Websites are crazy expensive, especially for businesses that are still launching themselves off the ground. Ninety-two percent of small businesses don’t have a website.
Most of them avoid them due to costs and time availability, but about 22% state that it’s a lack of technical skills that prevents them from paying that monthly or annual fee.
What if we told you that you don’t need a website to promote your business? That there’s an amazing phenomenon known as “social proof?” It’s right at your fingertips, if you know how to wield it.
Today, we’re bringing you how to use social proof even if you don’t have a website. Let’s get started!
Influence
by Robert Cialdini
⏱ 14 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
So, what is “social proof” in the first place, and why do so many people rave on about it?
Social proof is defined as a “psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.”
Robert Cialdini, who wrote about the phenomenon in-depth in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, says,
“We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.”
Think about it this way. When you hear about your favorite celebrity, actor, singer, or influencer recommending or using a brand, that brand becomes attractive to you. This phenomenon applies to experts, family, and friends.
Psychologist Edward Thorndike breaks down how people make judgments based upon our impression of someone—he calls it the Halo Effect—and it goes like this:
The first thought that crosses our mind is that anything used by experts must be inherently greater because they are most likely more knowledgeable than us in this area of expertise.
Then, when we look at celebrities, we may want to be like them and look like them, so we support products endorsed by them.
And last, user reviews are viewed as trustworthy because these users have experienced the product and service, unlike us.
Social proof, when effective, may just guarantee success for your brand or business. Plus, its results aren’t temporary. They’re long-lasting.
So, we’re going to teach you how to wield this phenomenon to your advantage!
Make and Promote a Facebook Business Page
In place of a website that costs money and tech knowledge, over 31% of small businesses prefer making a social media business profile.
The 90 million small businesses that use Facebook pages to make their presence known and connect with their customers are on Facebook for a reason.
While 90 million may seem like an intimidating number, Facebook has more than 2.2 billion users on a monthly basis, and your business isn’t likely to be in the same niche as a large percentage of the others.
In addition, investing in Facebook ads is less costly than maintaining a website. It’s also easier and helps you get noticed more quickly.
Make a YouTube Channel
While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are some of the more obvious social media platforms to use social proof, YouTube is just as efficient—whether you run ads or you start your own YouTube channel.
With almost two billion active monthly users on YouTube, 87% of marketers recommend “leveraging” YouTube. Make content about your brand and your service; take fans behind the scenes and have guests.
Only your imagination can limit you. Combine having a channel with running ad campaigns, and you now possess a true recipe to establishing your presence and getting attention from both fans and experts who can help you.
Become More Visible on Google Maps
Taking this extra small step may result in countless in-store visits to your business and store. Google Maps provides directions and a provision for people to contact local businesses by offering business hours, methods of contact, and more . This way, you can more easily get new customers.
To become more visible on Google Maps, all you need to do is register on Google My Business where it will offer you space to fill out all the required information.
Attend Expos
This is one offline way to use social proof. Expos are the top spot for business owners to mingle, to network, and to make connections while meeting potential new customers and investors.
Promoting yourself at an expo gives you a chance to present your service or products in a formal setting, which gives you credibility—something we’ll be talking about in a moment, so stay tuned! This in-person, one-on-one experience is invaluable.
Use Instagram
It takes a couple of minutes to make an Instagram account to reap the benefits you sowed.
In the marketing world, Instagram is a Goliath. One of the most well-known facts about this particular platform is that users expect to see ads, offers, deals, and discounts. In fact, they even search for them!
You can go a step further and take advantage of the location feature. You can get 79% more engagement by tagging posts with your location to attract local customers.
Invite Experts for “Social Media Takeovers”
You have probably seen countless brands call a guest celebrity or expert to temporarily “take over” their social media account for a few hours or a day to post content, share funny bits, reply to comments, and connect with fans in livestreams.
Inviting experts is one of the easiest and direct ways to increase social exposure. You, the owner of the business, get to benefit from the expert’s influence, the followers that flock after them, and their positive association. And the expert profits, too! They gain more exposure, share your audience, and experience your product.
Reach out to experts to take over your account—let’s say you’re using Instagram at the moment—and ask them to post educational content. People who follow them will tune in to the live story, share, and tell their own followers to check out where their favorite expert is answering questions and hanging out at the moment.
Social proof is more powerful than you imagine. It gives customers these emotional triggers that ultimately influence their response to brands. Hosting an expert not only inspires them to form a positive opinion about your product but also gives them the feeling that they are a part of something much bigger.
Social proof works to justify your pricing, validate what you claim your product can do, and more! Whether you realize it or not, you’re already getting large amounts of social proof, but whether it’s positive or negative attention, that’s up to you, if you follow these upcoming tips.
Highlight Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Want to use the Halo Effect to your own benefit? There’s a nifty feature on Instagram where you can add highlights and have them play out like a story. People who see customers praising your product, ethics, and quality of service may just be the thing that makes them slide into the DMs and ask about the availability of your product.
Before you can post customer reviews, you have to get them first. Many businesses shy away from asking for reviews in fear of getting a negative one that may drive away future clients, but a few negative reviews will drown out in comparison to the dozens of positive ones.
Encourage reviews by reaching out to customers in person for their opinion, contacting repeat customers, having surveys, and offering incentives. Then, screenshot the comments of those who left reviews and add them to your highlights.
This may be the oldest marketing tool in the box, but its powerful effect isn’t to be ignored. Reviews offer potential customers a chance to develop a positive mindset about you before they engage with your brand.
And having large amounts of people raving about your service instinctively puts FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out, in potential customers, who will want to join in on what’s good.
Share Milestones
Since social proof is “a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation,” sharing milestones invokes the same effect.
What does sharing milestones mean? When you reach an impressive number of users, such as a hundred or thousands, you post about it. You can also share milestones in the form of notifying users of the anniversaries of your first brand and first sell.
This is a great way to both show that a lot of people have previously enjoyed your product and express gratitude for your existing fanbase.
Influencer Marketing
Like having an expert take over your social media account, consider asking an influencer market it for you.
This is how you get celebrity social proof in a way that’s cost-efficient. Reach out to a micro-influencer and offer to sponsor them. Micro-influencers are people who have a social media influence, especially in a niche area, but haven’t reached celebrity status yet.
Having them make a post or video or pose in your store will skyrocket and double the number of people who know about your product.
When their fans see them using and promoting your business, they’ll want to mimic them.
See, you don’t necessarily need a website to use social proof!
What Is Snapreads?
With the Snapreads app, you get the key insights from the best nonfiction books in minutes, not hours or days. Our experts transform these books into quick, memorable, easy-to-understand insights you can read when you have the time or listen to them on the go.
