Whether your brand has been around on social media for a while or not, it’s important to gain and build the trust of your followers. The thing is, brands come and go, but if you’re in it for the long haul, you have got to gain your consumers’ trust if you want to stay alive and relevant.
So how do you build trust on social media?
Here are some of the ways you can go about it.
1. Publish high-quality content
If you want to gain the reputation of an authoritative figure in your industry, you can’t go around this one. Your consumers will measure your worth and notability by that of your content. So, identify your audience’s interests and needs, go all out, and work on content that is useful, informative, fun, and engaging.
2. Interact with your audience
Social media is about socialising. If you want to build trust on social media, you have to start by building a rapport with your audience.
Posting great content is only the first step. You are going to have to then engage with your audience, respond to questions, encourage interaction, and thank all those customers who are talking about you. The more you talk to your audience, the more they will talk about your brand.
3. Encourage user-generated content
Your customer’s word is worth at least a hundred times yours. Encourage your audience to create and share content about your brand.
In today’s world, people want to see real people using a product or service before they buy one. User-generated content creates that social proof and helps you build trust on social media.
4. Get reviews
A straightforward way to build trust is to get your current customers to review their experiences. Encourage your audience to review you on Facebook, for example, and share these on your social media channels.
Even negative feedback can be used to build trust by responding to it in a constructive, quick, and reassuring manner in order to build your brand’s reliability and transparency.
5. Humanise Your Brand
People don’t support ‘what’ your brand does, but ‘why’ you do it. Showcasing your social values for your audience is a great way to humanise your brand.
Another way to go about it is to use a live stream for your events. Not only will this encourage and boost interaction with your followers, but it will also give them a chance to come face-to-face with your brand and the humans behind it, and inspire trust.
