Social Media Trust

What are we trying to do on Social Media? Is it to reach the masses through new communication channels, only to dilute marketing messages by using Traditional Messaging in such an open communicated environment? Or is it something more?

We’ve been given the extreme opportunity to actually talk with our community

From my vantage point we, as marketers, need to embrace what it is we’ve been given… We’ve been given the extreme opportunity to actually talk with our community, converse with our customers, and build solid relationships that, if nurtured correctly, can turn into passionate advocates about our company, brand and products. This amazing phenomena doesn’t come without a pricetag. Not a monetary figure but one of time, understanding, and effort. We must pay this price to build the trust needed to develop lasting relationships and bonds that will only continue to grow stronger with each interaction.

Now that many companies are “dipping a toe” in social media, we continually hear, “How do I build trust within my community?”

eMarketer recently released some amazing facts and figures about what and how people trust in social media.

As we see above, trust from consumers depends on several variables; some that you may have control of, some that you may not. There is no magic charm for success in social media; however there is a simple formula to building passionate supporters:

1.    Build Trust
2.    Drive Loyalty
3.    Empower Advocates