One of the biggest challenges you may face as a business owner or entrepreneur – and yet the most rewarding – is building trust between you and your target audience. Trust is not only powerful tool. It is a great honor for your clients and readers to bestow. Like Spidey says “with great power comes great responsibility”. It is very important to be aware of how you present yourself through your online presence (websites, social media, ezines, etc.) in order to earn and maintain that trust. As a strategic writer, I’ve learned that by employing the following strategies throughout my writing and online presence, my “trust factor” continues to build and grow for my – and my business’s – benefit.
1. Let Your Personality Shine: Let you true personality show through in your writing. Robotic and sterile writing will get you yawns. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show through, inject personal thoughts and share insights of the real you. Just be sure to give it the “mother test.” You know, the one where you picture what you are going to say in bright lights on a billboard where your mother will read it. Will she freak out? Then you should probably think again. Will she laugh and think “Oh, that’s so Dawn?” Then go for it!
2. Use Testimonials: Share the praise you receive from clients and colleagues directly with your readers by including testimonials, complete with names, photos and contact info when appropriate, anywhere you have a presence online.
3. Accreditations: Be sure to mention any honors, awards, accreditations, etc that you hold on your “About” page, in your bios and as they occur.
4. Headshots: Using real photos of yourself will resonate much more authentically than pictures of cute kittens. Beyond your headshots, share photos of you at speaking events, attending networking groups and in action doing what you do best.
5. Consistency / Dependability: If you say you are going to publish a weekly newsletter, then publish weekly. If you say that you will have a networking meeting on a specific date, then show up, no matter how many people rsvp. Consistency equals reliability equals dependability equals trust!
6. Be Available: If you give out your email, phone, Skype or other contact info, then answer inquiries in a timely manner.
7. Be Honest: ‘nuff said.
8. Always offer high quality content and design: If you are going to have a blog, website, ezine, etc, invest in the time to build it right or hire an expert to help you. Sloppy design, grammar and spelling issues, confusing links… these are all yucky and will not build trust.
9. Follow through: Be true to promises or commitments you make online. Follow through and write about the result of your actions to your audience. See #4.
10. Be gracious and sincere and grateful: Believe me, your audience will feel this and they will appreciate it.
Guest Writer – Dawn Mena
Dawn Mena is a professional writer and overall lifesaver for busy business owners with no time – or no desire – to write. A former Los Angeles Times editor and Editor-in-Chief of an international magazine for women in business, Dawn founded Captivating Copy to provide strategic writing support for entrepreneurs that effectively reaches their target audience. Get your free copy of “50 Ways to Put the Social Back in Social Media” atwww.getcaptivatingcopy.com now.