[caption id="attachment_940" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Photo: Denis Dervisevic[/caption]
In the days of the old mom-and-pop stores, you went to the people you knew and trusted to get your supplies and the latest news. And you found out who to trust through recommendations and personal interactions. Those factors are just as important in this era of the social web, but now web users have to find ways other than face to face contact to assess trust. That's where social proof comes in. Social proof is "the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something. It’s also known as informational social influence," says Aileen Lee.
Want to see social proof in action? Amazon's website serves as a good case study. When you browse, Amazon shows you products that other people who looked at that product examined. And you can see customer reviews for each product. And when you buy, they show you what other people who bought the same product bought. As a follow up, they email you and encourage you to review products. All of these add up to powerful reasons to buy products and review purchases.
Before people buy your products, there are several things you can do to help create a relationship of trust.
- People want to know that their credit card and personal financial data is safe so including safe shopping buttons from some of the major providers will assure them of that.
- If you have clients that are perceived as authorities, add their logos to your site where customers can see them.
- Include industry accreditations so they will know you are not a fly by night company.
- Place social sharing buttons next to content – as the number of shares go up, so will the trust.
Then there's the social side.
Pew Internet says more than two-thirds of Americans use the internet daily and we'd be willing to bet the numbers are similar for Canada. That makes your social media presence another compelling element of social proof. You can highlight this by:
- Displaying your subscriber numbers on site (you can include email subscribers too).
- Including feeds from your social sites (especially if they also show people speaking positively about your products and services).
- Placing links to your social media hangouts on your site.
- Showing off any media mentions or high profile interviews and appearances.
The more places people are able to find you, the more trustworthy you look.
That's the social side, but then there's also the additional proof that people find your products and services good. You can provide this by:
- encouraging customers to leave reviews and testimonials about your products and services, including video reviews
- getting endorsements of your products and services (including video endorsements) from trusted authorities
- including product videos on your site so people can see that your products and services are easy to use
Supplement social proof with other trust factors like:
- A truly informational about page which includes a photo.
- Location information for your business (even more important now that so many visitors are using mobile devices).
- Contact details for your business.
Finally, it's also important to look after
usability, because all the social proof in the world won't matter if your site doesn't help people find the information they want fast.
