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Business and Blogging

Do Your Readers Trust You?

by Laura Spencer on July 16th, 2008

trust(www.businessandblogging.com)

Over at the tdhedengren. blog, the personal blog of Thord Daniel Hedengren, an interesting question is being posed. The question is this: Would You Trust An Online Friend?

While the tdhedengren. blog looks at the question from a personal standpoint, I suggest that it also pertains to business bloggers.

In fact, I would ask the question in this way: Do your readers trust you enough to do business with you?

In our discussion about earlier this week (When Blogging Is Not Enough) Michael Martine of Remarkablogger pointed out in the comments to my earlier post that one of the purposes of a business blog is to generate business (usually sales).

Michael is quite right. But, before your readers can become your clients they must trust you enough to do business with you.

Do your readers trust you?

Here are five suggestions that business bloggers can use to build trust:

  1. Be genuine. If you are insincere or dishonest in the information that you post on your business blog, then your readers will not believe that are telling the truth about the products or services that you offer.
  2. Be reliable. Your business blog should be an accurate source of useful information for your readers. If your readers know that they can turn to you for good advice, they may also turn to your product or service.
  3. Be consistent. Have you ever arrived at a blog only to find that it has been months since the owner has updated it? I have. Update your business blog regularly so that readers won’t assume that you are out of business.
  4. Be responsive. Can you answer a reader’s question in a helpful and positive way? Then do it! Solving problems helps build positive good will and positive good will eventually leads to trust.
  5. Be current. Keep up with the trends and innovations in your chosen field. Make sure that you are always offering your readers the latest and best information about any particular topic.

Can you think of any other methods that a business blogger could use to build trust?

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POSTED IN: Blogging, Marketing, Reputation Management, Web 2.0

9 opinions for Do Your Readers Trust You?

  • Graham Strong
    Jul 17, 2008 at 1:05 pm

    Be Active — If you see a blogger getting involved and commenting on other blogs, you see him or her as a person who genuinely enjoys the topics. It’s almost like a “community” figure, which seems to inherently nurture trust. Plus, it helps you increase readership of your own blog and “gets your name out there”.

    ~Graham

  • Laura Spencer
    Jul 17, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    Good one Graham!

    Thanks for the addition.

  • Sean Kelly
    Jul 17, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    Great post, great question.

    Here are a couple more: Humor. Especially self-deprecating humor. When someone feels comfortable enough to joke around then your less likely to suspect they are pushing an agenda or take themselves too seriously or have something to hide.

    Passion. Methinks when someone is openly passionate about their beliefs and point-of-view, you don’t have to wonder what they’re selling because they’re telling you… Of course, if what they’re passionate about is you depositing $10M from a deposed Nigerian dictator and you get to keep $3M for your help, then passion might not be a good indicator!

    I stopped by though to share a potentially co-blogworthy subject: Here’s an interesting story you may want to share with your readers both as a warning about vending or other scams that use well-known names to add credibility, and the damage a company’s reputation can suffer by associating with the wrong people.  While Red Bull spends millions in advertising and sports sponsorships to create a positive image, a bad vending franchise program has ignited a controversy involving a very angry & vocal group of investors.  Feel free to link to and or quote from the dozens of comments they are leaving on franchise watchdog site Unhappy Franchisee and Franchise Pick.

    Thanks, Laura!

  • Sean Kelly
    Jul 17, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    Actually, I forgot to point out why the subject ir relevant to business & blogging. A few years ago, these franchise owners wouldn’t even be a gnat’s buzz to a company like Red Bull. But because of the blogosphere, they are full fledged bees in their bonnets. Google “Red Bull Vending” and four out of the the top 20 listings, at least, are due to comments left on those two sites.

  • Laura Spencer
    Jul 17, 2008 at 7:37 pm

    Thanks Sean, for sharing the difference that blogging has made in the franchising world.

  • Presentation Builds Trust, Increases Readership | tdhedengren
    Jul 18, 2008 at 2:56 am

    [...] Spencer over at Business and Blogging did a follow-up on my Would You Trust an Online Friend post, but with a slightly different twist. She takes the [...]

  • tdhedengren
    Jul 18, 2008 at 2:56 am

    Thanks for highlighting my post, Laura! Nice turnaround too.

    I decided to follow up on this with a new post. You can find it here:
    http://tdhedengren.com/blog/presentation-builds-trust-increases-readership/

  • Laura Spencer
    Jul 18, 2008 at 3:27 am

    tdhedengren - I read your follow up. Nice job! I definitely agree that presentation is an important element of building trust.

  • tdhedengren
    Jul 18, 2008 at 3:28 am

    Thanks Laura!

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