10 Ways to Build Your Credibility on Social Media

Social media is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that can help you to reach a potentially unlimited number of people with the very minimum investment in terms of time, money and effort. But while social media might be incredibly powerful, it’s still only going to be as good as the strategy you have in place and if you haven’t first established yourself as a credible authority then you’ll find that everything you do falls on deaf ears. To improve your effectiveness then, you should make this one of your biggest focusses. Here are ten ways to build that credibility…

1. Create a Blog
2. Build Your Following
3. Be Personal
4. But Not Too Personal
5. Brand Yourself
6. Watch Your Spelling
7. Post Regularly
8. Network
9. Participate
10. Deliver Quality

#1: Create a Blog

This is one of the simplest and easiest ways to get more followers – simply head onto your platform of choice and then go about adding as many people as you can. What you’ll find is that a large proportion of those people you add will respond in kind and immediately add you back. It can be slow going but it’s an almost guaranteed way to extend your reach and influence.

#2: Build Your Following

Unfortunately, if you have a social media account with 14 followers, you will have a hard time convincing people to put stock in what you say. Of course it shouldn’t necessarily matter but it does. People see this as an indicator of your authority – so get to work growing that number.

#3: Be Personal

People like to know that there’s a real human being behind a social media account which can help to build trust and therefore credibility. Every now and then posting a personal image will help to build that connection with your fans.

#4: But Not Too Personal

That said, a drunken rant or a Tweet about your toilet habits can also seriously undermine your respectability. You might think it’s amusing/poignant but your business account is not the place for that kind of content.

#5: Brand Yourself

Your social media pages should have strong branding that utilizes high definition images and well written information. Make sure that everything says ‘quality’.

#6: Watch Your Spelling

Does a misspelling necessarily mean that your interesting fact isn’t true? It shouldn’t do really but to a large portion of your audience it does.

#7: Post Regularly

If you go days, weeks or months on end without posting then your social media will look like a ghost town which suggests it’s not a professional account.

#8: Network

One of the easiest ways to be persuasive is to appeal to another authority on a given subject. If you can get a referral from another big social media account then this will help you greatly.

#9: Participate

Communities on social media give you a chance to answer questions and demonstrate that you know your stuff. You should consider this almost as an opportunity to ‘advertise’ your expertise and knowhow.