Who’s influencing your clients or consumers?

You’re checking out a new restaurant. You’re looking for the best service and delicious food. You see a place but it’s 1.5 stars. I think we can both agree you’re probably not going to go there. We care what others think it helps us to make quicker and easier decisions about where we go to even what we buy. As Robert Cialdini coined it social proof. We all know the actions of this term, it’s when people follow the actions of others to replicate others behavior. There have been numerous articles and studies published over the years about this phenomenon in humans. For the purpose of this article, we are honing in on how it pertains to businesses and generating leads. We want to utilize this human behavior to impact how others see our brand and grow social presence in various communities. Social media is the main way we get our brand out there. When it comes to influencers, referrals and popularity most of us use social media to learn what products we trust and who to buy from. In this blog, we’ll break down how we use social media for social proof.

Social Presence

Social media platforms use algorithms based on the concept of social proof. Instagram, for example, will look for posts that receive a lot of interaction quickly (in the form of likes, story shares and comments) and will highlight those posts in the explore section. This gives an advantage to posts that start off well by putting them in front of more people, resulting in even more interactions. In other words, if a post receives a large number of likes and comments, people are more likely to interact with the account because they see that others are also interested.

The same goes for business social media pages. The more followers you have, the more likely someone viewing your page will follow you and think your business is trustworthy. Bringing me to my next point. People do business with companies they trust. The more trust you build with a potential customer, the higher your odds of landing the client or sale. Having lots of high-rated reviews, social media pages with lots of followers, and a collection of testimonials will show the potential client that your company can be trusted. For this reason, one of our most popular services is our social media management and advertising.

We integrate posting content consistently with advertising on social platforms to increase follower counts and leads. A recent study by Hootsuite showed that 46% of companies don’t integrate ads and social posts. A few additional aspects of social proof we haven’t touched on which might help your company are experts, celebrities, and certifications. If there are any certifications or awards that show you are great at what you do, obtain them and showcase them on the web. If you can get endorsements from experts in the industry, that will be a great asset for you. And, of course, having a celebrity endorsement can encourage fans to try out your product and give your brand some notoriety.

Interactive Calls To Action

Knowing how important interacting with your community of followers is, the question to ask is, what are some ways to increase interaction between your social platforms and your followers? Making organic posts, making content, resources, and graphics that aren’t about selling your products. It’s beneficial to post on holidays, wishing people a good day or weekend. Keep it fun; don’t always talk about yourself or what your company can offer. Create motivational posts, maybe even a meme or two. Polls can be another great option. This can range from anything like “Who’s your favorite superhero?” to “Which of our services have you had the best experience with?”. Going back to the idea of social proof, this can utilize people’s interest in knowing what others’ answers have been to urge them to interact. A piece of advice: stay away from political or strongly divided topics, as this can cause dissension and ugly arguments.

In Conclusion

Here we touch on the high level aspect of social proof. Next week, check back we are going to go into depth about the group who can affect your social presence and help you generate leads. Make sure you check our socials to stay updated on blog releases. Now in regards to brand awareness and building your social presence we know doing all this alone can be time-consuming and daunting. Subscribe to our newsletter for a free social media posting infographic! And if you want any help making this a reality for you, fill out the contact form.