What do you need to know about unlocking the power of social authority?

Social authority online is not a nice to have anymore, but a must have. It’s important to your own digital footprint, target audience, current customers, Google, the other top search engines and your personal and business brand. Your name is a brand and you should treat it as such.

Before I purchase a new book, laptop or basically anything new, I visit my favourite online shop and other top quality channels where I read and review all the comments regarding the product or service that I’m interested in. My decision on purchasing the product or service is purely based on my evaluation of the comments and how other people experience it. I don’t just read one comment or review, but a couple to determine exactly what the pros and cons are of the product or service. I also look around for comments that best describes my situation so that I can make an informative decision.

If a product or service doesn’t have any comments, reviews or likes, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad product. It could be new or the owner/product doesn’t have any influence/authority online, but I have to admit, when there’s comments and likes associated with it, it really makes it easier to decide. A book cover and the looks of a product or service just doesn’t cut it anymore and my final choice is not determined by the pretty pictures on the packaging of a product.

This is a form of social validation and can play a massive role to any business looking for more exposure online.

Social authority is massive

Social authority is huge and it could be one of the key drivers of your digital marketing strategy. It’s nothing new and has been around forever. You visit your favourite restaurant, supermarket and grocery store because you trust and know them. Your friends, family and colleagues are also likely to recommend them to you because they are trusted by others. The same rule also applies online.

How do you get started?

There are many ways to build social authority online, but the easiest way to get started with this is by using reviews and testimonials in your digital marketing campaign. Ask your current and future customers to write a short review for you that you can use on your website. They can also leave a review for you on your Facebook business page or Google Business listing. If your products or services are listed on 3rd party channels, ask them to leave you a review on these channels and share it with their network.

People trust people more than only the logo of a brand. Showcase testimonials that were left by real people on your website. If you are showcasing a number of services and products on your site, to make these testimonials stand out even more, use only testimonials relevant to the service or product on each page. This way the testimonial will be directly linked to the service or product that received the testimonial.

Social authority is important and should definitely be considered as one of the main objectives with any digital marketing campaign. Trust and credibility plays a big role in the marketplace on the web.