Trust is 100% your most valuable asset in 2026 because it is the single most important factor in whether people choose to engage with you, follow your content, or do business with your business
In a digital world, where AI generated content runs wild, people are becoming more skeptical and selective. While people are still paying attention to vanity metrics like followers or like counts, their BS meters are high and they’re ready to disconnect if you’re fake or they don’t like what they see.
What people are actively searching for are individuals and organizations they can rely on and trust. They’re looking for those who communicate with clarity, operate with transparency, and show up consistently with value.
The last one to two years we have been in a trust recession, and I don’t see that changing moving into 2026. Our world is flooded with information, but what is scarce is transparency, fact checking and credibility. That’s our opportunity. People are not looking for more noise; they want honest, data driven answers, clear perspectives, and knowledge-based content that helps them solve real problems.
If you want to grow awareness, revenue, customer lifetime value and influence in 2026, building trust is your number 1 marketing strategy, not impressions, clicks or leads. If we focus on relationship and trust building, then long term clients and business opportunities are inevitable.
Let’s break down how to lead with trust, build with purpose, and WERK your brand into 2026.
Why Is Trust the New Currency?
Trust is the new currency because it directly impacts business outcomes. According to LinkedIn’s Trust Advantage report, 86% of buyers say that trust in a brand influences their purchasing decisions, and they are more likely to engage with a professional who is seen as trustworthy.
The old way of marketing assumes that people trust you and your brand at first glance if you have a nice logo or a polished marketing campaign. Today, you have to assume your buyer doubts your capabilities and doesn’t trust you. What does that mean? Every part of your brand from your website to your social media posts to your seller must show up with authenticity and be ready to solve your customers problems, no matter what. We must build our ‘trust bank’ in every interaction online and offline.
One great way to have your brand show up authentically and professionally is using LinkedIn. It’s the most trusted social media platform and every individual at your company can be an employee and customer advocate. . Profiles that consistently share helpful, human-centered content (like we share and create for our clients) tend to outperform accounts that only promote services.
It’s really not a trick. It’s a reflection of how people buy today and in 2026.
I look at it like this… When you and your company show up as a real people with a clear voice and a strong point of view, you earn attention without asking for it and immediately grow credibility with your target audience Remember, being a problem solver for your customer is what earns trust so you’ve got to be active!
“We asked nearly 20 thousand professionals across the globe where they turn for trusted information and found that more than 50% rely on their colleagues or friends over AI or search engines. When people need important advice, they still turn to people they trust.” Dan Shapero, COO, LinkedIn – From the Trust Advantage report.
What Does It Mean to YOUmanize™ Your Brand?
This year we officially launched our new movement called YOUmanize™ as well as our podcast YOUmanize™ Your Brand, for Joshua B. Lee (my husband & business partner) and I, YOUmanizing is about leading with WHO YOU ARE, not just what you do, and consistently showing up with clarity, relevance and emotional connection. It’s about being our authentic selves, holding values of love and understanding, and moving past vanity metrics.
You don’t need to post every detail of your life or make your brand overly casual, but you do need to get vulnerable and let people see the human behind the headline.
I do my best to model this every day, both personally and professionally. One of my highest performing posts this year was a vulnerable share about parenting, leadership, and burnout. I didn’t sell a service or talk about something trending. I shared an honest take inside MY life, and it built a connection with my audience. My vulnerability (not even wearing makeup! ) made my audience trust me more, simply because I was relatable. I reminded my audience that I’m a real person and balancing motherhood with ambition is damn hard.
YOUmanizing works because people don’t trust perfection, they trust real, consistent, and clear messaging. Doing this in 2026 will build trust and long-term opportunities, not just transactions.
How Do You Become the Answer People Are Searching For?
You become the answer people are searching for by creating content that directly responds to the specific questions your audience is already asking on Google, in LinkedIn search, and (this is a big one), through AI tools. This is called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and it’s quickly replacing traditional keyword strategy.
AEO is about moving from vague topics to intentional, question-based content.
For example, instead of posting “Top Leadership Tips,” answer the actual query: “What is the best leadership style for first-time managers?” That small shift in framing makes your content more discoverable by AI search, more relevant to your audience, and more trustworthy.
In today’s content landscape, trust isn’t built by volume, it’s built by clarity. When your content directly answers what people are searching for, you signal credibility and authenticity. That’s how you become the go-to voice people rely on.
And here’s where AEO gets interesting: AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are becoming the new search bars. Instead of typing keywords, users are asking full questions, and AI is pulling from credible, question-based content to form answers. That means your ability to show up in AI-driven search depends on how clearly and helpfully you answer real questions.
On LinkedIn, this means writing posts that speak to real problems and using your profile to clearly communicate who you help and how. When someone searches for help with building a personal brand or growing visibility on LinkedIn, your headline, About section, and featured content should make it clear: you are the answer.
This is really different to SEO search, it’s about becoming a credible resource, a trusted advisor. And in 2026, that’s exactly how trust is earned, by showing up with clarity and solving the questions your audience is already trying to answer.
Why Is LinkedIn the #1 Place to Build Trust?
LinkedIn is the number one place to build trust online because it allows you to establish credibility with the exact audience you want to reach, through your profile, content and network.
Unlike other platforms built for entertainment, LinkedIn is designed for professionals and decision makers. There’s no doom scrolling with people getting lost on the feed for hours. 80% of LinkedIn’s audience are business decision makers so they’re ready to research, learn and get connected to create opportunities.
When people land on your profile, they’re not just window shopping. They’re looking for signals of leadership, trustworthiness, and authority. Every headline, post, comment, and conversation adds to (or takes away from) how credible you look. And because LinkedIn content is indexed by Google and every LLM (OpenAI, Gemini, etc.), it often becomes someone’s first impression of you before they even lay eyes on your website or company page.
I call LinkedIn a “trust playground” because I not only get indexed by all the LLMs and Google, but I’m also establishing my authority with real decision makers ready to make sh*z happen. So, if you’re wondering what my trust marketing strategy looks like in 2026, start with a solid LinkedIn strategy (and reach out to me with questions). 💜
How Do You Build Your Trust Marketing Strategy Going Into 2026?
You have to treat your customers like real people, not leads or transactions. In many ways, we’re going back to old school marketing, where you’re going to need to get onto calls with customers and actually listen to what they say. To build trust, you have to actually care.
Here’s 4 Best Practices to Strengthen Your Trust Marketing:
1. Build a Brand Message That Emotionally Resonates
With gen AI, so many people think they’re branding and marketing experts. They’re not training their models with proper backstory and business information and building marketing campaigns and messaging that frankly sound like everyone else. The best thing you can do is talk to your customers and build messaging in their own words, not what you think sounds good. You have to get out in the field and LISTEN.
When you have real data and insights on your customer (current and aspirational) as well as a defined product, then you can use AI to help you craft an emotionally aligned brand identity. Please don’t bypass this step because everyone is sounding the same and in 2026, your brand is your differentiator and sales engine.
2. Active Your Brand Voices and Employee Generated Content
If you’re a small business or entrepreneur, your brand and your voice are nearly the same. That’s just how it works. And if you’re a larger company, your employees are major messengers of your brand, yet most companies are making their employees share boring company news. The best thing you can do is have every single person in the company build their unique personal brand and connect their message to the company’s.
You can use my 4-part framework: Skills, Passion, Differentiation, Audience and reference this article to learn how to build your personal brand and activate the brand voices through employee generated content.
🟣 What you can start doing: Write your personal brand statement and update your headline this week.
3. Think Like a Search Engine
If SEO was about ranking, AEO is about relevance. It’s not just a personal brand tactic; it’s a marketing strategy that positions your business as the go-to resource in your category. Instead of pushing messages out, AEO flips the funnel: it starts by listening to what people are already searching for and then builds content that directly answers those questions.
🟣 Reframe broad marketing themes into specific, searchable questions.
Think like a strategist: What questions are your customers, prospects, or industry peers asking online right now? What pain points show up in your sales conversations or support tickets? That’s where your content strategy should start.
What you can start doing:
🟣 List 5–10 real questions your ideal customer is asking, on Google, LinkedIn, Reddit, or even in your DMs.
🟣 Build content around one each week: a LinkedIn post, newsletter, or video that answers it clearly and credibly.
🟣 Over time, you’ll build a library of “answers” that position your business (and your brand) as the trusted authority AI tools and search engines surface first.
4. Attract Instead of Chase
Don’t post to go viral, post to connect. The goal isn’t more followers or impressions; it’s building relationships that last. Vanity metrics fade fast, but engagement rooted in real conversation fuels long term trust and conversion.
🟣 Create for connection, not clicks.
Share your lived experience, insights, and lessons from the field. That authenticity builds trust faster than any growth hack ever could. But connection doesn’t stop with your post.
High performing marketers are doubling down on relationship based strategies, personalized DMs, thoughtful comment threads, and targeted emails that feel one-to-one. Even AI powered tools like chatbots and virtual assistants can be used to make customer interactions feel more human, not less, when they’re built with empathy and personalization in mind.
What you can start doing:
🟣 Choose one personal or brand story that illustrates a real client challenge or insight. Turn it into a lesson driven post this month.
🟣 Start 3 meaningful conversations in your DMs each week, not to sell, but to connect.
🟣 Audit your outreach: Are your emails, chat flows, and follow ups personalized, relevant, and human first?
When you focus on engagement over exposure, you stop chasing the algorithm and start attracting the audience that actually matters.
Are You Ready to Be the Answer in 2026?
Being the answer in 2026 means showing up with trust, not tactics. It means shifting from trying to keep up with algorithms to consistently leading with clarity, relevance, and real value.
Your audience is flooded with mediocre content; they don’t need more. They’re now looking for someone they can trust, who understands their problems and who shows up with actual solutions. This is where I see marketing going in 2026. People will follow voices they trust, not brands that chase trends.
So the question becomes: Are you building a brand that tells people who you are and why they should listen? Or are you hiding behind surface level content and hoping to go viral? Because in 2026, authority won’t come from vanity metrics, it will come from value. Always remember that trust will be the reason someone connects with you or picks you for an amazing new opportunity.
Trust Is the New Power Move for B2B Brands
Our clients are real people, and we’re all experiencing a trust recession. There’s a ton of noise online, with AI, politics…you name it, so the best move you can do is focus on trust building marketing activities with some of these recommendations.
Here’s what they say about working with us…
“Before working with you and the Standout Authority team, I was feeling unclear about how to merge my corporate leadership identity with my coaching brand in a way that felt authentic, cohesive, and confident. Through the LinkedIn Brand Launchpad, I gained more than clarity. I gained alignment. I now understand exactly how to show up, who I’m talking to, and how to communicate my value with confidence and ease.
What surprised me most was how quickly the transformation happened. My messaging sharpened, my visuals finally matched the woman I am becoming, and my content immediately started driving real conversations. For the first time, my presence on LinkedIn feels intentional, consistent, and true to my voice; not a corporate script, not a diluted version of myself, but the authentic blend of compliance leader and mindset strategist that truly represents me.
Your process made everything that once felt overwhelming suddenly feel simple and doable. You didn’t just hand me a strategy; you helped me understand it, embody it, and execute it. The templates, systems, and accountability gave me structure, and your coaching helped me find the courage to actually show up in a bigger way.
And working with you personally? A breath of fresh air. You bring authenticity, energy, and genuine care to every session. I felt seen, supported, and stretched at the same time, the best combination for growth.
The ripple effects have gone far beyond LinkedIn. I’m already seeing increased engagement, stronger brand recognition inside and outside my industry, and new opportunities coming my way. Most importantly, I feel proud of how I present myself online now. There is a confidence and clarity in my brand that simply didn’t exist before.
If you’re serious about growing your presence on LinkedIn, elevating your brand, and showing up authentically without burning out, you need to work with Rachel and the Standout Authority team. It’s one of the most impactful investments I’ve made.
Thank you again for everything. I’m truly grateful.”
Cassandra Terry, ACC – IBM Compliance Director and ICF ACC Certified Life Coach
If you’re thinking about implementing a thought leadership strategy with your company, I’d love to connect with you more, and if you’re ready to focus on your own personal brand strategy that reflects your truth and builds real impact, I’m soooooo excited to open up space in our new LinkedIn Brand LaunchPad.
Together, we’ll uncover your voice, clarify your message, and build the foundation for a brand that is fully you, online and offline. BONUS 1-day photoshoot (in your city) included (worth $5000+ alone). The ROI on being SEEN by the RIGHT audience is impossible to calculate. Want to know our current investment level?
👉 Let’s talk. No pressure. No BS. Just a real conversation about where you are and where you want to be. Go from invisible to undeniable in just 30 days. CHECK IT OUT HERE
P.S. The special bonus is for the first 3 people only (once it’s gone, it’s gone).
💜 ICYMI: Personal Branding for Introverts (Full Breakdown) With Author + Cancer Survivor Goldie Chan
In this inspiring episode of YOUmanize™ Your Brand, we sit down with the vibrant and wise Goldie Chan, known as the “Oprah of LinkedIn”, and we get into personal branding, storytelling, and the introvert’s superpower. And most importantly about her new book PERSONAL BRANDING FOR INTROVERTS.
👉 Subscribe to our YouTube series “YOUmanize™ Your Brand” for raw, real insights on how to show up authentically and lead with your voice. Subscribe on YouTube
