Edelman significantly thickened PRWeek with a chunk of it’s 2005 Annual Trust Barometer. Kudos for a) doing marketing and thought-leadership, something that most agencies seem to be asleep at the wheel on; and b) for a really timely piece of research. One quote really captured my attention:

“Sacrifice control and perfection of a message for speed and free-flowing discussion. The paradox of transparency holds that companies benefit more when they disclose fully what they know – bad or good – as soon as they know it. This is truer than ever.”

And this:

Employees and “an average employee like me” are more credible than CEOs.

Communicators are still way over-vectored on the c-suite and on broadcasting it’s voice. Too much of a companies communications channels are vectored to the top of the pyramid. Blogs are a revolutionary force in this respect. They run against what communicators have so long fought to do – keep the voice of the employee under wraps. As blogs liberate the voice of the company they’ll, somewhat ironically, become the most potent force for restoring the credibility of corporations. Look no further than Scoble at Microsoft to see this in action…