Social proof is a very powerful marketing concept that is used by many Internet marketers and bloggers.
I have been reading about this concept recently, and I am finding it to be a very interesting marketing tool.
In a nutshell, the most powerful influence over a person is other people. People often act like sheep. In the sense that they adopt a herd mentality, and always follow what others are doing.
Internet marketers and bloggers, who employ the concept of social proof effectively are easily able to influence their audience into doing something.
For example, there is a good chance that you have seen Feedburner feedcount chicklets on other blogs before.
Many bloggers and Internet marketers use these tools in order to increase the amount of subscribers they have to their blog.
Besides being a cool little graphic often in the top right hand corner of a blog, the Feedburner feedcount chicklet also serves as a social proof and credibility tool.
There is a good example of this social proofing tool on Yaro Starak’s blog
www.entrepreneurs-journey.com. Yaro is by far the best blog teacher, who instructs people how to build successful blogs. He has built an incredible blog with very valuable content and a large and loyal readership. I owe him a lot for the development of my own blog.
It is a common practice that many bloggers do not display publicly the Feedburner feedcount chicklet until they have reached a certain amount of subscribers. Once a blogger has reached a certain amount of subscribers, they begin to publicly advertise via this chicklet the exact number of subscribers that they have. The reason for this again is because…
The most powerful influence over a person is other people.
If a web surfer randomly comes across a blog while surfing the web and they notice that a blog has 500, 5,000, or 50,000 subscribers, they will perceive this blog to be of value, and they will be more likely to subscribe themselves.
On the flip side, if someone comes across a blog and they see that there are only 2, 3, or 4 subscribers to a blog, they will be less likely to subscribe themselves as they will perceive that the blog does not have value, although the blog could in fact be very valuable.
In essence, the feedcount chicklet is a social proof tool.
Remember that social proof is a marketing concept that takes into account that the most powerful influence over someone is other people.
Now, here is a real life example of social proof at work.
Yesterday was a very snowy day in Toronto Canada. There was a lot of snowfall on the ground just before the rush hour traffic hit the roads. As a result, when I was driving to work the salting trucks and snowplough machines were out in full force. It was also a very cloudy day yesterday, and with all of the salt on the roads, my car became very dirty on the drive into and out of work. At the end of the day, the car was a mess. It looked terrible.
Today was a sunny day. A sunny day during the wintertime is often a time in which people get their car washed in a drive through car wash. I went to the gas station to fill up some gas in my car. At this gas station there was an adjoining car wash. I looked at the adjoining car wash and I noticed that there was a long time up of cars waiting to get washed.
Seeing the incredibly long line up, I thought to myself that I would come back at a later time to get my car washed, as I did not want to wait in line.
I went into the gas station to pay for my gas, and when I came out of the gas station, the line up to the car wash was even longer, which meant, an even longer wait had I decided to join the line.
It was at this time that I realized that the line up of cars at the car wash, represented social proof. The fact that there were so many dirty cars already in line made other people feel that it was a good idea to get a car wash at that time as well. Everyone’s car was equally dirty due to the snowfall from the day before.
As a result, I decided that I would get my car washed as well, and I got in line. I fully realized that social proof had just affected me. It was also at this time that I knew I was going to write about this experience.
This example goes to show that just like the Feedburner feedcount chicklet…
…the more people are doing something, the more likely you will do it yourself. This is a classical example of social proof.
When we take a look at real estate investing, I can tell you with certainty that social proofing applies here as well.
Often times groups of real estate investors will be investing in certain geographical areas. In addition, within these geographical areas, these same real estate investors will be investing in certain types of rental properties.
I have seen many novice investors begin to invest in these same geographical areas as the veteran real estate investors. Novice investors do this because they see that veteran investors are already invested in a particular region. As a result, the novice investors perceive that, the geographical area must be good because people are already invested there.
This again is an example of social proof. Social proof examples come up everywhere. Keep a look out, and you will notice social proof in your daily life.
If you liked this article and would like to read more of my content, I encourage you to subscribe to my blog by clicking on the RSS button on the top right hand corner of this page.
[…] Note: As I was searching for a graphic to go with this entry, I found another great blog entry on Social Proof from firstrentalproperty.com. It discusses the use of Social Proof as a marketing […]