On the back of Edelman's 2020 Thought Leadership Impact Report, the global PR experts have also released their 2020 Trust Barometer. With 34,000 respondents from across 28 global markets, the Barometer is the largest study of its kind.

There's so much content covered by the report so let's take a look at what's relevant for professional services firms.

Perhaps the most relevant and important finding of the report is the trust score of various forms of communication. Firms looking to engage the market and win more customers need to communicate. The source of information then becomes very important as we will see shortly.

The big takeaway for firms is that the most trusted source of information again is a company technical expert. Increasing again this year, the trust for company technical experts has remained a constant in the trust report.

Successful firms looking to use this information will be more effective at unlocking the potential of their experts and getting authentic insights in front of their clients and prospects.

Trust plays such an important part in the relationship between businesses and success. Firms that are trusted attract the best talent, have stronger advocates, face fewer operating barriers and generally find themselves more successful.

The full report is a good read and I encourage everyone to look for this at the start of each year to inform your firm's plans for what is ahead.