Credibility Perceived and Building Credibility

The number of blogs are uncountable nowadays. Even on a similar topic, bloggers tends to provide sorts of information which differ from one another. According to a journal written by Azlin and Mustaffa (n.d.), it is a challenge for people in selecting credibility piece of information. They further explain the difference between an adult and a youth in perceiving the credibility.

Azlin and Mustaffa(n.d.), stated that adult tends to select information where they think it is accurate, reliable, understandable and well written on the topic. Whereas, amongst the youths, they ‘consider whether information is related to the topic and whether it is new, interesting, and convenient, while showing less interest in authority, the readability of the language and recency (cited in Rieh and Hilligoss 2008). These have shown that, the thinking of an adult reader and a youth reader of blogs are rather different.

According to Bueno (2012), there are few ways in building the blog’s credibility. One of the ways is create a thorough “About Us” page. Bloggers must provide their own information at least up to a circumstance of name, email, or facebook account. Reason is because reader would like to know who is the writer and the background of the writer.

Creating a testimonial page is an instant credibility booster especially in a business blog, it is easier to influence the reader to have a ‘yes’ or an ‘agree’ decision as there are real reference provided.

Lastly, blogger can respond to inquiries in timely manner. This is because many bloggers nowadays does not give respond to their readers, so if you are one of the minor one who give respond, you are actually gaining a better credibility.

Reference

Azlin B N & Mustaffa N n.d., ‘Blogosphere: How youth perceived blogs credibility’, Malaysian Journal of Communication, Vol. 28(1) pp.33-54, viewed on 16 September 2012, <http://www.ukm.my/jkom/journal/pdf_files/2012/V28_1_33-54.pdf>.

Bueno R 2012, ‘5 Ways To Build Your Blog’s Credibility & Generate More Leads’, diversesolutions.com, viewed 16 September 2012, <http://www.diversesolutions.com/blogging/build-your-blogs-credibility-2275>.