The Social Proof

The “Social Proof” is a very powerful negotiation and marketing tool.

It goes like this: “People tend to naturally follow the group. When they have to take a decision but are in shortage of solid proofs and logical evidences to separate the wheat from the chaff, the group preference, the majority, becomes then itself the evidence of the effectiveness of this or that decision “.

This law was highlighted by many experimental studies.

Among them, a classic of psychological studies, was conducted by Prof. Solomon Asch in 1951. He put together a group of people, showed them a picture of 3 different lines A, B and C, and then asked them to figure out which one of these 3 lines is similar to another one on a second picture. All participants were actually informed about the experience except one. Results showed: when the informed participants agreed on the right answer, only 1% of the subjects were mistaken. When participants agreed on the wrong answer, although the right one was so obvious, that rate went up to 75%. Isn’t that amazing…

That’s simply because, as social psychologist Robert Cialdini said, 95% of people are imitators and only 5% are initiatorsThe law of Social Proof was captured and used by businesses especially in Marketing. By using keywords such as “Most popular” or “Bestselling” or “Most preferred”, by sharing testimonials too or displaying statistics marketers address the clients’ subconscious mind with tantalizing words than can lull them toward certain choices

Andy Crestodina says “When you say it, it’s marketing. When they say it, it’s social proof”

To know more about the Social Proof and how to use it in your Business. Click on the links below:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/

social proof