Consumers want to do business with credible businesses and credible business owners. Social media can bridge the gap between someone not thinking you and your business are credible to the land of high credibility. Building credibility with your current and prospective customers requires you to become an expert, be the solution to the problems and issues your customers and prospects are having, and to interact with them so that they know there is an expert behind the brand, business, or organization.
Position Yourself as an Expert
Your first step in building credibility on social media networks is to position yourself as an expert in your field. There are a myriad of ways for you to do this. Each day, you can share a tip or piece of advice that is relevant to your audience. When you read a newspaper or industry news article, share to a little tidbit of information and the link to where readers can find more information.
Since you are not always trying to sell your followers something but are, instead, simply trying to share information with them, this is the key to building credibility with both your current and prospective customers.
Resolve their Problems
When you are sharing information, use the problem-solution formula. This formula entails that you state a problem in your status update that your customers are currently experiencing. Then provide the solution or a hint to the solution. Finally, provide a link that goes directly to the page where they can find the product or service, article, blog post, or wherever you want to send them for more information.
This also allows you to push them from your social media networks to your other forms of credibility, such as your business website or your blog. It may even send them to a site where you have a guest article posted, which is an additional endorsement for you and your business.
Join in the Conversation
You also build credibility with your followers by having conversations with them on social media just as you would if they were in front of you. Part of building credibility is being responsive to your customers, so if someone makes a comment on your social media page, respond to it. If a follower poses or asks a question on your social media page, answer it. When you are engaged as the business owner, or one of your employees are monitoring the social media accounts, it puts a person behind the business.
Consumers like to know that there are real people that they are dealing with behind a brand, business, organization, or company. Monitoring the conversations that are taking place and being part of these conservations is engaging to your customers and your prospects. Engagement builds credibility and keeps them coming back for more and more.
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