Trust Building On The Social Media – How to Do It for Brands?

The success in marketing hinges around creating a brand that establishes a credible identity for the business. Once consumers know the brand, you have to build brand equity by gaining their trust that forms the foundation of the brand building. It is only possible through closer consumer engagement by using the channels of communications that build relationships with them. The social media with its high communication capabilities is ideally suited for creating consumer engagement necessary for adding more value to brands. That is the reason that almost all businesses, regardless of its size and stature have social media presence today. When the brand moves around the social media channels, it not only receives broad exposure but also gets much closer to consumers that makes them interested in the brand.

The modern-day PR

Public relations or PR has been a great force in marketing in creating brand recognition and brand value. With the advent of the social media, that draws all the focus today, the traditional methods of public relations have undergone a complete overhaul and are now more forceful and aggressive than ever before. The social media has made it easy to achieve the goals of public relations without spending money. All that you need is a good understanding of the social media platform and knowledge about the techniques of creating better consumer engagement.

The cascading effect

As the social media campaign progresses, it creates a cascading effect that keeps giving more exposure to the brand as the campaign gathers momentum. The sharing feature of the social media accelerates the pace of the brand building process. As the brand receives excellent sharing, the trust level keeps increasing as more and more people keep talking about it. The trust that the brand carries helps to form the foundation of developing close relationships with consumers that is essential for marketing success. As you read on, you will gain more insight into the steps involved in using the social media for brand building.

Know your consumer

Marketing success depends on how well you know your consumers because your target is to meet their expectations by presenting products or services that they would find valuable. Therefore, it is essential to have your finger on the pulse of consumers to know what they like and dislike. What the consumer thinks about your product or service, what more they expect from it and how they behave when purchasing products are some of the necessary information that you must gather. With the help of some research and use of analytic tools, you can extract valuable consumer data from the social media.  For collating the information and storing it at a convenient place for easy access, you have to set up a suitable database that becomes the heart of the social media campaign.

Engage in trust building

With an eye on developing a relationship with consumers and keeping them engaged firmly in the brand, it is essential to ensure that they repose their confidence in the brand. To facilitate consumers in developing trust on the brand you have to communicate with consumers closely at an individual level for which the social media is just the platform that you need. Presenting the brand to consumers in the proper perspective that they find exciting and useful allow them to evaluate the brand and ascertain its worth. Once they see reasons to trust the brand, they would feel encouraged to help other consumers with the information. Thus, the name and brand start spreading through honest sharing.

Create brand identity

All this time, the person behind the brand had remained invisible while highlighting the brand and speaking on behalf of the brand. While consumers connect to the brand primarily, it also means that they would like to communicate to the person behind the brand. Now it is time to give the brand a human face and voice that carries the assurance of its creator. It would ensure that consumers become more confident about the brand because they now know the man who has created the foundation of trust. To enable consumers to identify the brand quickly even without referring to its name or the creator, give a distinct voice to the brand by developing a typical style of communication that help to relate to the brand instantaneously. The usual style of the chosen language becomes synonymous with the brand.

Hear from the consumers

All this time you have been talking to consumers, but now, you should also allow them to air their views about the product. Provide space for consumers to talk about the product, both good and bad and ask for their feedback. By allowing consumers to express their views, you also demonstrate your accountability for the product, as you are willing to hear from them and make improvements.

The more you are transparent to consumers and stay committed, the more will be the trust for the brand.

Author bio:

Sujain Thomas is an online marketing expert who knows the best ways of using the customer database for marketing gains. She is the brain behind many successful brands and considered the go-to person for companies that are looking for some hand-holding in marketing. She is also the author of several e-books on marketing.

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