How to Build Trust on Social Media Without Chasing Trends
A couple followed a real estate agent on Instagram for about a year. They never liked a post or left a comment. Then they hired her, and told her they’d been seeing her content the whole time.
That story, shared by Jordan Henderson on The Branded Impact Podcast, is a useful check on how most of us measure social media. If you want to build trust on social media, likes are a poor scoreboard. A lot of your future clients are watching quietly, and they’re deciding whether your business looks worth a phone call.
Jordan is the founder and CEO of Lee Creative, a Denver-based social media marketing agency. She and host Jo Espejo talked about why chasing trends is a weak strategy, what to measure instead, and how to keep showing up without spending your evenings wrestling with an app.
For an established founder, the stakes are practical. You already have clients to serve and a reputation to protect. Social media has to earn its place in your week, and this conversation shows how to make it do that.
Listen on Spotify: EP 53: Why Going Viral Isn’t a Social Media Strategy
Watch on YouTube: EP 53: Why Going Viral Isn’t a Social Media Strategy
Key takeaways from Jordan Henderson on building social media trust
- Going viral is not a strategy. One of Jordan’s own posts earned almost a million views and brought in 200 new followers.
- Quiet followers still become clients. Many people watch for months without liking or commenting, then call.
- Track views, shares, and saves before likes. Jordan looks at views and shares, and uses carousels to earn saves and shares.
- Your feed is a credibility check. Jo calls it a second website. Jordan compares it to the front door of your house.
- Batch your content. Jordan’s team aims to record 12 to 15 talking head videos at a time so clients aren’t creating every day.
- Use AI as a tool, not a stand-in for you. It can summarize and streamline. It can’t replace human connection.
Why building trust beats chasing trends on social media
Jordan’s position at Lee Creative is direct. Prospects tell her team they keep seeing marketers on Instagram who preach going viral and list the top five trends to hop on this week. Her question is why going viral is always the goal.
Her own numbers make the case. One of her personal posts, her engagement photo, earned almost a million views and 200 new followers in total. In her words: “So almost a million views and 200 new followers.” Building a strategy around doing things for the algorithm, she says, “is not a strategy.”
What she points to instead is audience quality. Jordan believes “2,000 loyal followers can do numbers for your business” compared with 10,000 people who found you through a funny reel but aren’t in the area you serve and can’t buy what you sell. For a service business, that shifts the question from how to get more reach to who is seeing this and whether they could become a client.
Social media insights from Jordan Henderson and Jo Espejo
What social media metrics matter if people don’t like or comment?
Jo raised a frustration many founders share: people tell her in person that her content is great, yet they never like or comment online. Jordan had a client story that fit, the real estate agent whose new clients had followed her for about a year without ever liking or commenting.
Jordan’s term for these people is invisible watchers. “I think a lot of people are invisible watchers,” she says. That’s also why a dip in likes isn’t an alarm. When clients go from barely posting to three to five times a week on each channel, engagement on individual posts can fall, she says, even as reach grows. One client is now getting close to 100,000 views month over month.
Jordan looks at views and shares, and builds carousels for saves and shares: someone saves an educational post for later or sends it to a friend. Jo adds that the clearest signal often shows up in conversation, when new clients say they looked at her website, checked her socials, and then called.
This week: Sort your last ten posts by views and shares (saves, for carousels) instead of likes. Then ask your next two new clients what they looked at before they called.
Why your Instagram feed works like a front door for your business
Jo describes a business’s social presence as a second website and a credibility check. If you haven’t posted in six months or a year, prospects may wonder whether you’re still in business.
Jordan gave that idea a picture. She thinks of your feed and page as “almost like your front door of your house.” If it’s a jumbled mess, people won’t want to come in. Her team aims for a feed that’s cohesive, on-brand, and professional while still showing personality, so they mock up everything before a post goes live.
Jo’s take on trends fits here. If you enjoy making trend videos, go ahead, but let them live as reels instead of on the feed people land on. Jordan does use trends for clients, just not the dancing kind, like a list of five things in your industry worth the investment.
This week: Open your profile on your phone and scroll your first nine posts the way a stranger would. If they don’t look like one business, choose the one style you’ll use for the next month.
How to show up on camera when you don’t want to dance
Jo said she tried lip syncing once and felt silly. Jordan said her agency isn’t the right fit for anyone who wants that, and she finds it unprofessional. Her philosophy is “people love to see people,” so her feed, her website, and her clients’ content show real people, without the choreography.
If you don’t have the budget for an agency yet, Jordan recommends a simple path:
- Write a shot list. She suggests telling an AI tool what you do and who you want to reach, then asking for prompts.
- Record on your iPhone.
- Start with B-roll. An interior designer or real estate agent could film themselves fluffing a pillow or opening curtains, then add text over the clip.
- When that feels comfortable, film one talking video and see how it goes.
Jo backed the same order. Her tip for talking to the camera: ask a friend to hold the phone and ask you questions, and skip the playback. It stopped her from obsessing over how she looked and sounded.
This week: Write a shot list of five moments from an ordinary workday and film them on your phone, no talking required.
How batch creating content makes consistency possible
Jordan’s team builds around content days. Most clients are on a quarterly schedule because they run service-based businesses, and her team aims to record 12 to 15 talking head videos at a time. The weekly mix is usually one carousel, one B-roll, and one talking head video. “One talking head video a week for a quarter, that’s 12 videos,” she says.
Jo works the same way. Her brand sessions produce photos, B-roll, and, when the client is ready, talking head videos, which become a library a social media team can use.
Both know the cost of doing it alone. Jordan calls herself a cobbler with no shoes, and Jo says her page shows when a team is running it and when she took over. In a feast-or-famine service business, your own marketing is the first thing to go when client work is heavy.
Jo’s rule on frequency is to post only what you can keep up. If you can’t post five days a week consistently, don’t post three, and if three isn’t sustainable, post once. Her signal for when to hire a social media agency is when your time belongs on revenue-generating work only you can do. Jordan says her clients sleep better at night once it’s handed off.
This week: Decide the posting frequency you can keep for the next 90 days, even if that’s one post a week, and put one batching block on your calendar.
Should you use AI-generated images and video for your brand?
Jordan’s reaction is strong. She finds the amount of poor AI-generated graphics on Instagram frustrating. Her team uses AI as a summary tool, for example to turn lengthy client reports into something they can build content from. She doesn’t expect it to replace people, because she believes “there’s always going to be a time and place for human connection” in this work. She can spot an AI avatar in a split second, and says using AI to check a box on the to-do list is a turnoff.
Jo agrees AI should be a tool. Use it to streamline your business, because being completely against it means getting left behind, she says. If it writes copy, reread it and ask whether it’s your words. If you generate images, watch for details that shift between them, like eye color or hands. For service providers building know, like, and trust, she says to use images of yourself. She also mentioned a brand photographer on the podcast whose clients now ask her to leave flyaways in so people know the photo is real.
This week: List everywhere AI touches your content. Keep it for summaries, drafts, and planning, reread anything it writes, and use real photos and video for anything that shows you.
FAQ
How often should a service-based business post on social media?
There isn’t one number. Jo says it depends on your target market and what you want social media to do for you. Jordan’s agency doesn’t tell clients to post three times a day or even daily, and many of its clients post three times a week. Jo’s rule is to post only as often as you can stay consistent.
Do likes and comments matter for business social media?
They’re one signal, but not the main one. Jordan says many followers are invisible watchers who never like or comment and still hire you. She looks at views and shares, and for carousels, saves and shares. Engagement per post can also dip when you post more often, which she says isn’t a reason to worry.
Is it okay to use AI-generated images or avatars in my social media content?
Jordan and Jo both advise against using AI to stand in for you. Jordan uses AI as a summary tool, and Jo says it’s useful for streamlining your business, but if you’re a service provider building trust, use real photos and video of yourself.
What this means for your brand or business
Trust on social media comes from being recognizable over time. That’s slower than going viral, but it matches how people actually hire: they notice you, watch quietly, check your website and socials, and then call.
That makes a cohesive feed a brand decision as much as a marketing one. Jo pointed out that everything has to be intentional, and that we sometimes forget this with our branding.
It also means perfection isn’t the standard. Jordan’s motto is “done is better than perfect.” When people watch your content, she says, they aren’t analyzing a flyaway or the sound of your voice. Jo added that people are looking for your message.
Whether you handle social media yourself or bring on a partner, Jo’s closing point applies: there isn’t one answer for everyone. It depends on your ideal client, your business, and what you’re trying to accomplish.
Listen to the full conversation
Jordan and Jo cover more than fits in one article, including how Jordan approaches the first month of handing social media off to her team. Listen or watch the full conversation here: [Spotify link] [Apple Podcasts link] [YouTube link]
If you want a next step, Jordan’s free Social Media Audit is a download on the homepage of the Lee Creative website.
About Jordan Henderson
Jordan Henderson is the founder and CEO of Lee Creative, a Denver-based social media marketing agency that works with modern brands. Through The Lee Creative Method, Jordan and her team help businesses use social media as a strategic growth engine through content creation, strategy, and ongoing community management. Her team has members in Texas and Florida.
- Website: www.leecreative.co
- Instagram: @leecreativeco
- LinkedIn: Lee Creative Co.
- Facebook: Lee Creative Co.
- Free Social Media Audit: download it on the homepage of www.leecreative.co
About The Branded Impact Podcast
The Branded Impact Podcast explores the intersection of brand, business, visibility, and growth through real conversations with entrepreneurs and experts who are building businesses designed to make an impact.
Hosted by Jo Espejo, Founder of Branding by Jo.
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