Social Proof: Buzz Words Of The Day Or Here To Stay!

You can go off and Google “Social Proof”. It’s a marketing buzz word to describe a process to prove your websites’ authenticity!

What you will find are a few different explanations, but it really comes down to one principle: Making customers or others online feel that what they are about to do is real and authentic, and because of evidence or “proof” they decide to take a decision to take that action you need them to take.

An example of Social Proof you are most likely familiar with is buying a hotel ticket where a pop-up says 31 people are looking at this hotel right now. Airplane tickets, Amazon, Dating Events and other capacity or time-based websites and apps use it.

Social Proof is nothing new. In fact, it’s simply using data to manipulate people into making a choice. The only reason we have it online is there is always that feeling in the back of your head that what is real is not real. My first assumption with all websites that are new to me is this may be a sham, a spam page, a trap until it is proven to be the real deal. Even the real deal can be a fake page, called a honey pot, that is there simply to grab our data and take advantage of us.

Years ago, in the dating event biz, we tried a simple test. We put in a test that said 5 spots left. When we switched it to 3 or 2 spots left, the sales started to roll in. We don’t do this anymore, but it worked. People act on these Social Proof concepts.