How to Build Trust with Your Audience on LinkedIn

Are you EAT’ing on LinkedIn?

Being attractive to people on LinkedIn consists of:

Expertise – Authoritativeness – Trustworthiness

Those nouns are a mouthful, so the search giant Google has even given us a useful acronym, EAT!

But here’s the winner, the algorithms favour this too!

If you aren’t displaying expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on your Profile, in your content and in your comments and engagement, you might just be missing a trick…

I figure this:

Every Keystroke I Make Takes Me One Step Further in Building Trust with my Audience.

As my Connection Digital Strategist, Mark Longbottom points out, the concept is a simple but often overlooked one. Taking Google out of the equation, for millennia human behaviour has demonstrated how we people develop and evolve when working, living and talking to those that we can trust and can learn from. Mark added that:

“Since the industrial revolution, some of this [trust] has been lost due to greed, low and behold people now see the reality and importance of genuine human interaction being a positive step for them and their businesses.”

I believe Mark is absolutely right, human interaction is vital in cementing your brand’s reputation as a trustworthy and authoritative business, and you as an expert in your field. This interaction can be applied to the digital world of social media through engagement.

For advice on how to comment on LinkedIn click here. Alternatively, my blog post ‘How Does LinkedIn Work?’ contains more tips on how to engage with people on LinkedIn.

Your LinkedIn Profile is Your Credibility

A fellow LinkedIn Consultant, coach and speaker, Debra Mathias shared how her goal this year was to promote her Connections and how she was in the process of compiling a series of “tips” to help people improve their LinkedIn Profiles.

“So many people do not realize that your profile is your credibility. I refer to our profiles as our digital business card and credibility piece. If you’ve got a poor profile, how can anyone take you seriously in business?”

Indeed, nowadays most potential clients or customers make the decision to use your services or buy from you BEFORE they even make contact with you. On this basis, our LinkedIn Profiles are SO important!

To find out why you should never leave your LinkedIn Profile blank, click here, or, to discover how to make your LinkedIn Profile stand out click here.

If it’s maximising your LinkedIn Summary you’re after, I’d recommend giving this blog post a read, or if you’re looking for advice on how to create a winning LinkedIn Profile picture head over to this post.

An Ongoing Process

Sharon Hamersley, another great LinkedIn and Career Coach, contributed to the conversation over on LinkedIn stating that:

“I would love to be recognized for EAT Nigel! I think it’s definitely an ongoing process that you work on consistently. The more you engage with good content and comments, the more EAT…”

And with that comment, Sharon hit the nail on the head! Consistency is key. Constantly creating your own original, interesting, helpful content that evokes engagement and interacting with the content you find engaging yourself, by adding your own unique, insightful comments to get the conversation going.

To master the creation of thought leadership content, simply click here.

Do you feel the same about EAT’ing and LinkedIn? Let me know over on LinkedIn!