For better or worse, social media has changed the way business happens.  One of its biggest effects has been on how we judge credibility in others.  In the past, we would extend provisional trust to new connections.  When we met someone, for example through a referral or at a professional event, our starting point would be to trust them.  We would then build a relationship and a foundation of credibility underneath it. These days, because information is so easy to access, that process has inverted.  It's easy to research someone before we decide to do business with them. We're giving more and more credibility to the information we find … [Read more...]