your organization’s spokesperson?

Let’s hope it’s not a government official or CEO. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, they are the least credible spokespeople in the eyes of the public.

As part of the annual study, respondents were asked: If you heard information about a company from one of these people, how credible would that information be?

The answers:

• 68 percent said academic or expert (compared with 70 percent last year)
• 66 percent said technical expert in the company (compared with 64 percent last year)
• 65 percent: a person like yourself (43 percent last year)
• 50 percent: regular employee (34 percent last year)
• 50 percent: NGO representative (47 percent last year)
• 46 percent: Financial or industry analyst (53 percent last year)
• 38 percent: CEO (50 percent last year)
• 29 percent: Government official or regular (43 percent last year)

The 14 percent drop in credibility for government official is the steepest fall the Trust Barometer has ever recorded.

“Business is now better placed than government to lead the way out of the trust crisis,” said Richard Edelman in a press release. “But the balance must change so that business is seen both as a force for good and an engine for profit.

The public’s trust in business, non-government organizations and government fell this year, with government seeing the steepest decline. NGOs, despite the slight decline, remain the most-trusted institution. Media saw an uptick in trust.

The public’s trust in social networking sites swelled to 88 percent, while its trust in micro-blogging sites (like Twitter) jumped to 86 percent.

Despite gains, the media industry remains among the least-trusted industries globally. The only industries faring worse than media are banks and financial services. All three were the least trusted in 2011. Technology continues to be the most trusted, followed by automotive, and food beverage.

Overall, distrust is growing nation by the nation. More countries fall into the “distrusters” category than in the “trusters” or “neutral category.”

The 12 annual Edelman Trust Barometer includes more than 30,000 respondents, ages 18 and older, from 25 countries.

Here is the SlideShare presentation that Edelman posted with more information: