Building Trust in the New Online Economy

Building Trust in the New Online Economy

Ponder over this for just a moment…. eBay just shouldn’t work! You think about it, we send money to complete strangers based on a bunch of positive peer reviews and ratings from people we’ve never met. But, we will not send money to complete strangers based on a bunch of negative peer reviews and ratings from people we’ve never met.

When you look at it like this, it doesn’t make sense but as we all know, this kind of behaviour is commonplace online.  We have an inherent trust in those that have taken the time to publish their personal feedback.

There is an underlying trust in crowds and an overriding faith in groups of individuals who we have never met. The online trust economy is a powerful force that favours the crowd over companies.  Look no further than Amazon.  We buy books based more on what individuals say than what the media and publisher say.  Ultimately you’ll trust Sally from Sunnybrook Farm over the New York Times Book Review!!

Amazon has made a fortune with their “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought This Item” sales marketing strategy.  After all, if you like the book you’re about to purchase and other people who bought this book also found value in some other titles; they might be worth checking out too!!

This new ‘trust economy’ is all about creating an overall great experience with a foundation of authenticity, open communication, knowledge and value from your customer’s (not your) perspective.  When you engage in a conversation and treat your consumers with respect and as your peers, magical things happen!

Here’s the crux of it: you are in the business of building your own trust economy as part of your core values and foundation.  In order to really succeed in business, nothing happens until you have demonstrated and displayed the highest levels of trust for and within the communities you operate in and from.

Building Trust via the Social Media Channels

There are a number of different social media channels that you should be building trust within and incorporating into your marketing strategy.  These channels are:

1. Blog: A text-based online journal where an individual and/or a business can quickly publish and post thoughts. Readers can comment on and share this information as well as subscribe to the content for free.  This is a great way of keeping in touch with your consumers because they are notified in their readers whenever a new piece of content is created. Blogs are generally informative, provocative and written in a very human voice.

2. Micro-Blog (Twitter): Twitter allows you to one short message (140 characters long). People follow you and you follow people. Through intimidate 140-character broadcast you can share micro-content, connect and build a community.

3. Podcast: These are exactly like blogs but they come in either audio or video formats.  The majority of audio and video podcasts are accessible and indexed over at iTunes.

4. Social Network (Facebook and LinkedIn): These 2 social networks are where most people online are connecting.  Individuals create their own profiles and add connections (friends).

5. Sharing Sites (YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare): You can upload videos to YouTube and you can do the same thing with photos on Flickr.  Slideshare allows you to your share PowerPoint presentations which is a very effective marketing tool.  Along with sharing your multimedia content with the world, people can also rate, comment, link and embed your content in their own channels (viral marketing at its best!)

Trust + Community = ROI

Return on investment in the ‘new economy’ is driven by how loyal and engaged your consumers are.  Businesses that build trust and engage in their community are seeing real results and real ROI.  Let’s assume that you are delivering the ultimate experience. Your brand rocks, you offer excellent products and impressive services – you’ve got it all. What next? Your ability to leverage true ROI is going to come from the level of trust you have built and the community you serve.  Here are 6 ways to build trust in the trust economy:

1. Consistency

If you start a blog and you commit to blogging every day, you need to!  If you don’t you’re letting your community down and breaking a promise which impacts on how much your community trusts you.  Be consistent with everything that you do.  Don’t jump out of the blocks, all guns blazing only to find weeks later you can’t maintain it.  Think of the classic fable and be more like the tortoise than the hare.

2. Choose a Global User Name

You don’t get a second chance to make a first positive impression! The name you use to represent yourself is (and will be) directly linked to the brand you are building. If you’re going to use your company name, be prepared that some people will perceive it as “cold” because it will look and feel like a marketing message and not like it is coming from an individual.  Try to use your entire full name and include your company name.  For example, you’ll notice I sign off my blog posts “Kylie Bartlett, The Web Celeb”.  By doing this, I am transparent in presenting myself and the company I represent.

Avoid using nick names in your email address and don’t use a hotmail or gmail account if you’re serious about growing a credible and professional brand. Be consistent and maintain the same user name in every channel you can. For example my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube user names are the same: Kylie Bartlett and The Web Celeb.

3. Choose One Good Picture of Yourself

A picture tells a thousand words! I have mentioned this in previous posts but I thought I would reiterate the point again, it’s that important.  Every day I’ll read a message on Facebook that says “45 of your friends have changed their personal profile picture”.  The temptation is huge, you’ve just been out with your mates and a great shot of you was taken. Whatever the reason, think first about what the photo is and what it represents.  If you’re trying to build a presence online by connecting to like-minded others to grow your business, odds are these conversations and communities will extend well beyond one online location. Remember that each one of us is now our own media channel. People will start to recognise your profile picture across multiple online channels and they’ll start to feel like they’re already connected to you. Think about Nike and Coke a Cola, how often do they change their logo?

4. Add Value to the Conversation

No one care about what you say until you demonstrate how much you care about them and their insights.  The easiest way to create buzz is to add your personal insights and establish yourself as a recognised authority.  You might think the best way to do this is to start a blog and you can but there is another way to build your credibility and that’s to find the more highly trafficked blogs and online spaces that serve your industry and customer, follow the content until you start to get a feel for it and then start adding your comments.

Warning: don’t start commenting like “hey dude, you rock!!” unless this is the brand you want to portray.  A simple way to build trust and community is to comment intelligently and frequently.

5. Online Etiquette: Respond Quickly and Honestly

When you begin to venture into these online channels and get started, it is critical that you never be silent if someone emails you, blogs or podcasts about you, or interviews you for an article.  If someone mentions you, it is now your duty, at the very least, to leave a comment back on their blog (or email them directly), letting them know that you are reading and paying attention and most importantly appreciative of their mentioning you.

I highly recommend setting up Google alerts on your name and your company name so you can keep track of who is talking about you online.  For example, in last week’s post I referred to James Mapes and a book he wrote. He obviously had Google alerts set up on his name; he then sent me a thank you email for recommending his book! Do you think he has left a lasting impression in my mind?

6. Speak Like a Human Being, Not a Press Release

Longtime loyalty and building trust with your consumers boils down to one hard reality: people will buy from you and want to stay connected to you only if they are getting a real interaction from a real human being.

Book Review

If you’ve enjoyed this blog post then you’re really going to love the book “Six Pixels of Separation’ written Mitch Joel. This blog is based on Mitch’s book. Mitch Joel is the first to integrate digital marketing, social media, personal branding, and entrepreneurship in a clear, entertaining, and instructive manner that everyone can understand and apply. You can follow Mitch at: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/

Action Steps

Read back over this blog and complete an audit on you and your business. What areas are you doing really well in and what areas could you improve in?

If you have any questions you’d like to ask me either leave me a message on my blog http://www.kyliebarteltt.com/blog or pop across to my Facebook Fan Page at: http://www.facebook.com/TheWebCeleb

Until next week, keep strutting your stuff!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb!