Social Media Marketing—Ten Tips for Establishing Credibility

People will buy from you if they know you, like you and trust you. Establishing trust is the critical factor.  The digital economy creates credibility challenges over traditional store front businesses.  Social media marketing with its limited space, millions of participants and rejection of direct sales pitches creates even more credibility challenges.    In this post, I provide 10 tips for generating trust with social media participants.  Enjoy and prosper.

Ten Tips for Creating Social Media Marketing Trust

A good picture of you, especially a head shot that shows your eyes.   The eyes have been called the window of the soul.  A good picture that shows your eyes is a great trust builder.

Does your social media site feel comfortable? Some sites have loud colors.  Some sites are messy. Some pages are hard to read.  Have you ever been in a store that may have great merchandise but you don’t buy because you don’t like the feel of the place?

Who are you associated with on your sites? Do you follow the leaders in your industry?  Do you follow their followers?  There is guilt by association. You can also share in credibility by association.

Are you there consistently? We use an expression, “You can count on someone”.  Who is more trusting?  Someone who pops onto a social media site every six month or someone who consistently participates on a site?

Do you share things about you and your life?  Sharing mistakes you have made; struggles you have had; even humor on yourself inspires confidence in you.

Industry statistics—since direct self promotion is consider bad taste on social media sites, use industry statistics.  If you were in sales training, you might ask, “Did you know that those who receive sales training have 10% higher income.”

How do you show you care for others on social media sites?  People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Share your success stories with others on your sites.

Everyone one loves a compliment. It’s a form of validation.  You establish trust when you acknowledge others.

Ask questions. Answer a person’s question and you are hero.  Ask a question and you get the other person to stop what they are doing and engage with you.  Trust comes from engagement.

Conclusion

Social media has its own credibility challenges.  You must rely on non direct ways to establish trust.  If you make trust building one of your social media objectives, you will help your social media marketing efforts.