Social media allows you to build customer trust in a way that a traditional marketing campaign alone cannot. While paid advertising may get you brand recognition, an open and direct line of communication on social media gains you the trust that influences consumers to make that initial purchase – and come back for more. That’s because social media humanizes your business, puts a face to your company to which people can relate. And, often times, a brand’s social media personality and reputation are the sole differentiating factor in a crowded and cutthroat marketplace. Want to stand out from your competitors? Follow these 5 tips to build strong personal relationships with your customers on social media:

1. Avoid multiple personalities by showcasing a consistent brand identity across relevant platforms. Just because there’s a ton of social media networks doesn’t mean your business must be active on all of them. If your business is on too many channels, creating a sense of community becomes more difficult. The best strategy is to identify where your customers spend the majority of their time and establish a presence there.
2. Provide your customers with quality content. Quality isn’t some hard-to-define, elusive trait. Quality content is simply information that genuinely addresses a customer’s needs or wants by either providing a solution to a problem or satisfying their curiosity. The added advantage of social media is that it is relatively easy to create targeted content for specific audiences by using a platform’s deep spring of customer data. By providing relevant, informative content, your business can demonstrate your expertise – the surest way to gain trust.
3. Allow customers to provide feedback…and engage. Your social media accounts are public and you can be sure people are scrolling your pages to not only read your content but see what others have to say about you. Surprisingly, both positive and negative feedback can help you establish trust. First, if you allow customers to vent about a bad experience, you’re showing others you are authentic – it would look suspicious if you only had rave reviews. Second, if you engage customers who have had a bad experience, you are proving to potential buyers you are willing to take responsibility for your mistakes and go the extra mile to rectify your wrongs.
4. Get creative. Engage in fun and exciting ways. Social media platforms are more than a digital business card – that’s what Google My Business is for. Being playful and sharing fun content makes your business seem more accessible, more approachable. Instead of just sharing technical information about your business, products, or services, create engaging content, such as videos, memes, and infographics, about topics your customer base cares about. Use a little a humor every once and while.
5. Use high quality visuals. In order to build trust, you have to entice people to read your content in the first place. Most social media users scroll through pages quickly only stopping when a post catches their eye. Attaching quality images to your posts will not only grab their attention but enhance the shareability of your content, too– more eyes, wider recognition, more trust…and all at no extra cost to you. Make sure to use unique images that are optimized for the platform you share them on (i.e. size, file name, alt tags).

To build trust, you have to break down a few barriers. And social media allows you to do just that by engaging customers on a more personal level. If you can establish a reputation of trust – that is, show you are reliable, responsive, and transparent, you can charge premium prices for your products and services even if there are similar companies with lower prices. If you would like some help establishing a relationship with your customers, contact Social Spice Media. Unlike traditional marketing firms who have hastily added social media management to their menu of services, we’re experts in social media marketing – it’s in our name.