Social Proof: The Master Of Your Industry Market

You may have noticed or you may have been endlessly annoyed by laugh tracks running in the back of sitcoms, but have you wondered the precise reason why those are there? Put simply, there is a general tendency that when people find themselves in a situation of uncertainty when they are not sure how to act, they look at the environment around them to find cues and guidance. Like laughter from a ghost audience. And they are especially influenced by people of their own age and status. 

This type of reasoning is what’s driving the success of websites and applications like Yelp and TripAdvisor. People like to rely on the experience and opinion of like- minded people to guide their own decisions and actions.

 But wait! Let's have a clear picture of social proof

What is social proof? 

Social proof is the idea that consumers will adapt their behaviour according to what other people are doing. When we see a line of customers waiting to eat at a restaurant or a photo of a celebrity drinking a certain brand of coffee, it lends an air of gravitas and quality to the product. Social proof gives prospects more confidence in claiming an offer because they’ve seen its value to past customers.

AND THE INTERESTING FACT IS THERE ARE SIX TYPES OF PROOF:

1. EXPERTS:   Expert social proof is when an authority in your industry recommends your products or services or publicly associates themselves with your brand. 

 For example: “Nature Made” Nature Made uses the expert certification of the USP (U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention) to speak for their vitamins instead of describing their quality themselves. The image of the seal of approval also echoes the text in their Facebook post.

2.     Celebrity: Celebrity social proof is when a celebrity endorses your products. For example: “MakeMyTrip” is promoted by Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh,so consumers of the service have ultimate trust in the guidance of “MakeMyTrip”.

3. User;   User social proof is when your current users recommend your products and services based on their experiences with your brand.  For example: “Yelp” relies on user reviews to rate restaurants, bars, and businesses, and the use of social proof is beneficial for the company and for its users searching for customer reviews. Yelp generates roughly 145 million visitors each month and is one of the most popular websites in the United States.

4, Wisdom of crowd: This type of social proof is when a large group of people endorses your brand. For example: Netflix” Netflix takes advantage of user trends by suggesting new TV and movie options based on popularity. This clever use of social proof helps them keep people binge-watching instead of navigating away when they finish a movie or season a great retention strategy. Much like when things are trending on Twitter, trending suggestions aim to pique the interest of users and persuade them to tune in. 

5.      Wisdom of friend:  This type of social proof is when people notice their friends approve of your product. For example: “Facebook” Facebook suggests Pages and articles for users based on how their friends are interacting with the social media platform. This form of social proof is supported by our inherent trust in people we already know: Remember, we take our friends’ recommendations more seriously than any other type of advertising.

 6.  Certification: This type of social proof is when you receive a stamp of approval from an authoritative figure in your industry. For example: the blue checkmark/ tick on Instagram or Facebook.

Social proof has a close relative called FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” that uses urgency to convince potential customers to buy before they miss out on a cool product. FOMO works because it plays on human behaviour; we’re pretty much wired to feel anxiety about missing out on something that others have or are doing.

Social proof and FOMO are proven to work. Now it’s just a matter of finding the best social proof tool for you

• TrustPulse: TrustPulse is the most powerful social proof tool for business websites. With it, you can automate social proof by showing real-time customer activity notifications on your website in the form of an eye-catching, unobtrusive popup. 

 TrustPulse is also great as a FOMO tool. The notifications create a sense of urgency and you can even show off hot products or other actions with a fire notification. The setup process takes 3 minutes flat, and you can boost conversions by as much as 15%.

• OptinMonster: OptinMonster is more than just a tool to create high-converting popup and optin campaigns. It’s also the most powerful lead generation tool, and best WordPress popup plugin, on the market.

And, it’s also one of the best social proof tools around. With OptinMonster, you can create gorgeous pop-ups and optins on any website to turnings, you’ll convert even more!

• SocialProve:  SocialProve lets you display conversion or visitor notifications on your website in the form of small popups. Getting set up with SocialProve is easy and doesn’t require any coding. Just copy and paste the pixel and you’re done.

You can customise your notifications to match your branding. And, SocialProve offers a few different notification options including live activity, live count, visitor combo, and activity combo.

Now that you have learned all about social proof, grab some coffee and find out which technique will work for you. Happy Brainstorming!