- September 15, 2019
- Posted by: Con P. Sweeney
- Category: Social Media
Trust.
A simple five letter word that means a lot.
(The collective subconsciousness that guides the formation of the English language knew instinctively that this word couldn’t just be four letters.)
Trust affects everything in our lives both personally and professionally.
But, especially in social media!
Let’s talk about this!
A critical component of social media is the formation of communities.
What are communities?
Simply put, they are collections of people who follow us for whatever reasons they may have.
They are willing to follow us, read and share our content, and engage with us.
They’re sharing something very precious with us…
Their time!
Time is fixed and limited, and everyone only has so much.
Although, most of us act like we have an infinite amount.
So, when folks follow us online, they’re saying something about us.
We matter to them.
Implicit in whatever reasons they may have to follow us is trust.
They trust us to do the following:
- Be truthful (Yes, I know not everyone on social media is truthful. But, the followers of liars are either ignorant of the truth, are amused by the lies, or just don’t care which is a whole other problem.)
- Add value (Inform, entertain, or instruct. Even posting cat pictures answers one of these needs. Don’t ask!)
- Be available (Nothing worse than replying to some really decent content only to never hear back from its originator.)
- Post regularly (Ever experience the angst of reading some excellent content never to hear from its creator again? You wonder whatever happened to them! And, no, this has nothing to do with the cat pictures mentioned above.)
- Stay relevant (Not everyone is going to find your social media activity relevant to their needs. But for those who do, make sure that you’re current and topical on whatever your subject matter is.)
Trust with communities can be broken in any number of ways, too numerous to go into here.
If your goal is to become an influencer on social media and to grow your communities then I encourage to make sure that you’re trusted by them and that you stay trusted.
Once lost, trust is very difficult to win back.
Think about it!
That’s it for now!
Please check-out my 8 step approach for developing a social media program to get some more ideas on how to use social media.
Also, never forget to reach out to either ask questions or to ask for help from someone like myself!
In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!
I look forward to any and all comments that you may have. I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.
And, remember!
I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me. Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.
I can also be reached at conpsweeney@someddi.com.
My Twitter handle is @conpsweeney.
Stay well!