How Brands Build Trust Through Social Media Marketing
How Brands Build Trust Through Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a process where a company tries to draw traffic to their website through other social networks. This is not a new concept; nevertheless brands are continuously finding it hard to gain power through the social sphere. Many believe search engines such as Google, is where customers look for their information. However, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest have become the new search engines in recent years. Through these new search engines, information is passed from person to person and is finally accepted because it comes from someone else who is believed to be a trusted party, not the company directly. The key word in this topic is “trust”. In the online world there is a lack of trust; there is only 58% consumer trust on websites. It is therefore the aim of brands to break this barrier and build trust with customers through social media marketing. The question is how do they build this trust?
Social media gives brands a chance to interact directly and immediately with customers and therefore can build trust as building relationships lets them exceed a certain limit. There are many ways in which brands can do this, 5 main ones that will be explained following.
1.A useful method is a graphical trust builder also called transparency showing people images such as before and after shots of the effects of a specific product and alongside it a testimonial from the person in the picture. This gives users a visual as well as the opinion of the third party involved. This could also be a video showing the process of an advert. Dove for example does this with their makeup. It is a woman who does not have nice skin in the beginning and they show all the make up they put on her in order to use her as an example of what you will look like if you use their foundation.
2.Another important technique is to focus actions around the customer. Many different categories can
Social media marketing is a process where a company tries to draw traffic to their website through other social networks. This is not a new concept; nevertheless brands are continuously finding it hard to gain power through the social sphere. Many believe search engines such as Google, is where customers look for their information. However, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest have become the new search engines in recent years. Through these new search engines, information is passed from person to person and is finally accepted because it comes from someone else who is believed to be a trusted party, not the company directly. The key word in this topic is “trust”. In the online world there is a lack of trust; there is only 58% consumer trust on websites. It is therefore the aim of brands to break this barrier and build trust with customers through social media marketing. The question is how do they build this trust?
Social media gives brands a chance to interact directly and immediately with customers and therefore can build trust as building relationships lets them exceed a certain limit. There are many ways in which brands can do this, 5 main ones that will be explained following.
1.A useful method is a graphical trust builder also called transparency showing people images such as before and after shots of the effects of a specific product and alongside it a testimonial from the person in the picture. This gives users a visual as well as the opinion of the third party involved. This could also be a video showing the process of an advert. Dove for example does this with their makeup. It is a woman who does not have nice skin in the beginning and they show all the make up they put on her in order to use her as an example of what you will look like if you use their foundation.
2.Another important technique is to focus actions around the customer. Many different categories can