Social Proof: What It Is and Why It’s Important

Let’s not beat around the bush like other click-bait sites, let’s get straight into it.

What Is Social Proof?

Social Proof is literally persuasion and is used everywhere in life, especially in marketing and word-of-mouth. Have you ever been out with friends and ordered food, and someone crumples over in sheer ecstasy at the taste of their food, and you immediately want to try it? That’s Social Proof. Our influence on others can either be indirect or deliberate. As an example, a deliberate form of influence is to flood the market with your brand, become recognised over time, and slowly build recognition in people. An indirect example would be restaurant reviews, which is heavily based on the opinion of the majority. If you saw two restaurants with identical cuisine, except one had a 3.5 star rating, and the other had a 4.8 star rating, which one would you choose?

Let’s break down a few key factors of social proof:

• Ambiguity: Watching how other people are reacting to a situation when we are uncertain about it to make an educated decision.
• Familiarity: If you are experiencing something uneasy and foreign within a large group of people, you are more inclined to seek the company of those who you are similar to.
• Experience: People are more likely to look to someone with experience for answers on how to react in unfamiliar situations. This is extremely prominent in social proofing where those with more knowledge on a subject can invoke feelings of trust in those less experienced.
• Majority Wins: Herd mentality acts as a safety net, and causes a snowball effect, where the actions of the majority will be seen as the right thing to do.

How Do I Social Proof Myself?

This depends entirely on your business, product and attitude. It’s a little cliche to say “The custom is always right”, but it does hold a very valuable lesson. Consumers in todays age have access to millions of businesses and resources at their finger tips, and have the right to choose who they sling their hard earned cash at. Even though you’re a business owner, I’m sure most of you reading this have left at least one scathing review about another business. This is because we are also consumers out side of running our businesses.

Try to put your self in the customers shoes, because you are also a customer to other businesses. You want a quality product, for a good price, and if you cant get it with a certain company, you’ll go somewhere else. This is exactly what your customers feel like too. Giving the customer every opportunity to have a satisfying experience with your business is the way you social proof your self and build a better reputation and status among your clients.

How Do I Show People I Have A Good Reputation?

You need to get your word-of-mouth marketing to these people organically. Advertising is great for traffic, but gaining the trust of your customers is the key to increasing sales and conversions. Don’t forget what we said in the last section, this isn’t about manipulation, this is about showing that you’re a trustworthy company. Trying to manipulate people with fake or false information will ultimately end in catastrophe.

The information above isn’t “fool proof”, excuse the pun, as we have people who boycott and get involved with todays “cancel culture”, and businesses can see their reputation slide into the gutter, simply by the majority deciding so. Where are we going with this you might ask? It’s simple… If you intentionally mislead people, you’ll only be putting your business in danger.

Kausec offers a way to display your hard earned business reviews, directly on your website. This means the customer doesn’t have to go anywhere to do their research, they can scroll through and read what people are saying about your business, right before they purchase.

This means social proof comes to you! Checkout our products, and if you believe it’s right for your business, you’ll also be helping support making the world. better place. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us for further details.