Source credibility is a key factor that can impact whether audiences believe a proposition, while trust is a key factor that can influence a person’s willingness to act on advice. In this blog post, I’ll discuss the historical use of source credibility in persuasion, present a humorous example of how the tobacco industry abused credibility appeals from 1920-1950, and finally, discuss why online credibility is important in the design of online outreach campaigns.

Presentation to the World Social Marketing Conference, Brighton, UK, 30 September 2008.
As the Internet continues expanding across the planet, social marketers are progressively moving online, not just because of potential time and cost savings, but because increasingly, this is where their target audiences are easily reached. Although the Internet is becoming a key part of social marketing campaigns within industrialized nations, researches suggest that many behavioral change websites are ill equipped to impact on behavior, while only a few published works discuss social marketing on the Internet. Much e-commerce literature has examined the relationship between website trustworthiness and users’ purchasing behavior. Examining these relationships in a non-profit marketing context, this presentation examines the relationship between website source credibility, users’ trusting attitudes and their behavioral intentions.