Consumers are heavily influenced by positive reviews, endorsements and what others recommend. This is also known as the phenomenon of social proof. It means that people tend to look for cues on what to do, through the behaviors and actions of others. Marketing strategies can take advantage of social proof to help influence consumer habits and behaviors, and this idea has been around since the mid-1900’s.
Utilizing social proof in your marketing efforts is a highly effective way to grow your business and brand awareness. Let’s take a look at a few examples to help understand how these types of marketing strategies are impacting modern consumers (a.k.a. your potential customers).
Celebrity and Influencer Endorsements
This type of social proof marketing is huge in the cosmetic and health realm. Consumers look to these well-known influencers, experts and celebrities for honest opinions and reviews over the products they’ve used.
Consumers trust these individuals and consider them to be qualified and credible sources of information, and they have a huge impact on social proof as it pertains to marketing. Partnering with these influencers showcases your product and gives your potential customers reassurance and confidence in your product.
Social Media Connecting People From Everywhere
Social media is one of the most powerful examples of social proof. This is an area of the internet where people from all different backgrounds and locations connect. This creates the perfect environment for social proof to take place, as people share success stories, ratings, testimonials and experiences with brands, products and services. Utilizing these reviews and blurbs in your marketing is very powerful.
Seeing What Your Friends are Doing
People want reassurance and advice from friends. When people are in the market for a service or product, they often reach out to people they close to for input. Social media platforms use algorithms to advertise brands and products that friends are already following to show consumers things that their friends are likely to recommend and trust.
Triggering the Fear of Missing Out
By using conversion notifications, social media interactions will actually generate posts that users will see, attracting them to your feed and making them aware of your products and events. They’ll realize that so many other people have been engaging with you and purchasing your products, so it must be good and they don’t want to be the only one missing out.
People want to be involved with what others are doing and talking about; they want to know what all the hype is and experience it for themselves.
In Summary
In this digital age, people are more connected than ever and you can really use this to your advantage when promoting your business and building a marketing strategy. Social proof is a powerful phenomenon that happens in social situations – including on social media – and leveraging this can really make a huge impact on your reach and conversions.
These examples are great ways to get started with implementing social proof into your marketing efforts and using the social nature of humans to your benefit.
Stephan Boehringer is the CEO of Get The Clicks, a web marketing company. Stephan has over 20 years of experience in the field of web marketing, and has been a speaker and consultant for many years. Stephan is passionate about web marketing and helping their clients be the best they can be.
Stephan Boehringer graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services.
