Building Trust on Social Media: Your Complete Guide
There are a handful of metrics that your business is judged on when it operates on social media. People might judge you on the quality of your content, or on the value of the products that you show them. Others might be interested in what you believe in – what your mission is. But most will assess how much they can trust you and that will drive their decisions about whether to follow you and whether to purchase products from you. Seeing as trust on social media is so important in the modern world, here’s how you can build it with your follower base.
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Businesses use social media to promote themselves. But social media is also a place on which they’ll be able to talk to their customers and curious consumers. The best part about this is that you’re able to be more informal and speedier on social media, answering questions right away as they come into your inbox. But the downside is that, if you don’t have someone monitoring your social media accounts, you’ll leave messages without a reply. This is damaging in terms of the trust people invest in your firm – so always make sure you’re replying speedily to messages.
Verification
Most social media websites have a method by which they show if someone or something is the real deal. On Twitter and Instagram, there’s the sought-after blue tick, which shows that you’ve proved to the platform that you are who you say you are. That blue tick counts for a lot: it’s a simple way of confirming that people can trust you. There are avenues you’ll need to pass down to get verified on Instagram and online guides to help you get down them. It’ll build trust and faith that your business is exactly who it purports to be.
Transparency
Social media is the best place to show a little more of your business. Being more transparent and being willing to share exclusive views from your CEO, your employees and from within your firm will help build bonds of trust between you and your followers. On social media, being formal and corporate doesn’t wash. Being a little more vulnerable and genuine can go a long way to building the trust that you can convert into sales – so choose which aspects of your firm to share, and create posts that are open, inclusive and trustworthy.
Consistency
Finally, web users are savvy when it comes to spotting when a business might not be what it says it is. For instance, they’ll take a five-second look at your recent posts to assess whether you’re a large business with a social media team, or whether your firm simply has a social media page that it very occasionally uses to post something. If you appear like the latter, with inconsistent and scare posts, you’ll lose trust. Consistent posts show you’re an active business that’s ready to serve – a sure way of building up that all-important trust factor.
Make your firm more trustworthy on social media with the tips arranged above.
