One of the key elements of Social Media Marketing (SMM) is Trust. A good way to get trust is via testimonials. Testimonials are where someone; a colleague, someone you have worked on a joint venture with, a supplier or a customer is prepared to write a short piece on why they think you are a good person to do business with.
Two social networks; LinkedIn and ecademy have a very well structured and good way of exchanging online testimonials. I would advise anyone using SMM to join both as they both have free and paid options. LinkedIn allows you to ask your contacts to give you a testimonial. I found this to be good and bad. It was an easy way to ask but I got some hostile replies and some very nice surprises. On ecademy you actually visit a person’s profile and if you decide to give them a testimonial you can do it there an then quite easily. Another good source would be clients or people you have recruited to your network marketing team. Ask if they would be prepared to write a short testimonial if they enjoyed your work.
Many people are not sure what to say, so you could have one or two ready and just ask them if they could write something similar. Written on company letterhead is great if you can get it.
Here is what you can do to make most effective use of the testimonials:
- On your Blog create a Page called Testimonials. ‘cut and paste’ any online testimonials into a Notepad file. Then enter each testimonial by editing the Page as opposed to creating Posts. Posts will appear on your Home Page and you want these to appear just on the Testimonial Page
- Use the following format for each testimonial;
[Name of person], [Company], [Position in Company]
[The text of the testimonial i.e what they said about you]
[The social network it is on], [The date it was written] - This means people can go and check the testimonials if they wish
- For written testimonials use the same format, but for source put [Letter of endorsement] instead of [The social network it was on]
- Create an offline file of these testimonials. You can use your creativity here. This can then be used if you meet clients face-to-face
- One last form of testimonial is very powerful (I suggest on 1 or 2 of these) is a video testimonial of no longer than 3 minutes. Upload the video to YouTube then embed the video code on the Testimonial Page
Testimonials provide social proof you are someone to be trusted. So what’s the best way to get an online testimonial? Start by giving them to people whose work you really like. You will soon find people will reciprocate if you provide genuine value added content to that network.