These two forms of authority will help you thrive in your business and build rapport.
In business, being the trusted authority in your space is the best way to earn your customers’ trust. Or is it the other way around? Do you become an authority in your space by earning the trust of your customers and clients over time? Authority, clout, credibility — the immediately earned trust of a customer through purely social indicators is one of the most sought after statuses as a brand or a business. To understand how to earn authority and trust, we must understand the two types of authority that matter the most in the 20th century and utilize them for maximum success.
The word authority, the way I mean it, is defined as a person or organization having power or control in a particular, typically political or administrative, sphere. So how do we, as businesses or personal brands earn our share of power in our sphere? How do we become thought leaders and demonstrate thought leadership and credibility?
By understanding the two types of authority that help reach your customers: algorithmic authority and social authority.
Algorithmic authority
In relation to social networks and media, algorithmic authority is the ability to be seen by your audience, organically or paid. Algorithms are complicated. They are the most innovative and newest pieces of digital infrastructure that run society.
Algorithms are made to entice us, to buy our attention with a never-ending promise. If you keep scrolling, eventually you’ll see something different, and eventually, what you see will please you, capture your attention and entertain you.
Authority has been gamified. We must understand that authority in relation to algorithms is vitally important for a business to succeed. Your ability to show up in front of your ideal customer or clients’ eyes is the first step in your marketing funnel. Understanding how to speak to them and getting your messaging right will be next in the steps. But before you set out to make a marketing plan, it’s important to understand which algorithms are necessary to target and how to utilize them in order to gain algorithmic authority.
If you spend any time on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or a number of other social networks run by these complicated algorithms, you probably have a certain friend or set of friends that you always see. Oftentimes you’ll likely see this person first on your feed very frequently when they’ve posted. There are likely people you rarely hear from or find that you’re distant from without necessarily wanting to be. Unfortunately, because it’s a social network, the algorithms are now dictating our social networks and who we see.
The algorithms’ intent is to show you the most entertaining or relevant information. Let’s look at google, it’s intent is to deliver the most valuable, relevant, and clear answer, as fast as it possibly can. So its intentions here are not to draw you away from the things you want to be connected to, it’s merely predicting, hypothesizing what you may enjoy, and placing it at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
On the other hand, you have…
