To grow your business, you must establish trust between your brand and your customers. This trust develops further within a social community – allowing customers to share their experience with others. That is social trust. What gets people talking? Getting your customers to spark conversation about you with others is a priceless and valuable form of marketing. The question then is how to get the ball rolling – how do you get your customers to care enough to talk about your business? That’s what we’ll cover in today’s post about building trust online. People love to share value. You’ve started a conversation with your customers by generating value-based content, and when successful, they’ll want to share that with their circles. This is seen as generating word of mouth, the most valid form of trust. Simply put; if someone receives valuable content from someone they know, they will positively share their experience with someone else – social trust.
How to create engagement
Use social media to your advantage. Engage with your audience – follow them on Instagram, encourage them to share the results of your products or services you’ve provided them. Doing so is creating a domino effect. If their friends, family, and followers trust them, that trust will transpire onto your business. This yet again is generating the idea of social trust. In order to gain clientele, a base level of trust is crucial – since they trust you before knowing you. The more transparent your brand is, the more customers will be filled with an abundance of trust. The idea of your brand must be relevant. This relevance is generated when your offer is fitting to your desired target. If it makes sense to one client, odds are it will make sense to the community in which they are immersed. People are magnetically influenced by the community around them. Tap into your community, and connection will occur.
The three components of social trust
When it comes to building trust on social media, the idea of credibility is number one. Is what I’m saying as a brand credible and honest? Can my clients trust what I’m telling them about my brand’s abilities?
The next addition is reliability. Are the actions of my brand consistent – is my brand dependable? Your actions should coincide with your words.
The third aspect is intimacy. Can my customers feel safe/secure while trusting my brand with something?
Being genuine in your involvement
The single biggest factor in all of this is self-orientation. When you only ever focus on your offer, your product or your business, you reflect that you don’t care about your audience. By engaging and actually being involved, and by paying more attention to others, you show that you care about your community. Caring generates trust.
Social trust starts with your brand
Ultimately your audience is what will drive your business. Focus on them and value them. Establish a level of trust between your customers and brand that will overflow into a social community. Get that community talking about their experiences with your brand. Create social trust. Connect with your customers. Provide them with platforms to engage with your brand and be relevant. This engagement will generate word of mouth conversations. Deliver credibility, provide reliably, and create intimacy. Social trust begins with your brand. Give your customers a reason to trust you.
Need to create a social media strategy based on trust? Giant Shoe Creative can help. Get in touch.
