“Trust anchors” as a new engagement metric — A publishing lesson from the Charlie Kirk phenomenon

Charlie Kirk is either a hero or a villain, depending on who you ask. In recent weeks, social media has exploded with clips of his speeches. Some call him a defender of free speech, others brand him a dangerous extremist.

If we’re all dealing with the same facts — the same words and the same clips — why is there such a divide?

It’s not about the facts. It’s about trust.

In some technical fields, the phrase “trust anchor” can refer to a root authority or point from which trust is derived. It’s analogous to the way publishing data professionals might use the phrase “unique identifier.”

In this article I’m using “trust anchor” as a framework to describe why a certain message resonates with a particular audience.

For publishers, understanding this trust is the key to unlocking audience engagement.

It’s not what you know. It’s who you trust.

That applies in two ways.

First, it applies to how you get your take on the news. Most people won’t comb through hundreds of hours of video. They’ll trust certain people who have done that work for them.

Second, it applies when you look at “the evidence.” If a person you trust tells you that Charlie Kirk was a horrible person, you’ll examine the evidence to confirm that bias. And vice versa.

People rely on a publisher that they trust will explain the world to them in a manner that’s consistent with their views. Cable news learned this a while ago. That’s why we have conservative and liberal networks.

Political or social views aren’t the only types of “trust anchors.” For your audience it might be …

• personal narratives and lived experience,
• peer-reviewed science,
• data-driven reporting,
• institutional authority,
• community consensus,
• expert testimony, or
• consistency with historical precedent.

Each of these trust anchors might require some precision and clarification. For example, expert testimony begs the question of who defines an expert and on what basis. There’s often an intersection of several trust anchors.

In the same way, institutional authority isn’t a trust anchor on its own. You have to ask which institutions are trusted, and why.

To engage your audience, identify their trust anchors, find how they overlap, or how your audience applies them, and build on that foundation.

Social media can be a good source for this. Read your audience’s social media posts through that lens, i.e., “what is it that makes this person trust this answer?”

In a world where trust trumps facts, publishers who master trust anchors are more likely to win their audience’s loyalty.

You could approach this from a cynical and manipulative point of view — like a cable news network saying what they think their audience wants to hear. Modifying your editorial policy to appeal to your audience’s trust anchors can make you shallow and hypocritical.

Instead, approach the idea with integrity. Identify the trust anchors you affirm as an organization. If your current audience isn’t a good match, they’re not going to be your audience for long no matter how many audience engagement wizards you hire.

If you and your audience are out of sync, start to reach out to a new audience that aligns with your organization’s trust anchors. Make them obvious. Be transparent about them so they can trust that you anchor your own opinions the same way they do.