All marketers are constantly battling for consumer attention, especially online, but with the caveat of being cost-effective to their companies. Author Aileen Lee proposes that the most effective form of online marketing is using a concept called social proof, originally a psychologists’ tool. In its basic form, social proof is “the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something. It’s also known as informational social influence.”
Social proof observed in our everyday settings, such as people standing behind a velvet rope, waiting to get into a club and thus making people walking by curious about what the wait is about, can be effortlessly translated online such as the invite-only launches like Gmail, Gilt Groupe, Spotify, and Turntable.fm.
Lee highlights five types of social proof, especially related to helping a digital startup find success with examples of how the social proof has helped leverage the business. I have listed out the types – the full list is available on the link
1) Expert social proof – Approval from a credible expert, like a magazine or blogger, can have incredible digital influence.
2) Celebrity social proof
3) User social proof – Direct TV marketers are masters at sharing user success stories.
4) Wisdom of the crowds social proof – highlighting popularity or large numbers of users implies “a million people can’t be wrong.”
5) Wisdom of your friends social proof
The benefit of using social proof online is being able to test, learn and iterate quickly to find what works best. However, the author again adds a caveat that social proof only works when the product is actually credible.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/27/social-proof-why-people-like-to-follow-the-crowd/
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