Ever find yourself seeking validation from the review section before making a purchase? It’s social proof you’re looking for – a phenomenon where people rely on the affirmation from others to act in a way in which they would otherwise be incapable. This could come from people and institutions of authority, such as brands and influencers, or even past consumers.

In marketing, social proof includes product reviews, testimonials, social media popularity, user-generated content and any other content that gives customers the confidence to purchase. Research has shown that social proof has a huge impact on business revenue, as over 85% of people have confirmed that reviews from past consumers do influence their purchase decision. Therefore, brands need to leverage social proof to create trust among their consumers, which ultimately helps them to secure more sales!

In this post, we will be sharing with you the various ways you can leverage social proof with social media to generate more quality leads for your business!

Google My Business

Rewards are a great way to motivate customers to act – even better if it comes in the form of immediate gratification. Popular ergonomic chair brand, ErgoTune, uses a sure-win spin wheel game that features their flagship chair – the ErgoTune Supreme, as one of their prizes! The catch? You got to enter your email to spin.

Google My Business allows you to attract and engage with customers when they search for your business on Google. Having a Business Profile strengthens your online presence on Google Search and Maps while adding professionalism to your business. You can respond to reviews left by past and existing customers, post photos of products and promotions, add and edit your business details for an enhanced customer outreach.

Insights from Google My Business also allows you to optimize your customer engagements for better results via the Customers tab. Start managing your Google My Business Profile here.

 

 

Online Reviews

 

 

With an increasingly saturated e-Commerce marketplace, we can easily find our desired products and services from many sellers. But how do we determine which seller offers the best product?

Good reviews and testimonials are becoming increasingly essential to e-Commerce consumers, especially since they have limited visibility on product quality when making a purchase online. Therefore, garnering positive reviews from past or existing customers will serve as a stamp of approval for new customers to engage with your business.

Since modern consumers are increasingly active online, social media is an effective way to collect customer reviews. Facebook Reviews allows customers to choose whether or not to recommend a page using a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ button, which subsequently invites them to include text and images in their feedback. Facebook Reviews is automatically activated when you create a page for your business – otherwise, you can set it up with the following steps:

  1. Go to your Page
  2. Click on ‘Settings’ on the left panel
  3. Click on ‘Templates and tabs’ on the new panel that appears
  4. Toggle the ‘Reviews’ option to ON

Testimonials

Moving on to testimonials – a more curated version of customer reviews. Testimonials should be less focused on specific products, and more on the brand as a whole and the value it brings to the consumers. It should be concise to highlight the advantages your brand has over competitors. Testimonials should be accompanied by a reviewer’s photo because it makes them look professional and hence more credible.

Alternatively, you can arrange to have video testimonials for something more refreshing Video content are also a huge attention-grabbers and have shown to be successful in sales conversion since 73% of B2B businesses using video in their marketing report positive ROI. (Social pilot)

The next step is to decide on a strategic location to place your testimonials. We recommend having it somewhere accessible and near a call-to-action on your website or social media accounts. Strategic locations include the landing and product pages of your website. Placing testimonials on your landing page makes it virtually impossible to miss out on since it is where the vast majority of your web visitors arrives, while having them on product pages might just nudge deliberating consumers closer to purchase. You can even consider setting up a dedicated testimonial page once you have enough testimonials!

Social Media Popularity

Just as how our social media following is a badge of honour for many of us, businesses too sought to increase their follower count because it is a form of social proof which reflects credibility and trust in their brand. Working on scaling this prominent figure can have a compounding effect on your business that leads to more sales!

Once you have garnered a respectable number of social media followers, don’t hesitate to show it! Share a celebratory post of you achieving a significant milestone of say, your first 1,000 or 10,000 followers, with a special promotion for all your followers. Plastering this information on your social media accounts or website could do the trick of persuading followers or web visitors into conversion!

Another way of creating social proof is by leveraging social media shares. You can include share buttons to your content to encourage customers to become advocates for your product. Share buttons can be accompanied by a counter to indicate the number of shares your content currently has. A high number lends credibility to your brand!

User-Generated Content

While similar to customer reviews, user-generated contents are a more authentic form of validation that comes from social media posts and stories instead of a review section. When customers are willing to share what they have purchased and used from your brand on a space as personal as social media, it reflects a strong level of trust and hence would be viewed upon as a more genuine appraisal. This is the best form of social proof and one that would inspire prospective customers to buy from your brand!

You can also collaborate with social media influencers or key opinion leaders of a relevant industry for social proof since their thoughts are highly trusted and valued by the majority of your target customers.

Conclusion

The widespread and persistent mistrust of online shopping due to the inability to ascertain quality makes it increasingly difficult for e-Commerce businesses to gain the trust of skeptical customers. Therefore, gaining positive appraisals from real-life customers who have tried and tested your product can help instill greater confidence in future customers.

At Bluehive Consulting, we help brands build stronger customer relationships using effective social proof derived from social media strategies. Get in touch with our team at projects@bluehiveasia.com to find out more! Bluehive Consulting has been recognized as one of Top Food and Beverage Branding Agencies by DesignRush.