Be an Authority: How to gain audience trust on social media
Social Media Marketing is mostly about building and maintaining trust of your audience. Being able to reach a huge audience is great but that doesn't mean anything if that audience isn't engaging with your social media posts! That's why it's really important for you to gain the trust of your audience / followers which will help you to establish yourself as the 'go to' or authority in your niche. With that in mind, how does one go about building trust with relative strangers on social media?
Rome wasn't built in a day
Before you begin your quest to build authority and trust in your niche you must understand it's a long term thing, just like in real life people don't suddenly trust you immediately, you'll need to gain some credibility to do this you'll need start to nurture your relationships and develop your content so you have something to make you seem more credible.
When people read your first social media posts, in all likely hood you'll be ignored, if you can get your new audience to read your articles or share posts and you manage to touch them in some way this is a great start! But it's unlikely these people will be paying customers at this point.
As you continue to create valuable content and solve problems for your target audience you'll find that they'll read more of your content and you'll start to build relationships more but only if this content is good and your brand is on point. It's very possible, that if people in your audience enjoyed your content each time it touches them that they'll start to trust in what your saying and become a part of your community and an advocate for your brand meaning they'll be paying attention to your content in future.
Over a period of time your audience will go from paying attention or taking note to actively seeking out your content, it's here that you can start to make sales! This process could take months or even years and will only happen when you are consistently creating valuable content, speaking ad engaging with your community on social media But don't mix up consistency with quality! It's also really important that you get a lot of great content out there but it has to be top quality. Try to be accurate, interesting and ahead of the game with the content you create. There are heaps of tools out there out help you do this. (also my online course 'social media authority' covers all of this)
When you are consistently creating great, relevant, valuable content and your audience is sharing and reading that content as well as seeing you as the 'go to person' to ask questions about your niche then you know you have become a true thought leader.
Speeding up the process
It doesn't have to take years to gain your niche audiences trust and establish yourself as a thought leader, there are a few things you can do to speed things up!
1. Reach out to influencers in your niche that your audience already trusts, if they share your content or mention you this is like getting an endorsement and can really help to get you some more credibility in your niche. Periscope is a great place to do this as it's such an instant and easy way to get close to your biggest influencers.
2. Engage with your audience, ask questions, make them feel involved and always answer their questions! Be yourself and be friendly, approachable and responsive.
3. Keep your eye on the leaders in your industry niche and see what they are doing, you'll be able to tap into some of their follower base and pick up some pointers.
Some people rise to the top on social media and others just seem to stay where they are, this isn't by accident there's no luck involved, if you spend time working on your plan, goals, creating great content, reaching out to influencers, engage your audience and work hard, you'll make it there too!