Social media has changed the way people find new products and made online purchases in the past few years. People use social channels to check reviews for new products, use the product to solve their problem, and learn real-life pictures of the product.
Social media influences people’s online shopping behaviour, shifting the whole marketing strategies that brands or eCommerce stores used to follow before.
The term “Social Proof” is what generates conversions on online shopping platforms. And this is not what is new; Social Proof is always there; people get influenced by what kind of product their family, friends, neighbors, or people around them are buying or using.
Hence, Social Commerce emerges as a powerful tool for brands in this competitive edge to sell across their target market.
This article will discuss more Social Proof and how you can leverage brand sales by correctly implementing Social Commerce into your marketing efforts.
A Brief Description Of Social Proof
Social Proof can be defined as the belief or faith of people in other people that things they are using are good.
People like to buy those products that their friends are using or saying good things about any product.
In other words, Social Proof is a belief that the actions of other people are correct, based on how many people do the same thing.
Social Proof is an influencing notion that drives people to do the same thing that others are doing.
For example, you enter the store in the mall where more people are shopping, believing that there must be unique, quality, and best offers available on the product. In contrast, you don’t seem to enter a new store or store with no people to buy any product so easily. Your mind might create questions about whether to go or not.
Hence Social Proof is making a huge impact on the sales of brands, and in this competitive era, people tend to believe in products of brands that people are talking more about.
4 Major Types Of Social Proof
Customer Reviews & Ratings
Customer feedback in the form of text reviews, ratings, or small video clips is the major type of Social Proof available on online platforms. These are customers’ feedback about the brand, product or service on platforms like customer forums, Google reviews, website, Yelp, Facebook, etc.
Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity also plays a major role in influencing people and increasing social proof of brand. People like to buy those products which celebrities talk about. That is why we see traditional advertisements consist of celebrity endorsements.
Social Sharing
Like reviews on your website, social shares on your posts create a social proof of your brand. The more people see shares on your social media posts, the more it builds social proof of your products and services.
User-Generated Content
Social media platforms voluntarily create amazing content with images, videos, gif, etc., featuring your brand. People find it more relevant and useful to find their friends talking about any product or service. UGC creates social proof that eventually influences people to make buying decisions for the product they like.
How Brands Can Leverage Social Proof For More Sales
Collect More Positive Reviews & High Rating Testimonials
To build strong social proof, you can work on collecting more positive feedback. For that, you need to provide quality services, the best product, effective price, enhance customer experience, and customer support even after-sales.
When your customer is happy with your brand, it is not difficult to gain positive reviews & high ratings on your brand.
Display Customer Reviews On Brand’s Official Website
Next move, you can integrate your official brand website with customer reviews. You either ask your customers to leave reviews on your website or collect reviews from Google, Yelp, Airbnb, Facebook, etc.
Integrate Social Shopping Feature
Another way to build social proof and boost brand sales through social commerce is by unifying your product page with social media posts and make them shoppable.
Collect social media posts in which your product is featured, embed them onto your website, and tag your product with a buy link with the social commerce tool’s help.
Run Hashtag Campaigns To Generate More UGC
Last but not least, brands can increase social proof by running hashtag campaigns on social media channels. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are the major types of social media platforms to run a hashtag campaign.
When more people talk about your brand on social media channels, it will bring high user engagement with social proof about your brand, product, and services.
Wrapping Up!
That’s all for now, as being a customer-oriented brand, you need to solve your customer problems at first.
This is only when you get positive feedback from your customers, increasing social proof for your brand and building community across online platforms.
If you want to boost online sales, then the social proof helps you achieve your goals.