Who are you and why should I trust you? Those are the first things that I think when I visit any web page out there and most people feel the same way. With the rise of social networks, it is difficult to build any brand, whether it be personal or for your business without having some level of transparency.
Gone are the days where you can hide behind your domain name! I have provided an example above as to where I am headed with this whole "transparency" thing. Basically it is letting people know that you are real, that you care about them, that you have the same passions as them, and that you are more than willing to help them out if they have any questions or issues.
So What Does it Take to Earn Trust?
I don't want to push you into doing something that you are uncomfortable or giving away too much information as there is a fine line between sharing your info, and offering up too much of it. It is 100% OK to retain you personal life, but you need to understand when you enter the Internet business world, people are used to full transparency and honest.
Here are some insight into "your" life that is not overtly personal, but offers transparency and allows for great relationship building.
- People want to know about you.
- They want to know why you can help them.
- They want to know why they should trust you within a particular niche.
- They want to hear a story or two about you within that niche.
If you aren't social these days, you are missing out on a large opportunity to not only wage a good following, but to reach a larger mass in a viral way. To do this, you need to offer up your "social" profiles. If you have personal ones that you do not want to share with your niche, you could create the following profiles that are targeted to your Internet business:
I would not suggest offering them all at once as it may seem very overwhelming to someone. However, you could offer a few of these within ever email signature that you send out to your subscribers. You could even have an introduction email (which works very well, where you invite people to follow you).
The Quintessential Email Address
If you don't have one targeted to your website, get one. You don't have to use your personal email address, but you should offer your prospective customers an email address to get in touch with you. It will break you through a big trust barrier
What I typically do is offer my email address on my web page (here is my personal email addy...etc), as well as offer it within my emails that I send to subscribers. This is a big move in the right direction for transparency and there is nothing wrong with people contacting you.
Once someone contacts you and if you spend a minute to respond, you have just create a very powerful relationship...one that will lead to revenue.
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