If your brand appears to be shady or not transparent in the eyes of the consumer, the brand will struggle to succeed. Trust is an important factor in building user engagement and sales. Not only does social media build trust, but it also allows you to get to know your audience so you can build a more consumer-oriented business model. Here are some tips on how you can use social media to build trust with your customers online.

1. Practice Social Listening

By observing what others are saying about your brand online, you can gain insights on what you are doing right and what areas have room for improvement.

If your organization is tagged in multiple online complaints or bad reviews about the same concern, consider this as guidance and an area of opportunity for your brand. Once you have made adjustments to these concerns, continue practicing social listening to see if your customers are responding to the changes.

Using social listening is a great tool for building trust with customers while giving you a competitive advantage from their feedback.

2. Have a Consistent Brand Voice

Keeping a consistent brand voice across all content and platforms is expected of customers. Creating inconsistent “profiles” among various social media channels is very confusing and misleading to your customers. Ultimately, this will drive away sales and user engagement.

Establish your brand personality and keep it consistent when engaging with customers, sharing content, and interacting online. This will make your brand more trustworthy and come off as a reliable organization to potential and existing customers.

3. Follow Through on Commitments

Consumers expect brands to keep promises they make online. If you publicly promise to listen to feedback and work with customers to address their concerns, follow through!

Take polls online, respond to customer comments, and most importantly, follow through with results and updates. This will show your customers that you see their concerns and want to improve their experience, thus building trust with them.

Incorporate these 3 tips into your own social media marketing strategy if you want to see positive results for your brand. Building trust with your customers online is the first step in making sales and increasing traffic and engagement across all platforms. Taking the time to build trust will give your customers an incredible experience worth following and supporting.

Source: Inc.: 3 Ways to Strengthen Customer Trust With Social Media