framework-community-trust

Use when

• Applies the Like-Know-Trust (LKT) framework to social media strategy, producing a sequenced trust-building plan that maps content types, community activity, and conversion tactics to each stage of audience relationship development. Invoke this skill when a client has low conversion despite reasonable reach, when a brand is new or rebuilding reputation, when promotional content is underperforming, or when a strategic layer is needed to explain why content should be sequenced in a particular order before selling. Particularly relevant in East Africa where relationship-based commerce means trust must be earned before purchase.
• Use this skill when it is the closest match to the requested deliverable or workflow.

Do not use when

• Do not use this skill for graphic design, video production, software development, or legal advice beyond the repository's stated scope.
• Do not use it when another skill in this repository is clearly more specific to the requested deliverable.

Workflow

1. Collect the required inputs or source material before drafting, unless this skill explicitly generates the intake itself.
2. Follow the section order and decision rules in this SKILL.md; do not skip mandatory steps or required fields.
3. Review the draft against the quality criteria, then deliver the final output in markdown unless the skill specifies another format.

Anti-Patterns

• Do not invent client facts, performance data, budgets, or approvals that were not provided or clearly inferred from evidence.
• Do not skip required inputs, mandatory sections, or quality checks just to make the output shorter.
• Do not drift into out-of-scope work such as code implementation, design production, or unsupported legal conclusions.

Outputs

• A structured markdown document, plan, playbook, or strategy ready for client-facing or internal use.

References

• Use the inline instructions in this skill now. If a references/ directory is added later, treat its files as the deeper source material and keep this SKILL.md execution-focused.

Required Input

Ask for all of the following before generating any deliverable:

1. Client business name and industry — full trading name and sector (e.g. "Kampala Orthopaedic Clinic — private healthcare")
2. Country/city — default is Uganda/East Africa if not specified
3. Current audience relationship stage — where is the audience now? Choose one: Strangers (no awareness), Aware (they know the brand exists), Engaged (they follow, like, comment), Buying (they have purchased before)
4. Primary business objective — what is the client trying to achieve? Awareness, lead generation, sales, or retention?
5. Main channels — which platforms are active? (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube, X/Twitter)
6. Existing trust signals — any reviews, testimonials, media coverage, certifications, awards, or affiliations already in existence?
7. Target conversion goal — what does "trust converted to action" look like for this client? (e.g. WhatsApp enquiry, walk-in visit, form submission, online purchase, event registration)

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Section 1 — The Like-Know-Trust Framework

The Like-Know-Trust (LKT) framework describes the sequence a stranger must travel before becoming a paying customer. It is not a funnel — it is a relationship arc. Skipping stages does not accelerate conversion; it destroys it. Cite: Bodnar and Cohen (2012) — the LKT model maps closely to their social media buying cycle, in which value must be given before a sale is ever attempted.

Like is the first stage. Before an audience will pay attention, they must find the brand worth following. Content at this stage is entertaining, practically useful, or emotionally resonant — it does not sell. A brand that opens with "buy from us" before establishing likability is asking for trust it has not yet earned. In East Africa, where word-of-mouth and community reputation carry enormous commercial weight, a brand that is not liked is not shared — and a brand that is not shared does not grow organically. Like-stage content creates the conditions for everything that follows.

Know is the second stage. Once the audience likes the brand, they want to understand it. This means sharing who the business is, what it stands for, how it works, who is behind it, and what it believes. Behind-the-scenes content, founder stories, values posts, and FAQ content all move audiences through the Know stage. A critically important commercial consequence of the Know stage is reduced price sensitivity: audiences that know a brand are buying a relationship, not just a product. This dynamic is especially pronounced in Uganda and the wider East African market, where consumers routinely pay a premium for businesses they personally trust.

Trust is the third and most commercially consequential stage. Trust is not declared — it is demonstrated through consistency, proof, and risk reduction. Social proof (reviews, testimonials, case studies), third-party endorsements (press coverage, certifications, awards), guarantees, and transparency all build trust. Only when trust is established does selling become natural and welcome rather than intrusive. In markets where online fraud and quality inconsistency are live consumer concerns — as they are across East Africa — the Trust stage is not optional. It is the gate through which every conversion must pass.

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Section 2 — Diagnosing the Client's Current Stage

Apply this diagnostic to every new or existing client before recommending a content strategy. Score the audience on each signal. Identify where the strongest signals cluster — that is the current dominant stage. Identify where signals are absent — those are the gaps to close.

LKT Stage Diagnostic

Audience Signal	Like	Know	Trust
Follows or engages with content passively	✓
Tags friends in posts	✓
Shares content to their own feed or stories	✓ ✓
Comments and asks questions		✓
Searches for the brand by name		✓
Sends a direct message or WhatsApp enquiry			✓
Submits a quote request or booking form			✓
Purchases without additional reassurance			✓ ✓
Recommends to friends unprompted			✓ ✓ ✓
Complains openly and expects resolution			✓ (high expectation = high trust)

Interpretation: A brand with high reach and engagement but low conversion is typically stuck at the Know stage — audiences are aware and interested, but have not yet accumulated sufficient proof to act. Apply Trust-stage content to close this gap. A brand with strong conversion but poor organic growth is typically bypassing Like-stage content — it is selling to existing customers but not recruiting new audiences.

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Section 3 — Content Strategy by Stage

Map every piece of content to one LKT stage before publishing. If a content calendar has no Like content, the brand is not growing. If it has no Know content, the brand is not deepening. If it has no Trust content, the brand is not converting.

Like Content

• Entertainment: humorous posts, relatable everyday situations, feel-good stories relevant to the target audience
• Inspiration: success stories and aspirational content that reflects the audience's own ambitions
• Practical value: tips and how-tos that help the audience immediately — no purchase required, no string attached
• Aesthetic: beautiful product photography, appealing food shots, aspirational lifestyle imagery
• EA examples: a Kampala bakery sharing a short morning video of fresh bread being made and the aroma described in caption; a law firm posting "5 common legal mistakes Uganda business owners make (and how to avoid them)"

Know Content

• Founder and team stories: who started this business, why they started it, what drives them daily
• Behind-the-scenes: how the product is made, how the service is delivered, what the team looks like at work
• Values posts: what the brand believes, how it treats customers and staff, what it will and will not do
• FAQ content: answering the most common customer questions openly, honestly, and without evasion
• EA examples: a private clinic in Entebbe sharing a video of the lead doctor explaining their patient-first philosophy; a Ugandan manufacturer showing the production floor and the quality check process

Trust Content

• Customer testimonials: screenshots of WhatsApp messages, video reviews, written narratives with the customer's name and face where consented
• Case studies: before-and-after narratives, problem-solved stories with specific outcomes ("we reduced their legal costs by 40%")
• Certifications and affiliations: Uganda Medical Association membership, ISO certification, Uganda Revenue Authority TIN number displayed publicly
• Media coverage: "As featured in Daily Monitor", "Mentioned in NTV Uganda Business Report"
• Guarantees: "If you are not satisfied, we will refund — no questions asked"
• Transparent complaint resolution: publicly resolving a customer issue in the comments demonstrates confidence and integrity more powerfully than any advertisement
• EA examples: a financial services firm sharing anonymised client outcome data ("Client saved UGX 12 million in tax in year one"); a secondary school sharing UNEB results and university placement rates

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Section 4 — The 10-4-1 Rule Applied to LKT

Apply the 10-4-1 rule (Bodnar and Cohen, 2012) as the practical LKT content mix for any active social media channel:

• 10 shares of third-party content (Like and Know stages): relevant articles, sector news, and useful resources from credible external sources — this builds authority and perceived generosity without selling
• 4 original posts (Know and Trust stages): brand-produced educational content, behind-the-scenes footage, team stories, FAQ answers, and case studies
• 1 promotional post (Trust stage, leading to conversion): a direct offer, service announcement, event invitation, or call to action

For most East African clients who currently over-post promotional content, adopting the 10-4-1 rule requires a significant structural shift in how they think about social media. Frame this shift clearly: audiences in Uganda are becoming more sophisticated and demonstrably less responsive to promotional content. They follow brands for value — not for advertisements. The 10-4-1 ratio creates the conditions of trust that make the 1 promotional post welcome rather than ignored.

Generate a sample 15-post content sequence using the 10-4-1 ratio, mapped explicitly to the client's current LKT stage and target conversion goal.

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Section 5 — Trust Acceleration Tactics

For clients who need to build trust faster — new brands, businesses recovering from a reputation issue, or organisations entering a competitive market — apply these five tactics in sequence:

1. Rapid review generation: Deploy a WhatsApp review request template within the first 30 days. Target: 10 genuine, named Google reviews within the first month. Refer to playbook-reputation-management/SKILL.md for the full review request protocol.
2. Proof-first content weighting: For the first 90 days, weight the content calendar 60% Trust / 30% Know / 10% Like — this is a deliberate reversal of the typical growth-first sequence, designed to address an active trust deficit before attempting broad audience development.
3. Transparency post: Publish one post that confronts the most common customer concern directly: "The most common question we get is 'can I really trust an online business in Uganda?' Here is our answer." This disarms the objection before the customer raises it and positions the brand as confident rather than evasive.
4. Social proof cluster: In a single week, publish five testimonials or case studies in quick succession. The clustering effect creates a perception of overwhelming positive evidence that a single monthly testimonial never achieves.
5. Founder visibility campaign: Put the founder's face on social media content for 30 consecutive days — one short video, post, or story per day. In East African markets, people trust people before they trust logos. A face creates accountability, relatability, and connection that branded graphics cannot replicate.

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Section 6 — Measurement

Track LKT stage progression using these platform-native metrics. Report monthly and use movement across the table to determine whether content sequencing is working.

Stage	Primary Metric	Secondary Metric	Target Direction
Like	Follower growth rate (%)	Reach per post	Increasing month-on-month
Know	Engagement rate (%)	Comments as a ratio of total interactions	Increasing; comments-to-likes ratio improving over time
Trust	Enquiry rate (DMs, WhatsApp, forms)	Conversion rate (enquiry → sale)	Increasing; conversion rate rising quarter-on-quarter
Advocacy	Unprompted tags and referral mentions	User-generated content (UGC) volume	Increasing; track via brand mention monitoring

When Trust-stage metrics plateau despite strong Like and Know numbers, diagnose the gap using the Section 2 diagnostic and introduce one or more Trust Acceleration Tactics from Section 5. When Like-stage metrics are static, audit whether the content calendar has drifted toward promotional-heavy posting and rebalance using 10-4-1.

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Section 7 — Extended Trust Framework

Three-Dimensional Transparency Model (Rageh, 2026)

Apply within the Trust stage of the LKT framework. Trust is not a single state — it is built through three simultaneous dimensions:

• Clarity: Complete, easy-to-find information about the brand, its products, pricing, and policies. Information gaps create suspicion.
• Openness: Interactive feedback channels and permission-based data collection. Brands that ask before they take build more trust than brands that assume consent.
• Objectivity: Displaying negative alongside positive reviews. Brands that show only five-star feedback are disbelieved; brands that respond to criticism publicly and professionally are trusted.

All three dimensions must be active for trust to build. Empirical chain (Rageh, 2026): transparency → trust (β=0.730) → commitment (β=0.525) → engagement (β=0.413). This means transparency produces trust; trust produces commitment; commitment drives engagement — in that sequence, not simultaneously.

Commitment as the Terminal Stage

The LKT framework's goal is not trust acquisition — it is commitment building. Commitment is the strongest predictor of online engagement (Rageh, 2026). Add Commitment as the stage beyond Trust in the LKT arc:

Like → Know → Trust → Commitment → Advocacy

Commitment-stage community members do not merely trust the brand — they defend it, recruit for it, and return regardless of price fluctuation. Strategy at this stage: recognise committed members publicly, give them early access and exclusive involvement, and create participation structures (polls, co-creation, feedback panels) that make them feel ownership of the brand direction.

Four Types of Social Influencers (Westergaard, 2016)

Use this taxonomy to map community amplifiers before prescribing a community engagement strategy.

Type	Reach	Action Probability	Investment Priority
Connected Catalysts	Broad	Low	Low — wide reach, shallow engagement
Passionate Publishers	Medium	High content output	Medium — content volume, variable quality
Everyday Advocates	Narrow	High	High — most underinvested type
Altruistic Activators	Narrow	Maximum loyalty	High — deepest brand attachment

Most community strategies over-invest in Catalysts (macro-influencers) and under-invest in Advocates and Activators (micro and nano advocates). The Fan Elevation System prioritises moving community members up the engagement ladder — from passive follower to Advocate or Activator. Identify Everyday Advocates through their unprompted brand mentions, peer referrals, and comment quality, then activate them through direct recognition and exclusive involvement.

Generational Trust Calibration

Community trust strategies must be calibrated by generation. Do not apply a single trust-building approach across audiences spanning multiple age cohorts (Rageh, 2026):

• Gen Z (born 1997–2012): Demands brand activism and algorithmic transparency. Will not engage with brands that appear performatively progressive without structural commitment.
• Millennials (born 1981–1996): Prioritise data control and privacy. Trust increases when brands give clear control over data and communication frequency.
• Generation X (born 1965–1980): Responds to institutional credentials, certifications, and third-party endorsements. Evidence of professional standing matters more than social proof from peers.
• Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964): Value personal service and traditional authority signals — named contacts, direct phone access, and relationship history.

Include this generational calibration as an audience segmentation layer in the persona work (see 03-audience-personas) when the client's audience spans multiple generations.

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Quality Criteria

• The three LKT stages are defined clearly with a dedicated paragraph each, explaining the commercial logic of each stage in the EA market context
• The Section 2 diagnostic table is applied to the specific client and produces a clear verdict on their current dominant stage and identified gaps
• Content examples for every stage include at least one concrete EA or Uganda-specific scenario
• The 10-4-1 rule is cited (Bodnar and Cohen, 2012), mapped explicitly to LKT stages, and applied to produce a client-specific 15-post content sequence
• Trust Acceleration Tactics are numbered 1–5, each with a concrete action and timeframe
• Measurement metrics are presented per stage with both a primary and secondary metric and a stated direction of travel
• Bodnar and Cohen (2012) is cited at least twice — once at the LKT framework introduction and once at the 10-4-1 rule

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References

Consult these related skills when building the full client deliverable:

• 05-social-media-strategy/SKILL.md — the overarching strategy skill; use framework-community-trust as the trust-sequencing layer within the broader strategy
• 10-content-pillars/SKILL.md — map LKT stages to content pillars once the diagnostic is complete
• playbook-reputation-management/SKILL.md — required reading for the rapid review generation tactic in Section 5; contains the WhatsApp review request template
• playbook-ugc-strategy/SKILL.md — consult when Advocacy-stage metrics indicate an audience ready to produce user-generated content

Key references:

• Bodnar, K. and Cohen, J. (2012) The B2B Social Media Book. Hoboken: Wiley.
• Chaffey, D. (2024) Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. 8th edn. Harlow: Pearson.
• Kotler, P. et al. (2023) Marketing Management. 16th edn. Harlow: Pearson.