Building A Trusted Voice as an Influencer
Being an influencer is more than just having a large following or posting aesthetically pleasing content. It's about building trust with your audience, becoming a reliable source of information, and establishing yourself as the go-to expert in your niche.
Take influencers like fashion guru, Melissa’s Wardrobe, or college-grad, Clarke, as examples. They are renowned for their transparency and ability to amplify the impact of their honest recommendations.
With countless influencers vying for attention, standing out and earning trust is essential for long-term success. So, how can you establish yourself as the go-to influencer? Let’s delve into the strategies behind building trust as an influencer.
How do you build trust with your audience?
With more consumers sceptical of traditional advertising, building trust is necessary for building brand loyalty and establishing genuine connections with your audience.
Character
Discovering your voice on social media may seem daunting, but it’s all about authentically presenting yourself. Speaking your truth consistently and channelling your values will persuade brands and your audience to recognise your value.
Competence
Producing high-quality content that showcases your expertise enables you to create relevant material that paints your brand in a trusted light.
Communication
The quality of your relationship with your audience directly impacts the success of your content. Employing open communication and body language is key to sustaining the trust of your audience. It is important to behave consistently - extreme behaviour or sporadic actions may cause people to doubt you.
Identify your target audience
To capture your audience’s hearts, show a genuine interest and concern for their interests. To identify their needs, you must conduct thorough research to uncover who they are. Methods like social listening provide valuable insight into how your audience interacts online with your brand niche, offering a deeper understanding of their pain points and engagement patterns.
Experiment
Exploring and testing new content styles empowers you to discover what type of topics resonate with your audience, which helps to foster trust in your personal brand over time.
Strategies for building a reputable personal brand
Define your niche
To become the go-to influencer in your niche, it's essential to define your area of expertise. Identify what sets you apart from others and focus on creating content that resonates with your target audience. For example, Melissa’s Wardrobe’s trusted endorsements (aka #MelMadeMeDoIt) often influence the purchase decisions of consumers within the fashion and luxury lifestyle communities.
Consistency is key
Consistency breeds trust. Whether it's the frequency of your posts, the tone of your voice, or the quality of your content, maintaining consistency is crucial. Your audience should know what to expect from you, and consistency helps foster a sense of familiarity and reliability over time.
Authenticity
Authenticity helps to build a rapport with your audience, reassuring your audience that you have their best interests at heart. Sharing behind the scenes and being ‘real’ about your experiences as an influencer is crucial for building credibility.
Engage with your audience
Engaging with your audience is pivotal for cultivating trust among your audience. Actively participating in conversations and acknowledging your audience’s input helps create a community where your audience feels valued and respected.
Recognise your social responsibility
Taking a stance on social issues and being an advocate for ethical practices will resonate with your audience who seek authenticity. Using your platform to address societal concerns demonstrates your genuine concern for the welfare of the world and your community.
Tips on how to avoid spreading misinformation
With the rise of fake news and misinformation, ensuring the accuracy of your content is necessary to ensure the credibility of your account. If you want to learn how you can impede the spread of false information, check out our tips below!
Fact check your content
Verifying the reliability of your sources and statistics before posting demonstrates your commitment to truthfulness. Followers who can rely on the accuracy of your content are more likely to trust your expertise and recommendations.
Stay up to date
Keeping up to date on current events allows you to create content that responds to emerging trends and important topics that your audience cares about most.
Be transparent
It is good to get in the habit of influencer disclosing. If you’re sharing sponsored content or promoting products, be transparent about your partnerships and affiliations. Transparency builds trust and demonstrates your integrity as an influencer.
Be brave: call out fake news!
By actively addressing and calling out misleading narratives you position yourself as a reliable source of information. Twitter has joined the fight against fake news with the introduction of their community notes feature which allows users to better inform the world by adding context to misleading posts.
Summary
Establishing trust with your audience is a gradual process that takes time, but, when done right, it can establish you as the go-to creator for knowledge.
FAQS
What are the best practices to become an expert in my niche?
You don’t have to wait to be perceived as an “expert” to be one. Focus on investigating topics that aren’t heavily touched upon as content and always address your audience’s pain points to show that you can solve their problems.
How do I properly disclose sponsored Instagram posts?
It is good practice to make the disclosure easy to read by using the correct brand content tags.
What is fake news?
Fake news is false information misrepresented as news to deliberately mislead and deceive online readers.