Are you an independent thinker?
Do you like to make up your own mind?
I like to see myself as a rebel. My ex-boss regularly accused me of insubordination.
I enjoy going against the grain. While most businesses pick blue or red as a corporate color, I decided to go for purple and orange. I know it’s not what everyone likes. But it does make my site stand out.
Enough of my bravado about not following the norm. Of course when I’m uncertain, I look for clues to indicate what I am supposed to do.
Ever considered why they use silly canned laughter on TV?
It’s the power of social proof. We think that jokes are funnier when other people laugh about them. Even if that laughter is clearly artificial we still tend to appreciate jokes more. Research has proven it.
In his book Influence Robert Cialdini describes social proof as the tendency to see an action as more appropriate when others are doing it. He also argues that social proof is more powerful when we’re uncertain what to do.
Have you heard stories about accidents where a group of bystanders does nothing? It’s sometimes referred to as bystander apathy. Everyone is looking for social proof to tell them what they’re supposed to do, because nobody is quite sure whether it’s an emergency or not. If nobody else is acting, then everyone assumes they don’t need to do anything.
On the web we often deal with uncertainty.
What should we read? What should we buy?
Design has a big impact on first impressions and whether we trust a site. But often we look for other clues – we read the posts highlighted as popular, and we browse the popular books on Amazon.
How to use social proof (even if your blog isn’t popular)
It’s often said that you should quote your reader numbers to encourage people to sign up for your blog updates. But that advice is nonsense if you have a low number of readers.
Your subscriber numbers need to be pretty high before they act as social proof. Derek Halpern tested various email sign-up forms and found that a form that stated join 14,752 others performed worse than a form without a number. I would have thought that 10k+ is a pretty high number, but it doesn’t appear to work.
Comments and social shares are of course another oft-quoted source of social proof. But what if you don’t get social shares or comments?
You might be blogging about a topic that people aren’t interested in sharing. You might not have promoted your blog that much. You might have just started a new blog. Can you still use social proof?
Firstly, you need to avoid the kind of social proof that leads to bystander apathy. Secondly, you need to find creative ways to show social proof. A few ideas:
- Consider using a social sharing plug-in that doesn’t show the number of tweets, likes, and plusses on your posts. Or don’t display social sharing buttons at all. Why do you need to? People don’t need buttons to share your posts.
- Don’t show social media buttons on pages that don’t get shared like your about page.
- Show how many social media followers you have to encourage people to connect. Be careful not to clutter your sidebar. You might want to show your social media connections only on your about page.
- Display popular posts in your sidebar. You can either use a plug-in or just decide which “popular” posts you want people to read. Sharon Tanton suggests that most popular posts attract more clicks than new posts.
- Show positive tweets as testimonials. Kristi Hines explains how to here.
- Display logos of websites you’ve written guest posts for, newspapers you’ve been quoted in, or of industry events you’ve spoken at. Or mention well-known customers. Always ask permission before displaying logos.
- Interview other experts in podcasts or videos. Ask smart questions and their expertise will rub off on you.
- Use the power of testimonials. Ask readers for feedback, and turn their answers into powerful testimonials.
- Use a quote from a reader to promote your newsletter. Laura Roeder has a “nameless” quote on her sign-up form: Yours is the only newsletter that I actually read. Read how Laura came up with this headline in this case study by VWO.
The crazy power of social proof
Let’s not forget: Social proof should not be your focus.
Don’t tweet your own posts twenty or thirty times to artificially boost your tweet count. Don’t worry so much about comments and shares.
Worrying about social proof can make you forget what blogging is about: sharing your knowledge, inspiring other people, building your authority, and gaining leads for your business.
Focus on helping and inspiring your audience because that’s how you engage potential customers and that’s how you earn their business.
Recommended reading on online marketing:
28 Twitter tips to enchant your followers
Are these 5 common beliefs sabotaging your online marketing?
How to write a manifesto for a tiny biz
People in herds do things that as individuals they know are crazy.
I studied this at College and was amazed at how when you broke out the individuals in any group, so many people disagreed with what was happening, or did not really want to follow a so called Leader, but did it anyway.
Your question is different, and worthy of true investigation, which is how to get people to trust you, when you ARE TRUSTWORTHY.
Thanks Henneke
Yep, you raise a good point. It’s about first being trustworthy, and then showing it. I don’t think trustworthiness and honesty can be faked!
Hello Henneke, I always enjoy reading your stuff. It’s like a tasty morsel which fills you just right. Not too much, not too little. Just right. You’d better save this comment, if I ever become famous, you can use it as social proof.
Printing this to hang on the wall 🙂
Thank you, Louie
Hi Henneke,
This is a great post, very useful list of tips you share here, thanks a lot! I really like the look of you site, very clean and easy to find your way around. Also great use of colors! I am a big fan of Studiopress myself, and I use Metro theme on my personal branded site I launched not too long ago.
Keep up the good work, looking forward to follow your blog 🙂
Navid
Hi Navid, welcome 🙂
Yes, the Metro theme is great, too. I love the big picture in the background. I also like the simplicity of the Prose theme (the theme I’m using).
A great list of tips. And I love this post. Easy to understand and very helpful.
Orange and purple seems a good combination huh. It looks sweet for me.
So I’m not the only one who likes the colors. Great! 🙂
How people behave sometimes is why those at the top of society usually think of others as herds. Control the head of the herd and you control everyone.
Luckily there are those who go upstream which are often those who make the world to progress, not those within the herd but the few who go outside and check what’s beyond the fence.
The herd usually follows the one who screams louder or who can release dogs.
Many times in my life I’ve gone upstream, as I’m also doing with my blog, and sometimes I’ve taken some slaps on my face but honestly going upstream and doing things my way brings a lot of satisfaction.
At least when it works, but you can’t always win anyway, even following the herd. 🙂
Social proof works, mostly because Google says so, but relating it to quality is another thing. The two don’t always go together.
Good for you, Andrea. Let’s keep going upstream together 🙂
Henneke, I’m not clear what credibility attaches to an anonymous testimonial, as Laura Roeder advocates. You warn us not to make it up – but if the writer does not assign his or her identity, that is precisely what the quote appears to be.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I struggle with this one, too. I was hoping for some comments on this so you could help me make up my mind.
It looks strange, but it does appear to work – see the link to a case study in my reply to Kitty’s comment earlier on.
This question makes me think of the phenomena mentioned in Sam Leith’s Words Like Loaded Pistols that “simply putting words in quotation marks” without attribution makes them more credible. I guess it is better than nothing. 🙂
But it doesn’t feel completely honest, does it?
By the way – that’s a great title for a book: Words Like Loaded Pistols. I haven’t heard of it before, but I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I would say it is only honest if it is an actual and easily verifiable, verbatim quote. I assume that testimonials with pictures, names and titles are more convincing than those without. I suspect that whether or not the testimonial sounds like it is impartial and realistic matters even more, and that most people would rather not verify.
But it only takes one person to blow the whistle, which is perhaps why I have never seen anyone successfully build a blog from fake testimonials, so far as I can see. It seems that dishonest folk usually give themselves away fairly quickly (they rush the sale).
I think you would appreciate Words Like Loaded Pistols; it is candy for word geeks. Btw, your post is very helpful, Henneke. Thank you.
Yes, I agree with you. Quotes with names and preferably pictures are more persuasive.
I’ve put Words Like Loaded Pistols already on my wishlist. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for another great post, Henneke!
There are some great ideas here that I haven’t encountered and considered before, such as displaying positive tweets as testimonials (I’ll definitely check this out) and focusing on creating great content than worrying too much about sharing my posts. I tend to worry about my lack of “social media activities” due to my being busy, so it’s a breath of relief to know that it doesn’t always weigh heavily on my social proof.
I’ve been favoriting some tweets, but not decided where to put them on my site yet. One of those many things on my to-do list 😉
Social media shares look good, but we can’t be everywhere all the time! I focus mainly on Twitter, and occasionally check out Google Plus, LinkedIn and Pinterest. For me the people on my email list are far more important than my social media connections.
Another fine post 😉
Does Laura Roeder really do that? Weird.
Yep, she does. There’s even a case study suggesting using that quote as a headline considerably increased her opt-ins.
Haha indeed I do! As soon as I saw the email that said “yours is the only newsletter that I actually read” I knew it would make a good headline. I’ve never attributed it because I haven’t found a way to do it without it being weird/distracting/confusing. (It just puts your mind into “who is that?” wondering about the name instead of reading the quote.)
And as Henneke pointed out, I’ve been unable to beat it! Thanks for including me here.
Typo before sharon tanton
Thanks! Spotted and corrected – unless I missed another one 😉
Very good insights Henneke.
I’m testing the numbers displaying in my sign up form right now. I was surprised to read that showing the numbers had a negative effect. So far for me the signups increased by 5% showing the number. But I am testing different ad copy as well…
I suspect the number itself has a lot to do with it. I have around 1300 subscribers to my new blog, when the numbers were low I did not show them for fear of lack of social proof.
I added them in when they were above 300. I’m not 100% convinced of the effect just yet, need more testing. I feel any number under 10,000 is cozy, above that and you start to feel like a statistic. For me anyway.
But I do notice that my social numbers (likes, tweets etc) will remain stagnant until there is a new like, then I’ll get a short burst.
So it’s important to re-share content on social sites at different times of the day when different people are interacting.
By the way, yours is one of the only blogs I read regularly. You can quote me on that, cuz it’s true 🙂
That’s interesting. I’d love to hear the results of your tests!
It’s probably time for me to do some testing, but I’ve been lazy… 😉
Wow Henneke! This is an excellent list. I’m going to keep this handy 🙂 Looking forward to the book!
Thank you 🙂