Brands worldwide have leveraged social media to build their brand image and presence for years. We all know the importance of social media marketing for brand growth, but did you know that it also helps build trust and loyalty? As per the 2023 Sprout Social Index Report, 77% of customers prefer buying from brands they follow online. This statistic proves how essential it is to build brand trust with your followers on social media for long-term growth. So, how can you use social media to build brand trust among customers?
This blog will provide you with the best ways to harness the power of social media and create the perfect strategies for better brand trust and reputation management.
A] Effective Ways to Build Brand Trust Through Social Media
Here are the best strategies to help you build trust and credibility with customers on social media –
1. Be Transparent
The key to engaging with customers and building credibility lies in being transparent. Customers not only want brands to stand for different issues, but they want them to act on their beliefs. For instance, when a brand stands up for a social issue online, customers will do research to ensure it is true. Do you know that around 63% of consumers prefer to buy from purpose-driven brands? A great way to build customer trust is to show them that you care about others more than just yourself.
Similarly, customers expect transparency in your brand’s story, from how the products are developed to distribution. Thus, it is essential to be transparent on social media and share your process with the customers.
2. Be Quick & Responsive
One of the important elements of online reputation management is to be responsive to customers. They should be able to reach out to your brand on social media and should feel encouraged to do so. Ensure to reply promptly to their comments and feedback to make them feel heard.
Don’t be afraid of complaints and negative feedback, and respond to them in stride. Providing quick replies to customer queries and feedback is a sure-shot way to build a strong online community.
3. Produce Great Content
You can post informative content on your social media that helps customers in your niche. This helps with engagement, and customers can actually count on you to find solutions to their problems. You should also use relevant keywords and hashtags to reach out to more customers in your industry.
While being informative, your social media content should also be engaging and should start a conversation. This helps build a strong community among your customers, which ultimately helps with trust and loyalty.
4. Encourage Reviews and Use Testimonials
There is nothing customers trust over more genuine reviews from fellow customers. You must ask customers to post honest reviews about your product on their social media. This helps in word-of-mouth marketing and encourages customers to stay associated with your brand in the long term.
Even if a customer had a less-than-satisfactory experience, you can still include their reviews and respond to them to show you will follow through and make the required improvements.
5. Show the People Behind Your Brand
Your followers don’t want to interact with robots on social media but real people. Showing them the people behind your brand helps humanize it and build trust. For example, while interacting with customers via Twitter or other channels, use your initials or introduce yourself using your name. Brands can also add headshots, names, and designations of the people interacting with the customers. At the same time, your people should use the follower’s name while replying to their reviews or comments to make the conversation more personal.
6. Be Authentic
Staying authentic on social media is essential to build customer connections and brand trust. Social media is a very complex world, and you need to be clear about your brand values to establish a genuine presence that resonates with your followers. You must ensure that everything from your content to your replies to comments represents the company’s core values.
It is very easy to fake a brand personality in the short term, but genuineness stays in the long run. Your followers need to understand your values, beliefs, and purpose to form a connection with the brand. While in recent times, social media has been ruled by trends, topical events, and real-time content; your values must align with the content you publish. You can learn more about real-time content marketing by reading our guide on moment marketing on social media.
Thus, the importance of social media when it comes to brand trust and credibility is multi-fold. It provides the perfect platform to respond and engage with your customers and develop deeper connections and strong relationships. You can use social media to your brand’s advantage by using the strategies mentioned above to create a strong brand presence that is authentic and resonates with your values.
