Do These 5 Things to Build Trust on Social Media
By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks
In 2020, customers are looking for brands they can trust – which means that building a positive reputation with potential customers is more important than ever for businesses. And social media is the perfect tool for companies to connect with customers and build brand loyalty.
Why is building trust with potential customers on social media so important? According to research from Accenture, two-thirds of customers would rather purchase a product/service from a business that aligns with their own values and will actually avoid companies who don’t.
Building trust with customers on social media isn’t going to happen overnight – it’s something your business will need to always think about and work on. But once you’ve built trust with your customers, they’ll be more engaged, loyal and supportive of your business.
1. Create Quality Content
It’s always important for businesses to post high-quality content on social media. This is the first step to building trust with potential customers for several reasons.
Firstly, how are customers supposed to trust a business if their social media posts are full of grammatical and/or spelling errors? Or if a company’s feed is full of images that are low quality or blurry? Beyond having clean, professional photos and well-written social captions, quality content needs to actually be helpful and valuable to your customers.
In order to create quality content and build trust through social media posts, it’s essential to understand your customer’s pain points first. Then, focus on creating content that answers their questions, provides value and starts a conversation. Here’s some inspiration from brand, web and content designer @lindscholz:
2. Share Customer Testimonials
You might already know that sharing customer testimonials are a great social media tactic to increase engagement, but did you know it’s also an effective way to build trust with potential customers? Encourage your current customers to post about their experiences with your business and reshare their posts. Sharing customer testimonials will help build more trust with your customers than just talking about your business yourself. In fact, 91% of consumers aged 18-34 trust customer reviews as much as they would trust their friends’ recommendations. Not only do consumers today highly value testimonials – they also are more likely to trust brands who share user-generated content with 90% of shoppers saying UGC directly impacts their purchasing decisions.
Vancouver-based @bia_skincare recently shared the following customer testimonial:
3. Provide Customer Service
If you are a business, you are likely already providing some level of customer service through your social media platforms. Consumers today expect to be able to easily communicate with businesses and social media provides your company with a valuable way to answer their questions and interact with customers. Provide the best customer service possible by responding quickly, building an open dialogue and offering personalized solutions. If you try to go above and beyond, especially for unhappy customers, they will appreciate your helpfulness and trust your business more than ever.
4. Get Behind the Camera
It’s easier for customers to trust a business when they know exactly who they’re buying from, so don’t be afraid to get behind the camera more often. Nothing is more personable than videos – show yourself on video to create a deeper connection and build more trust with potential customers. Share about yourself, your products or offer some helpful advice. Not sure where to start with video content? It’s easy to create high-quality marketing videos with Boosted’s easy-to-use templates and free stock video library.
5. Share Your Values
Showing your customers that your brand values align with theirs is possibly the most important step for businesses to build trust. Brand values are more than just a mission statement – your brand values help define your business’ personality and let your customers know more about your purpose, besides just making sales.
Don’t be afraid to post on social media about the social causes you are passionate about and how your business supports those values. Did you know 78% of consumers want companies to address important social justice issues and 87% of people stated they would purchase a product based on a business’ brand values?
Building trust through social media has never been so important. And it’s not a quick and easy thing to do – but if your business takes the time to really connect in an authentic and transparent way, you’ll see many benefits from the trust your customers have in you.
Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.
