My good friends Julien Smith and Chris Brogan are writing a whole book called Trust Agents. But while they will take thousands of words and dive into much greater detail then I am about to, I wanted to explain quickly and to the point how the economy of trust works in my little corner of the world.

This happened less then 20 minutes ago, but I wanted to share before I got distracted by something else.

Chris Brogan is someone I know.
I've met Chris face-to-face (bonus points)
I see a tweet from Chris talking about a hotel in NYC
I'm getting on a train in the morning to go to NYC so it gets my attention
I click on it and read a blog post that Chris has written raving about The Roger Smith Hotel and he mentions that they have a "blogger discount." (more bonus points)
Chris speaks positively about the hotel and his experience there
The next time I'm in NYC, you can be sure I'm going to check out the hotel as an option

All of this does not matter one bit if I don't trust Chris. I do trust him so it all matters.

It's not that hard to figure out and yet so many brands don't understand that you can't buy this. Sure, there are pay per posts and other ways, but it is NOT the same.

You may be able to buy exposure, but you have to earn trust.