Archipelago

Don’t believe everything you read – that’s the basic belief most people have when the are confronted with a marketing message. From the most popular shampoo (8 out of 10 of our paid reviewers said they preferred it) to vast Multinationals claiming to be local.

In a world where we approach anything and everything, with near fanatical cynicism, how do we establish trust and create the foundation for an ongoing business relationship through a medium made up of dots on a screen?

No-one trusts businesses anymore

Ask yourself who do you trust (hopefuly, you won’t have answered “no-one”!) – your answer was probally a person.

Hmm, people. Luckily, most businesses are a whole group of people.

On the web the best way to allow people make a connection with you is to let them get to know about the people in your organisation.

What makes us trust people?

People are easier to trust than businesses for many reasons, the most basic being that we are all people. That basic fact gives us the ability to relate to each other in a way that a business promoting itself on price, benefits and features never can.

Human relationships are also based around conversations. It’s an approach where we both talk, and listen – in contrast to dubious messages being blasted at us from afar. You need to be able to hold a conversation with your customers, using the web.

Starting the conversation

So how do we use a website to start a conversation? Well, let’s think about what you might do in the real world. The best way to get someone to stop, and listen to you – is to give them something. Not a coupon. Give them something they can use, share knowledge or ideas. If they’re interested, they’ll soon respond with a comment, a question – or better still – feedback.

Give them some information about you. Most people will research someone before they have a meeting – make it easier by providing some interesting information about you. Why you’re doing what you’re doing – and how you got there.

Keeping it going

Now you’ve got their attention and you’ve given them something useful. Now you have to give them something else: your attention. Respond. Suggest. Listen. Be helpful. They may not be making a purchase today, but they will remember how helpful you’ve been, and they will talk about it. You are already several steps ahead of your competitors.

Tools

There are many tools available to make this conversation possible. You could:

• Start your own Blog
• Contribute to online communities, blogs & forums
• Use Social Networking tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter

The best combination of these is wildly dependent on your business – if you’re a professional photographer it makes sense to use a photo-sharing site – if you’re a funeral director it really doesn’t.

We’ll be looking at how the above tools work and how they’re suited to different types of business in a later article.

What is trust worth?

When you’ve won someone’s trust, you’ve earned a place in their internal picture of the world. That little map we all have in our heads that tells us which of our friends would get on at a party, and which would argue constantly.

They’ll be doing the same thing for you – figuring out which of their friends your company could help – telling them about you, and your services.

They’ll be actively marketing you for free – and there is nothing that will make you stand out more than an honest recommendation.

Organisations doing this effectively have built huge, loyal followings that make them successful – and outperform competitors – whatever the economic weather.