Social media and blogs are the driving force behind Web 2.0 and offer unprecedented interaction between brands and consumers. However, consumers trust corporate blogs and social networking profiles less than any other channel, according to a study by Forrester Research (registration required).

The study found that only 16 percent of consumers who read corporate blogs trust the content, while only 18 percent trust social networking profiles from a company or brand. The most trusted channel by far was email from someone the consumer knows. Email from a company or brand was near the middle of Forrester’s trust scale, with 28 percent of consumers trusting the content.

"Company blogs are in a vicious cycle now," said Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff. "Those companies that selfishly blog about their products will reinforce the idea that corporate blogs can’t be trusted. This will make it even harder for new corporate bloggers to be seen as anything other than company shills."

The numbers look slightly better among those who are more blog-savvy. Of those who read blogs at least monthly, 24 percent said they trust company blogs, while 39 percent of consumers who blog themselves put faith in corporate blogs. However, corporate blogs and social network profiles were still toward the bottom when Forrester measured trust in media channels among bloggers and regular blog readers.