What is Social Proof?

One never-ending challenge for business owners everywhere is the battle for consumer attention.  I’m increasingly convinced the best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users is by harnessing social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web.

What is social proof?  Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something.  It’s also known as informational social influence.

Wikipedia describes social proof as “a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect the correct behavior for a given situation… driven by the assumption that the surrounding people possess more information about the situation.” In other words, people are wired to learn from the actions of others, and this can be a huge driver of consumer behavior.

Consider the social proof of a line of people standing behind a velvet rope, waiting to get into a night club. The clubs could let people in faster, but then there wouldn’t be a line. The line makes most people walking by want to find out what’s worth the wait. It breeds interest. Professor Robert Cialdini, a thought leader in social psychology, has many more such examples. 

In one study, his team tested messages to influence reusing towels in hotel rooms.  The social proof message – “Almost 75% of other guests help by using their towels more than once” had 25% better results than all other messages.  And adding the words “of other guests that stayed in this room” had even more impact (also an example of how A/B testing of small details matters). 

In another study, a restaurant increased sales of specific dishes by 13-20% just by highlighting them as “our most popular items”.  Social Proof also works on your subconscious – it’s the reason why comedy shows often use a laugh track or audience; people actually laugh more when they can hear other people laughing.

Because of social proof and despite a shaky economy, many web companies are in hyper growth.  This is reminiscent of the five-year period over a decade ago when companies like Amazon, Netscape, eBay, Yahoo, Google and PayPal were built.

There are several types of social proof. To get the word out to the masses, you need to know about all of them – and then chose those strategies that work best for your industry and product. Many companies have found that a “mixed salad” of various types of social proof is most effective. The beauty of the web is you can test, learn and retest quickly to find what works best.