Social marketing is all the rage, and it’s because brands can use social media campaigns to build the trust that leads to conversions. Here’s how to do it.
176 million people have adopted social media platforms in the past year and the average user has 5.54 social media accounts. These numbers right here can tell you how relevant it is in our world today.
Social media has become a great tool to utilize when it comes to building your brand’s personality and quality relationships. However, we can’t be too quick to underestimate the amount of work it’ll take to get there.
You first need to build a strong follower base and then build up your consumers trust to get your audience interacting with your brand.
With social media, you’re in this for the long haul, but you won’t regret it when you start to see conversions and repeat purchases.
So, let’s talk about trust. Essentially, the most important way to win your audience over.
Trust can make or break social marketing
The process of building trust is something that too many brands fall short on recognizing. Too many companies could easily jeopardize themselves with just one bad move.
61% of consumers say they are willing to like or follow a brand via social media. So, at least we know a good amount of our consumers are up to engaging with our brand.
Once we have them in our follower base, building trust should be the number one priority from the beginning.
If your audience doesn’t see relevant content to help them build that relationship with you, these are grounds for an instant unlike or unfollow. You need to be posting content that will draw them in on a regular basis.
And once you have your timing and posting down, the second priority should be showing your audience that your brand is a real, authoritative source.
Your audience needs to know that you truly care about helping them and that you’re the real deal.
Now that we’ve reiterated to you how important the process of building trust really is, here are five easy ways you can use social marketing to build trust:
1. Get verified on all social accounts
You know the blue check mark next to your favorite brand’s Twitter, Instagram or Facebook accounts? Users know to look for that when searching for a credible source. That check mark tells us that the profile is real and approved.
Your social media platforms should have these verified checkmarks next to your accounts. It’s now an option for any business, small and medium-sized too, so there is nothing holding you back.
You’ll want to make sure you have a consistent address, phone number, about description, location, etc. in your company descriptions. It will be a factor in getting your accounts verified. This includes making it an important element in optimizing your SEO.
Not sure how to do this? Here’s a step by step guide to verifying your social media accounts.
2. Let customers leave reviews
Limiting your customers from making reviews on your social accounts won’t do anything but make your company look sketchy.
A survey by Marketing Land said that 90% of customers said buying decisions were influenced by online reviews. So, you could say reviews make all the difference.
If you get a couple of awesome reviews, share them and ask the customer if you could feature their review in one of your posts. You could also factor in some testimonials to show real-life experiences with your product or service.
Showing your customers past buyer opinions with your product or service is a sure way of building trust.
3. Be helpful and answer questions
I’m sure by just browsing your social media timelines, you’ll see users interacting with brands in a number of ways. It could be letting them know something they loved about their product or it could be a lousy experience they recently had.
Either way, answering your customer immediately after these comments are made is extremely important.
If you run into a complaint, addressing the customer directly will show that you really care about their experience with your product. 72% of customers expect a response within an hour of leaving their complaint or service request on Twitter.
You’ll want to constantly be monitoring your accounts for comments like these. Even searching your company name is results, to see if there were comments made that may not have including your handle.
Just make sure you’re responding quickly and pointing them to a channel where they can resolve the issue or talk to customer service.
It’s sometimes hard to convey a message in less than 160 characters on Twitter. It’s never a bad idea to give them an email or phone number to reach you at.
4. Show your brand’s personality
People respond to fun and authentic posts that catch their attention. It’s crucial your brand incorporates their brand personality into almost every post.
Showing that theirs a person behind your brand that is there for the customer will build trust exceptionally.
You could do this by interacting with customers and addressing them in a unique way, like by name. Use fun emojis and make your customers laugh. Remember that it’s all about building a quality relationship with them.
Another way to show your brand identity is by joining relevant conversations in your industry and interacting with people that could be potential customers.
Remember it’s not all about promoting your product or services but how you represent the brand and interact with customers.
5. Share relevant content & team up with influencers
Staying up to date on the latest industry gossip is a big way to build up trust with your audience. By searching popular hashtags, industry keywords and sharing quality content, it also lets people know you know what you’re talking about.
This is kind of like back linking and guest blogging in the SEO world, except you’re mentioning them in a Facebook or Twitter post.
Influencer marketing should also be taken advantage of in building your customer’s trust. It’s having relevant, well-known names promote your product.
Twitter found that 40% of its users say they have made a purchase as a direct result of something an influencer posted.
If you’re a small business, asking a qualified customer or blogger to give your company a shout out is a great way to use influencer marketing. In other words, it doesn’t have to be a big name to be considered an “influencer.”
BuzzSumo as a feature to find influencers in your industry, be sure to check it out.
Build that trust
With the right mix of SEO optimization and social marketing efforts, your company will be on it’s way to seeing increased engagement and conversions.
Yet, without building your brands trust, all of your marketing efforts may seem meaningless. Remember that building a relationship and trust with your customer is the first step in seeing returns.
By showing your company is a credible source, encouraging customer reviews, being helpful, interacting through your brand personality, and staying relevant with content and influencers, you’re on the way to building trust with your audience.
What are ways your company uses social media to build brand trust? Throw us a comment with your thoughts!
