You have been developing your brand for a while now. Your competitors are aware of you. Customers are familiar with you. Do you believe you found the ways to build trust? Regretfully, it is not. Brands change throughout time. You need your consumers’ trust if you want to survive over the long term.
According to a worldwide study, customers’ decisions about where to purchase are significantly influenced by their level of brand trust. 14% of respondents said that brand trust was their primary determinant, followed by price, and 35% of respondents listed “brand trust” as one of the top three factors affecting their choice to purchase at a certain store.
Furthermore, the findings of the same study also imply that social media opinions—posted by both friends and strangers—have a greater impact on purchasing decisions than elements that retailers can control, such as pricing and advertising. Social networking is the place to establish credibility. Here are some strategies on how to build trust on social media to help you develop a lasting brand.
Tips For Building Trust On Social Media
1. Distribute Excellent Content
Providing high-quality material that is valuable to your visitors should be one of your ways to build trust, assuming you have previously set up your social network accounts. This affects how much time users spend on your website and how active they are on social media. Additionally, it fosters a devoted fan base that keeps returning for more.
Publishing excellent content demonstrates that your company is a thought leader and cares about more than simply profit. When using social media to establish trust, it is the starting point. To establish yourself as an expert in your field and provide material that appeals to your target audience, you should:
- Determine your target audience’s characteristics, desires, and motivations.
- Determine the things that your rivals say and don’t mention in their content.
- Better content may be produced by addressing the gaps left by rivals and tailoring it to the demands of your audience.
Never make your material only focused on selling your goods or services, even if you may want to convert a few followers. The 80/20 guideline, which states that 80% of your material should be educational and non-promotional and 20% may discuss your brand or product, is a smart practice to adhere to.
This may be used for your overall content strategy, blog post structure, or social media updates. If you post four valuable, fascinating, and engaging tweets, your audience will be less likely to get irritated or think it’s spam when you post a fifth, more promotional tweet. There’s a greater chance that your followers will notice and interact.
You may become a resource that others turn to if you can build your reputation as a thought leader. This should increase your social media following and, ideally, open up additional avenues for you to bolster your position.
Even if followers who are interested in your material may not become consumers, your brand will undoubtedly remain at the forefront of their thoughts if they ever need the services your business offers. Users will remain on social media to listen, trust your company, and be more open to promotional information when you post it if you don’t overpromote it.
2. Encourage Communication On Your Social Media Platforms
Socializing is the main goal of social media. You can’t just publish your stuff and hope for the best. Using certain free social media management solutions, you must communicate, reply to inquiries promptly, promote conversations, and express gratitude to clients who are promoting you. More individuals will reach out to you the more you engage with them.
People will feel more comfortable utilizing your goods or services if you establish a reputation as a company that is approachable and accountable to its customers. By doing this, you may establish trust on social media and ultimately create a brand community. Through performing these actions, you may establish a trustworthy reputation and, ultimately, a brand community.
3. Encourage UGC (User-Generated Content)
Encourage clients to post pictures and videos of your items on social media to increase engagement. Consumers now like to see actual users of products before making a purchase, and user-generated content (UGC) enables marketers to publish this content on social media to increase social media trust.
Real customers join the fold thanks to UGC. Customers will be thrilled to see their material shared or retweeted, and your authenticity ratings will skyrocket as a result. And the statistics agree! User-generated content is twice as likely to be shared by consumers.
This implies that your brand may get twice as much publicity. Facebook research also showed that UGC-containing advertising had a three-fold greater click-through rate than non-UGC ads. According to this and other data, user-generated content has a significant impact on how to build trust.
4. Ask Customers For Their Reviews
On social media, reviews are crucial for establishing credibility. Before making a purchase, many customers will look at a company’s ratings on Facebook, Google Business Profile, and Yelp reviews. Despite being a social networking site, Facebook includes a page review feature where users may assess a page on a 5-point scale depending on whether or not they would suggest it.
Reviews are another way for people to express their opinions in more detail. This is what they’ll find when they look up a firm online, isn’t it? They’ll convert fast if they can easily tell that you’re almost at a 5-star rating.
For potential consumers to feel comforted and convert after reading what others are saying about your company, you should encourage your customers to write reviews and post them on your social media networks.
Reviews may draw attention to the caliber of your brand as well as individual encounters with your personnel, support staff, and product or service. Similar to UGC, accumulating positive evaluations may help to foster a trustworthy reputation.
If you take the initiative to address negative evaluations, you may even use them to your company’s advantage. Constructive and prompt responses to unfavorable comments demonstrate the dependability and openness of your brand. Customers don’t expect your business to be flawless, but they will feel more comfortable doing business with you if they see that you address a bad review favorably.
5. Use Trustworthy Links
Trustworthy links are the association that connects your brand to the internet, and they are one of the essential ways to build trust. Your links must go to reliable websites, regardless of whether you’re sharing industry news or using content curation tools to identify popular pieces. Use a custom link shortener for social media and include links to industry favorites when posting curated information so that readers are aware of what they are clicking through to.
A custom domain name and keyword after the slash make up bespoke short links. Users are thus certain that the material you provide won’t lead to spam or phishing websites when they see your brand’s name attached to it. Moreover, the keyword indicates the destination of the connection. Click-through rates might increase by 39% as a result of this increased trust and communication.
6. Give an Insider’s Perspective
We return to the concept of transparency by providing your customers with an inside look at your brand on social media. It demonstrates that you have nothing to conceal. However, customers may also be enticed and made to feel special via exclusive sneak peeks.
Offering an inside look is a great way to showcase the character and values of your company. People will be able to look beyond your logo to the passionate community that supports your business, whether it’s a picture of the chef in the kitchen or a video taken backstage at a fashion show.
Because you trusted them with the inside scoop, your followers will trust you and feel more comfortable with your brand. Also, your engagement rates might skyrocket due to the FOMO impact of unique material.
7. Ensure Consistency In Your Branding
Any brand that wants to know how to build trust in its followers must stay true to its message; don’t act inconsistently with your beliefs. When it was discovered that Volkswagen had misled consumers and government agencies about the emissions of its vehicles, this was a complete contradiction to the environmentally conscious image the company was trying to project, and it goes without saying that the brand suffered greatly.
This is an extreme example, but keep in mind that social media has the ability to spread quickly, so if you say you care about the environment, don’t just say it—show it. On a deeper level, maintaining a consistent look for your logo, brand colors, and other design elements can also contribute to the development of trust on social media by projecting a trustworthy and professional image for your business.
8. Offer Streaming Of Live Events
Live video events encourage interaction and put brands in front of their followers. They can help humanize your brand, and viewers will see you answer questions in real time, which will definitely inspire trust. Holding live, unscripted events shows your company has nothing to hide, and if you want to inspire trust among audiences who are growing weary of polished promotional material, this is the perfect way to do it.
There are no editing tricks, second takes, or over-the-top productions. In an online world where content is carefully chosen and curated, live video events are a breath of fresh air that can make brands feel more genuine and honest.
9. Share Your Social Values
People want to know that the businesses they support are concerned these days! Additionally, this will boost your brand’s credibility if it’s about more than simply making money. Make use of your social media profiles to promote issues that are important to your business and to showcase any socially conscious initiatives your firm is doing.
Kat Von D Beauty is a fantastic illustration of this. Vegan components that have not undergone animal testing are used to make its goods. With articles on animal rights, adorable animal images, and the hashtag #crueltyfreebeauty, this ethical value is often emphasized on its social media platforms.
Starbucks ran a campaign that emphasized the value of social responsibility as a way to foster trust. In honor of National Voter Registration Day, it hosted a Facebook Live event in New York. Starbucks urged its patrons to submit questions for the CEO and rapper Common before the event.
Following their speeches emphasizing the importance of voting on the occasion, they responded to questions. Social media engagement, live video, and social responsibility were all successfully integrated into the event.
Benefits Of Building Trust On Social Media
Social media has grown to be an effective tool for both people and companies in the current digital era. One of the most crucial aspects of a successful social media strategy is finding ways to build trust with your audience. Establishing trust on social platforms can lead to stronger relationships, increased engagement, and overall success. Here are some key benefits of building trust on social media:
Enhanced Brand Loyalty: Trust is the foundation of customer loyalty. When followers believe in your authenticity and transparency, they are more likely to stay engaged with your content and become repeat customers. Loyal followers are not just consumers; they act as brand advocates, helping to spread the word about your products or services.
Increased Engagement: Trust encourages active participation. When people trust you, they are more likely to comment on your posts, share your content, and interact with your brand in meaningful ways. This leads to increased visibility and more organic reach, which is invaluable in the competitive social media landscape.
Positive Reputation: Building trust helps cultivate a positive reputation. Brands known for their honesty and reliability gain the respect of their followers, which can translate to positive reviews, word-of-mouth promotion, and an overall stronger online presence.
Higher Conversion Rates: When trust is established, followers are more likely to make a purchase or take the desired action, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, downloading an app, or clicking on a product link. Trust reduces hesitation, leading to higher conversion rates and business growth.
Long-Term Success: Trust is a long-term asset. Consistently nurturing trust on social media allows you to build a loyal community that supports your brand through ups and downs, ensuring sustainable success.
In conclusion, trust is invaluable in the digital world, and investing in building it on social media pays off in loyalty, engagement, and long-term success.
FAQ
Q: Why does social media trust matter?
A: Since there must be solid evidence to support what we see on social media, trust is crucial. Therefore, we need verifiable proof that everything that is said, provided, or shown on a social media site is accurate.
Q: How can trust be established the quickest?
A: Showing your audience feedback from other happy customers is the quickest approach to increase their confidence in your company. This provides them with strong evidence of your legitimacy. Additionally, gaining the audience’s confidence is simple if you associate yourself with other reliable businesses and they recommend you.
Q: How are social media platforms being used by marketers to increase brand trust?
A: Since social media offers a company the most visibility and reach possible, it is the ideal platform for marketers looking to establish brand trust. Moreover, it offers a window through which marketers may present their brand as they see fit and get insight into consumer perceptions. By keeping an eye on public sentiment and adjusting their tactics appropriately, they showcase the company in the best possible light.
