Online anonymity has become a rarity, especially for business leaders. Prospective customers and employees are no longer content with faceless corporations and want to connect with the individuals who are steering the ship. Transparency is huge when customers are deciding where they will spend their money, so how can business leaders ensure they are “putting their best foot forward” when crafting their personal online presence?
Below, 17 Forbes Business Council members share strategic ways business leaders can shape and share authentic stories, values and expertise that will allow them to not only establish trust in the digital age, but also build meaningful connections as well.
1. Showcase Your Knowledge
Demonstrate your expertise by creating and sharing content that showcases your knowledge. This can include creating blog posts, videos, podcasts or speaking at industry events. Position yourself as a thought leader in your field. – Sal Rehmetullah
2. Develop An Email Nurture Campaign
One effective way to do this is to incorporate personal touches from the founder or owner of the business in an email nurture campaign and in social media posts on the company’s official platforms. This can help build trust with potential and current customers and give a face to the company, making it more relatable. – Lucie Marchelot Shukla, Wellness Unlimited Co
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3. Be Vulnerable
Being vulnerable is the only way to build trusting relationships—even online. Be willing to share your real life through blogs, podcasts, articles and posts on social media. People can smell phony a mile away, and just as authenticity is magnetic, nothing repels people faster than being fake. Be real. If you truly put yourself out there, people will respect that. – Joe Altieri, FlexScreen
4. Be Authentic
Share your values and vision and engage with your audience through regular and meaningful content you create and share on social media or on your personal website. Transparency and genuine communication can build trust and attract the right customers and employees. – Venus Quates, LaunchTech, LLC
5. Become A Thought Leader
Thought leadership has become a cornerstone for professionals and organizations in today’s digital age. Make sure you take time to address overarching trends, be involved in your organization’s public relations efforts and ensure that your communications team understands your positioning. Leverage your teams to elevate the profile of your leaders and create key messages that resonate for the organization. – Ronjini Joshua, The Silver Telegram
6. Be Consistent And Measured
Ensure your personal brand also connects with your professional reputation. It is so important to be consistent and measured in this approach. – Geoffrey Roche, Core Education PBC
7. Be Honest
Don’t ever sell a lie and expect people to “buy” it. It’s a tough job owning a business, and entrepreneurs do not have the time to post fictitious things. If you are upfront, sell a good product and are honest, the rest will fall into place and be a success. – Tammy Sons, Tn Nursery
8. Align Your Online Presence With Your Core Values
Leaders should align their online presence with their core values. Authenticity resonates well with audiences, creating trust. Engage with your community regularly and provide valuable content that showcases your expertise and personal brand. – Henri Al Helaly, Skytex Aero
9. Share Your Personal Story
One way to build trust is to share content on your websites or social media blogs talking about why you decided to open this business, your motivations and what you want to achieve. Share a bit of your personal story so that people can get to know that you are human and relate to you through similar experiences in life that they have also had. – Raquel Gomes, Stafi
10. Share Industry-Related Content
Business leaders can build trust by consistently sharing valuable content related to their industry. This could be insights, advice or thought leadership articles. Doing this not only showcases their expertise, but also provides value to their audience. Being authentic and engaging in meaningful conversations online can also help build a positive personal brand. – Dustin Lemick, BriteCo
11. Provide Insight Into The Customer Experience
Prospects want to work with people who care primarily about addressing the concerns of their customers rather than promoting their own business. Early websites adopted a text format detailing what the business can do for customers. A better approach is to see the world from the customer’s perspective and communicate the benefit clients get from coming to your business. Our mastermind members use this format with spectacular results. – Jerry Cahn, Age Brilliantly
12. Work With Bloggers And Influencers
Leverage bloggers and social media influencers to increase the leader’s personal exposure. Nothing builds up your profile like other famous people endorsing or talking about you. This approach will enhance the leader’s visibility faster and increase the potential of reaching a broader target audience. – Anna Stella, BBSA
13. Share Testimonials
I like testimonials. I also like accessibility. Make yourself available to answer questions, listen to criticism and work toward resolving any issues and improving. People want to know that you are engaged and involved in your business, even after decades of being in business. – Johnny Pineyro, Surgent Capital
14. Keep It Business-Focused
Avoid polarizing subjects at all costs and stick to business-related thought leadership and industry topics. Do not use sarcasm or dark humor. A leader should not say or do anything that jeopardizes the business as many topics can be polarizing. Trying to say the right thing runs the risk of a leader being ostracized in the court of public outcry. – Joe Crandall, Greencastle Associates Consulting
15. Show Up As Yourself
Authenticity beats perfection every single time! Your audience craves honesty, not some curated, picture-perfect persona. If you show up as yourself, warts and all, you’ll be surprised at the connection you forge. Trust me on this: Authenticity is a trust magnet. It’s your secret weapon. It’s about being real, not perfect. When you go ahead and put your best, genuine foot forward, they’ll love you for it. – Amiee Ball, JAB Consulting Group
16. Share From The Heart
A digital footprint, etched with authenticity and anchored with heart, holds its weight. It may be wise to consider mirroring actions behind the scenes on social media platforms. This strategy can contribute to the creation of press releases on the good being done that are then run parallel to what is being shown. Being mindful of one’s words and sharing from the heart is a good place to start. – Paul L. Gunn, Jr., KUOG Corporation
17. Maintain Your Own Unique Voice
Leaders have to stay authentic and keep their voices. Often, leaders hire ghostwriters to build their online presence, and the online persona becomes very different from the real personality. People are attracted by authenticity and repelled by fake personas. Showing integrity and being yourself online and offline is the one thing that builds trust with the employees and customers. – Gaidar Magdanurov, Acronis
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