What the Heck is Social Proof?

Good Afternoon, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

So are you wondering what “social proof” is?  I know I was before I found out about it.  Let me give you a clue, all the articles below have it….

Have you guessed what it is yet?

Social Proof is basically when something is “socially endorsed”, so in the first article from Problogger 295 people have tweeted it.  When people look at the article they immediately think “it must be good as 295 people have tweeted it” therefore I will read it.  The second image is from Mashable.com, there are three articles on there, the top one has 2224 tweets and 725 Facebook shares, the bottom two only have 700 odd tweets and 40something Facebook shares.  Here you can see that the top article has more social proof than the bottom two because it has more tweets and shares.

Social Proof is exactly the same as when a restaurant is busy you think it must be good lets eat there, versa the restaurant that is empty and you think it can’t be good.

The only slight issue with social proof is that it takes a while to build up, so when you first start posting on Facebook or blogging etc. you aren’t going to get many likes for your posts just because not many people know about you, so you look like a bit of a loser for a while.  What some people suggest in this case is don’t have the option for your articles to be tweeted or commented on or shared.  If you do this then no one knows how little social proof is happening, although of course you can’t do this on your Facebook page….

How are you faring if the social proof world?  Tell me in the comments….