The fourth habit in my original list of Ten Habits was to “Be True!” In John Maxwell’s book, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, he says that “Trust is the foundation of leadership.” This is actually an important thing for bloggers to be aware of even if you are not “a leader” per se – the truth is as writers we are all thought leaders, as @typeamom likes to describe us. Or, we could be. 🙂
So here is the acronym that John Maxwell uses and unlike my previous acronyms is not one that I made up on my own. But it’s well worth sharing! It’s based on the letters for TRUST.
T – Tested
“We are what we repeatedly do” ~Aristotle
In other words, someone is considered “kind” because their actions have proven them kind in the past. Someone is considered a writer, because they write. And so on. What are calling yourself? Does that align with what you are doing? Can your readers trust that because your past actions have tested that out?
R – Reliability
Erratic behaviour breaks down trust….in web-based age change is rapid, YOU must be constant. For example, if I started this Ten Habits series but only discussed eight of the ten habits, that would erode the foundation of trust you, my readers, have placed in me. Everyone understands that life happens sometimes, but if you set out to do a certain thing at a certain time, you’d have built the expectation for that to take place.
U – Understanding
Show that you care. Show that you know your audience. Listen when they ask for more information or have questions. In a lot of ways that can even help guide content production. This series is an example of me responding to readers emailed questions. When one of my readers said they loved the ten habits but wanted more information about what each LOOKED like – how to APPLY them in real life ways, I listened.
S – Servanthood
An honest and sincere intent to set your heart on the good of people around you. That doesn’t mean door mat. Slave. It just means that you genuinely intend to help others. There are a lot of ways to do this and it can look completely different depending on your situation, but the intent for good should be there.
T – Time
Not in a day, but through daily investment. Trust doesn’t develop with a single post, a single discussion or a one-time meeting. It usually comes through multiple interactions. So in that regard it really ties in to being consistent and true to what you say you will do.
Food for thought –
Are you committed to never breaking a promise with anyone?
What are you intentionally doing to cultivate trust?
Wow, Angela, as always fantastic, thoughtful message today. And what a revelation for me too. I always refer to myself as the marriage feature writer at Suite 101, but never a blogger or a freelance writer. I’m going to have to think about that one.
Reliability also spoke to me to. I have a blog roll on my own blog and I’ve added a few of the women who I’ve had the most or best contact with via Suite or Twitter. I hesitate to have them reciprocate because I don’t want their blog to look shabby when it says that my blog hasn’t been updated in 14 days or a month. I knew I was hesitant but couldn’t really pin down why. It isn’t a lack of confidence, but it is related to breaking down the trust with these women who have put their trust in me to offer something to their readers as well!
I wouldn’t have seen that without you!
@Genna – Excellent! I hope that each of us will have new revelations as we progress through this Ten Habits of Success series. Many of the ideas and principles translate into other areas as well. TRUST is vital no matter what arena of life we are talking about. I love that you are seeing how to apply that to your online life as well.
We are still in the early stages of building relationships with our readers, hoping trust will follow.
I love how you broke all of this down. I know you said that the acronym was not your own, but I appreciate you sharing it.
@Ginny – I’m glad you liked it! John Maxwell is, of course, a must-read in my opinion. He makes some amazing points but the TRUST is such an important part of developing truly long-term relationships with your readers – especially online.
This is a post after my own heart. Even if I’m not what others would consider a leader – I try *very hard* to be trustworthy. It’s been something I strive for in every area of my life. I may not be perfect at it – but I’m proud of how much I this concerns me and how much I’m willing to change my ways if I think I’m falling short.
I think that trust is an important part of any relationship. It’s just easy for bloggers to forget that they have readers. Real live people on the other end of the screen who want to be able to count on you to be you. It’s not hard, it just takes consistency. And awareness. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this Angela. As part of building trust with my blog readers, I only do reviews for products/books that I actually read, like and feel that my readers would benefit from. Also, I try and post thrice a week in order to share with them on a regular basis and most important, I love listening to what they have to say.
I know that your personal review requirements are similar to what I have in place on Untrained Housewife. I think it’s important for readers to know that if they read a review there, it is something we have actually USED. READ. TOUCHED. We can say “This is a great craft kit and you’ll get enough materials to do the craft twice” because we’ve tried it, used it and worked through it ourselves. I do think that is one way to build trust with your readers in a situation where reviews are being done.
Trust is a fundamental part of any relationship, whether it be personal, business or online. But this post brings out some very good points about how to build and maintain trust online.
My blogging has been intermittent up til now and I am just now really getting into the mindset where I want to create more frequent and regularly scheduled content for my blog and start building it out. So, I’m also really just getting to the point where I’m starting to try to develop trust with my readers. It’s actually been kind of exciting for me over the past few weeks to see some readers start to come around more than once. So, this post is timely for me and gives me some building blocks to use to grow my audience.
As always, great work, Angela. Thank you.
@Lorie – it’s definitely exciting when you start seeing the same “faces” visit you time and time again. It proves that they found something valuable in what you had to share. It’s not something to take lightly.