Surviving as a business in 2016 has more than its fair share of problems such as how to make yourself unique when your customers are being targeted by literally a world of competitors. If you are not willing to invest some time and money into social media consider that US business-to-business (B2B) marketers are expected to spend $100 billion on it by 2017. The Sensis Social Media Report May 2015, I recommend skimming through this, shows that only 30 percent out of a survey of 793 small businesses have a social media presence.
Creating trust is vital if you are selling your product or services online since people are taking your word that it will do what they want. Below you will find some key factors to remember when you build your social media strategy.
Stay Mature
If you want to stand out on social media, in a good way, then you need to be trustworthy. A bad example of what to do is Amy’s Baking Company who responded to negative feedback by ranting at their customers on Facebook, not kidding. They responded in all caps, yelling pretty much at Reddit and yelp users.
You cannot fight the internet, if you do something and it fails, move on, maybe apologize, and do not try to defend yourself. A good example is when JP Morgan tried to show their humanity with a Q&A session. When confronted by posts such as “What’s it like working with Mexican drug cartels? Do they tip? #AskJPM” they responded “Tomorrow’s Q&A is cancelled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board.”
Be Stoic!
Be Straightforward
For people shopping online, social media including sites like Facebook and twitter, blogs, reviews and testimonials are all essential. Pretty much every online consumer consults at least one of these before buying. If you tell the customer exactly what they are getting, what people think about it, and how it compares to other similar products they will be more likely to buy from you.
When I buy online I Usually go through the process of reading blogs for similar products then I look at the different brands, their descriptions, and reviews. Descriptions are the most important to me since reviews can be from people who posted as soon as they got the item or from those complaining that they got the 1 in 1000 defective item. Chances are I am buying that item for a purpose and I want to make sure that what I am buying will make me happy.
Communicate
Whenever posting anything online make sure that there is at least one call to action (CTA). This is you asking the customer to do something such as comment, like or share your post. It is important to keep an eye on these so that you can join the conversation as well. It is important to listen and respond formally without sounding like an automated message.
Keep updating regularly, show reliability by continually adding to your social media or keeping your posts up to date. You can post or tweet too much and become annoying as well. Just as long as you have meaningful material that your audience want to see or hear about you should share it.
Get Laughs
A great social media strategy is to make the occasional funny post that is still relevant to your business. These usually drive up comments and shares and allow better, more enjoyable conversation with your audience. After all I want to buy from someone who genuinely enjoys what they are doing.
Get Involved
From local businesses to large businesses there is community outreach. You should promote any event or show off your good deeds in social media. You don’t have to do anything big just show that you care about your community and are aware of what is going on in it. A VERY important note, do not try to turn tragedies into marketing! It fails every time, if you want you can say some heart-felt words and show support, but tweeting that you have the breakfast for the community to recover with after it was bombed (brought to you by Epicurious) is not received well or in any way okay. Don’t do it.
Scott Jarvie is a photographer that has created his own style of photography. Not only that but he is great at social media management and his website to not only promote himself but help others by pointing them towards photography resources and displaying his student’s work.
Final Thoughts
Building trust is not very hard you just need to be human, put yourself in the customer’s place and think what you would want to see. Comment those thoughts below! Have fun and demonstrate your passion to your audience. Answer problems and do some pr. Connect with people and your business will grow. Keep working at it, you will not see results immediately, trust is formed through fire.