I caught an interesting post on Problogger.com the other day relating to the topic of building credibility via your blogs (and websites). This is a cool topic so I’ve decided to add it to my blog.
Building a solid business reputation can be even more challenging online than offline. Without the face-to-face interactions and voice contact found in the ‘real world’, many people will tend to be a lot more suspicious of web businesses until given good reason to think otherwise.
I think a big part of connecting with people online is opening up and sharing yourself. Needless to say, if you are totally guarded in all your online interactions most people won’t give you the benefit of the doubt and may simply assume that you have something to hide. Thus your credibility goes out the window and with it the potential to form alliances and generate sales/leads/subscribers etc.
I’m constantly amazed by the number of business websites that are completely devoid of any personality or life. Sure, they may include an “about us” page – but more times than not the content just sounds impersonal and contrived. Maybe it’s just the type of person I am, but when I visit a website/blog I often look for the tell-tale signs of a ‘genuine’ human presence. If the person makes zero effort to share ANYTHING about themselves I very often won’t bother to invest any more of my time reading their content and will certainly be much less inclined to purchase anything from them (unless of course someone I trust has recommended doing so).
It can be argued that often times all people are looking for is information – they don’t care about the person providing the information, nor do they want to wade through social niceties in order to get the info they’re looking for. While this certainly may be true, it’s no reason to make your site into a lifeless information portal. After all, successful long-term business growth is very much about relationship building, not just about helping people get what they want.
Blogs by their very nature are quite social and interactive (assuming you let people make comments), and thus provide a great opportunity for people to get to know you better. Generally speaking, the better someone knows you (or at least feels like they know you) the more easily they’ll be able to decide if they can trust you or not. With that said, it’s obviously important to be somewhat careful about the type of information you share. Showing people you are human can work wonders, but don’t go overboard! I’m sure we’ve all heard horror stories about someone’s MySpace page or Facebook profile coming back to bite them – don’t be like those people!
Adam (Niche Challenge Ninja) shared a very simple yet profound thought not to long ago:
“People like people, not gurus”
This really hit home for me because it is SO true. The funny irony is that by being more open and ‘human’ (thereby boosting trust levels) it’s more likely you’ll be viewed as an expert anyway!
Even if you are a person who is more comfortable making static websites and not really all that interested in blogging, I still recommend adding a blog to your site. Simply using it for occasional news tidbits and updates alone should definitely help to boost your credibility.
Of course, if you really jump in and get serious with your blog your ‘cred’ factor will rise that much more quickly!