The 10 Simplest Ways to Boost Your Social Media Credibility
I was a very active social media user during the past decades.
Over 100k followers follow me just on Pinterest! Yet I’m also still active elsewhere!
In recent years I also worked as social media manager for a few clients!
Yet I notice the same mistakes made by new arrivals on social media sites.
On the other hand it’s very easy to boost your social media credibility!
You can do that with very simple measures. How? Scroll down!
How to be credible from the start on social media and beyond?
So what are the ways to help you become a credible source from day one?
How do you make people trust you on social media, your blog and site?
Here’s a list of the 10 simplest ways to boost your social media credibility from the start.
It also requires very little effort. Check them out below!
1. Use a unique name!
Use a real name or nick name which is truly a name! I’m Tad Chef e.g.
Do not use keywords as your name. Hello Real Estate California, how are you?
Are you in it for the long term? The quick Google traffic is not enough? Do reputation building!
Change your business name to become a (personal) brand in order not to appear to be a spammer.
2. Use an avatar!
On most social sites if you do not use one you will get ignored altogether.
Use a picture of a an actual individual.
Do not display just a logo or random item.
It doesn’t even have to be you but it’s better to display your photo.
3. Share your favorite sites!
Spread the word about other people’s content and blog posts!
Do not solely share your own postings! Especially in case you are new to a community.
Do NOT just push your own website or postings as your first action.
You’re dead on arrival this way. It’s not selfish media!
4. Introduce yourself.
Say something about yourself on your profile.
Do not just start out of nowhere. Let people relate.
5. Do not share everything!
Share only the good stuff.
Nobody will respect you on social media if you just share anything.
Do you share even crap just to become a power user?
In the age of redundant AI content quality beats quantity.
6. Befriend other community members!
Check out people with similar interests!
Add them as your friends and support them!
Do not add only top users or dozens users at once.
7. Socialize across different social media services.
Add your existing Facebook, LinkedIn or X/Twitter friends at the new network you enter.
Do not overdo (see #6!) Make sure to add those who fit a particular audience!
I did not add my SEO blog readers to my Pinterest audience e.g.
I’ve built that one from scratch over the years and became popular early on.
8. Share in the morning or during daytime!
Do not share business news on weekends or at night.
Some social sites like Pinterest have largely US audiences.
When you are in Asia or Europe do not share when people sleep in the US so that nobody sees it.
9. Share real life stories!
Share actual stories that matter!
Tell people something they can relate to!
Make it relatable for the broad public!
Do not just cover “blogging, social media and search” only.
10. Be yourself.
Behave like a human being not like a bot or salesperson.
Do not sell to people who are strangers, give them something for free.
It’s like arriving at a party and shouting “buy this, buy that”.
Bring a present, be sociable and friendly.
People valuing your advice will be much more likely to buy something fro you or to recommend you.
So you’ve done all the basics, what now?
You mastered these ways and it works for a while?
You can start thinking about personal gain. Don’t get me wrong though.
I’m all about give and take but without giving first you can’t take on social media!
Unless you are not in it for real social media credibility and reputation building.
Use these 10 ways of boosting credibility on social media first!
Once people start appreciating you will be able to take as well.
What? You mean there’s no magic formula? But I want instant success for no work! Dammit.
:)
Do not submit your own postings!
On this the opinions divergee largely. Some say no, some say submit only your best pieces.
As a blog with not too much traffic, I’d vote for the second option. For if I am to wait untill somebody submits my pages …
Anyway, if the content is good, I do not think it matters.
Olivier
Yeah, Michael. Now that you say it, social media sucks for not being like the real world where you just enter a library, sports stadium or art gallery and exclaim “I’m the best, buy my stuff!” and everybody buys it…
Olivier: Do not think like Bush in black and white, good or evil categories. You don’t have to submit yourself and you don’t have to wait either. There are subtle methods to achieve social media success. Check my archives to find out about some of them.
By not submitting your own postings, you can have a good reader insight on what people find the most valuable and do it again in a similar topic!
David: Exactly. When you ask someone to submit a story you can also get some valuable peer review too. In my case I rarely need to ask someone to submit my stuff though. In most cases people do it by themeselves.
Regarding point #8, it depends on which timezone you are in. For example, there is eleven hour time difference between Pakistan and USA timezones, so when we have night here, it’s day in the US and vice versa.
Other points, I agree with. :)
These are really simple but great tips to help you boost your credibility in social media.
I would like to add than when we you use avatar always make sure that you are using the same avatar so that your contacts from other social sites can recognized you when they come across you in other sites.
#10 Be yourself… quite problematic because people generally acting in their specific capacity as users of certain online systems ;)
How many times can this same list be posted on the web over and over and over again? The truth is that SEO best practices can be learned by anybody in about two days and beyond that it’s just tactics and trickery to try to get to the top.
Thanks, I am tring to use stumble upon to build traffic to my site. Your comments helped me see what I was doing wrong. As of now I don’t enen have an avatar.
Don’t forget social media users can smell a fake a mile away!
Great post — and I think every company wanting to get into social media should have an ‘authentic’ user on staff.
Mohsin, Joy, SexySEO: True but manageable.
Paul: Good tip.
Shaun: You’re welcome. Good luck.
Yes, Kelly: That’s what I assume for a while. Every larger company needs someone who is socializing all the time without doing marketing overtly.
Good points! I agree, don´t post your own posts and post only stuff that you think could be interesting to other users too.
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