A study shows that 84% of buyers trust small businesses more than other kinds of businesses. Why’s that? They like customer service, convenience, and supporting locally-owned businesses. This gives local businesses an edge over large businesses, however, it doesn’t mean that you’ve already won the trust of your community.
The customer journey is more complex now than it has been in years. In the past, superior customer experience may have only happened when answering questions over the phone or visiting a local store in person. Now the customer experience usually begins online. There are many unique benefits of utilizing social media for small businesses. Social media is one of the best places to start a no-cost interaction with a prospect. That begs the question, how is your business leveraging its interactions on social media?
Prospects are constantly on the lookout for businesses that prove themselves to be trustworthy online. When there are so many online channels that prospects explore, how can you know that you’re getting found? We’re going to walk through 4 surefire ways to build trust across social media for small businesses.
4 Ways to Build Trust on Social Media
1. Get active within your online community.
What’s just as powerful as word-of-mouth? Talking about your business online. When you are active within your social media community, you’ll become a more trustworthy and memorable brand. You should consistently be talking about your business and services and how you can help local prospects.
Join local Facebook groups and interact with your neighbors. Optimize your Nextdoor profile so that homeowners know you’re there to help if needed. Interact with other local businesses online to enhance trust among your community.
2. Respond quickly to customers.
The customer experience begins the moment a prospect becomes aware of a brand. Positive communication and interactions with a local business are vital to getting and retaining customers. Not only is communication important to those directly involved, but it’s also just as important to display positive communication to anyone who can see you online. This means when you’re answering customers, posting content, and replying to reviews, you should be aware of the tone. It could be beneficial to discuss what kind of online voice you want your business to have.
3. Post frequent and relevant content.
Some local businesses don’t dedicate time to their social media presence and suffer in the long run. Have you ever gone to a business’ social media page and seen that they haven’t posted in months? It has probably made you question them and wonder if they’re even in business anymore. That’s certainly a thought that will cross a prospect’s mind if they see you haven’t created any social posts. Be sure to post frequently. This will also positively affect your ranking in search queries.
When posting content, you’ll want to make sure it’s relevant to your target audience. Your content will gain more traction and engagement when you promote topics that your customers will find useful. Then when customers comment or ask questions, you can build trust by responding with valuable information that everyone online can benefit from seeing.
4. Encourage customer reviews and testimonials.
72% of customers won’t take action with a business until they read reviews. This goes to show the gravity of a business’ online reputation. A negative ripple effect will occur if you don’t take good care of your customers and offer an exceptional customer experience at the start of an engagement. Your online reputation could ultimately get affected if your business isn’t on the same page about how customers should be treated.
Encourage customers to review your business after you work with them. Prospects will trust a business that has honest reviews. Some review sites to be aware of are Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, and Nextdoor. Once you build up your reputation, you can pull in reviews from these “3rd party” review sites straight to your website. This also builds trust and reliability so that when a prospect goes to your website, they can immediately see what customers have to say about you.
Keep Your Business Information Accurate Across All Channels
Ultimately, to manage a trusted brand on social media, you’ll need to maintain all of your listings. Did you know that prospects can probably find your business across 70+ sites? It’s common for this to go unnoticed because it’s not an easy task to do on your own.
The Surefire Local Marketing Platform powers local businesses to build a trusted brand and ensure customers can easily find your business online. You’re able to manage what information about your business appears in search results. With the click of a button, you can update your phone number, hours of operation, and address across 70+ listings in one place.
Building trust through social media is one of the many actions you can take through the Surefire Local Marketing Platform. Request a demo and become one of the thousands of local businesses that are building online trust with ease.
