Social Proof

Social proof is the psychological concept that people are influenced in their decision making by others, encouraging them to behave within societal norms or expectations. In the context of marketing, social proof offers evidence of the popularity or usability of a brand among consumers to impact the purchase decisions of potential and returning customers.

Why Is Social Proof Important for Marketing?

Social proof assures customers that a product or service that was received by other people is something they should also buy into. This is often the case where people search for a product, find various similar items, and choose to buy the product based on their finding of positive customer reviews.

Brands leverage social proof to increase conversions and grow their customer base exponentially as more people contribute to a growing buzz around products or services.

Marketing Ideas for Social Proof

Perform market research or customer surveys: Brands frequently use statistics to appeal to consumers. Customer studies or surveys serve as a way to demonstrate that their business is preferred by consumers over competitors or that they have features or perks desired by potential customers.

Show consumers you’re an authority in your industry: Use original research and data to communicate to others that you are an expert or credible in your field or market. Citing evidence and providing links from other authoritative sources has a similar effect.

Use influencer marketing to grow shared audiences: Make partnerships with influencers to post on your social media accounts or other marketing channels to boost follower counts and engagement metrics. Selecting influencers who have similar audiences to yours can raise awareness of your brand among their community of followers.

Launch promos or giveaways: Increase engagement by announcing a giveaway or limited-time deals for followers on social accounts. To generate more buzz around your brand, invite social media users to share or like posts and follow accounts in exchange for entering a giveaway or claiming a deal.

How Do I Measure Social Proof?

Track metrics for social proof as a way to monitor the success of a marketing campaign and its impact to convert leads, encourage people to buy products and services, and retain returning customers. There are multiple ways to measure the impact of social proof on social networks, business websites, mobile apps and more.

Metrics related to social proof:

• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Retweets
• Followers
• Frequency of brand hashtags/keywords
• Positive reviews
• Customer testimonials
• Number of products sold
• Referrals
• Backlinks
• Impressions
• Clicks
• New users/customers
• Returning users/customers
• Email subscriptions
• Mobile app downloads

Tools to Track Social Proof

Google Analytics: Use Google Analytics to measure metrics related to your own site performance, including traffic for new vs. returning users, conversions like email sign-ups and more. When leveraging social proof for marketing campaigns, compare performance before and after the campaign to analyze the impact of social proof on target KPIs.

Google AdWords and online advertising tools: Google AdWords is an online advertising platform that gives access to marketers to display paid ads wherever consumers visit and then track social proof metrics like clicks and impressions of ads.

Facebook Insights and similar tools: Track engagement on social media accounts for likes, comments, shares and followers to build up social proof. Social networks feature tools that are built-in to their platforms, such as Facebook Insights, to monitor engagement metrics for individual posts.

Vista Social: Beyond the built-in tools found on social media network, use Vista Social for social listening features that analyze hashtag usage, brand-specific keywords and social conversions to connect with potential and current customers faster and more effectively.

Pros of Measuring Social Proof

Increase engagement. Encourage followers to join in the conversation by highlighting or celebrating social proof metrics like reaching 100,000 followers to grow your follower counts even more.

Influence purchasing behavior and decisions. Use social proof to show your brand is trustworthy and authoritative to convince others to buy.

Understand your audience. Track social proof metrics to gain insights into how consumers are making purchase decisions (through paid ads, social media posts, etc).