Companies and brands that are transparent about what they do and how they do it have an advantage with customers. Research of Sprout Social indicates that 86% of respondents consider transparency more important than ever before. Openness (59%), clarity (53%) and honesty (49%) are the associations that the 1000 respondents have when operating and communicating transparently in a company.

Transparent communication via social media

Due to the enormous increase in the presence of companies and brands on social media, the importance of communicating transparently on these platforms has also increased. Only 15% of respondents in the survey say they feel brands are “very transparent” on social media, and 30% say companies are “not at all” transparent. So there are opportunities here!

What do you need to do to communicate transparently on social media?

To start with, we can also look at what you should not do when communicating via social media. The top two things respondents identify as absolute not done are withholding information (69%) and ignoring customer questions (68%).

Below is a list of topics that, according to respondents to this survey, well reflect the transparency of a brand.

In the top 3 we find that admitting mistakes, giving honest answers and clarity about price are important topics. Providing transparency in these areas is therefore an absolute must and gives customers a good feeling about your brand.