McDonald’s used the social proof of “Over 1 Million Served” in the 1950s, by cyberspace and social media outlets have taken the influence of popularity to dizzying heights

DENVER, CO – When it comes to a marketing coup, one of the most influential factors in boosting a brand’s sales is simply the fact that the brand is popular.

Take automobiles, for instance. Being the best-selling car of the year can actually boost sales even more – some experts say as much as 3% -- from a factor known in the trade as “social proof:” the fact that so many people have gone that way says to other potential buyers “They must know something I don’t.’

This validation among peers groups, this social proof -- among, in this case, car buyers – has catapulted sales of the Nissan Altima from 229,263 units in 2010 and 7th place on the best-selling list, to 243,005 units and 4th place for 2011. The Altima leaped over Honda’s Accord and Civic, and the Toyota Corolla, perennial favorites, and is thisclose to Number 3 Toyota Camry, the best-selling passenger car in the country in both 2010 and 2011 (the top selling vehicles are the Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks, #1 and #2, respectively). There’s a lot of jockeying for position and deals done to move up the list for no amount of traditional marketing can make up the power in the social proof that one is the best.

This social proof phenomenon is nothing new. Indeed, McDonald’s became the Number 1 purveyor of hamburgers by touting the fact that they had “Over 1 million Served” as long ago as the mid-1950s. How could so many people’s taste buds be wrong? By 1960 the sign on the Golden Arches read “Over 400 Million Served.”

Social proof, however, is even more important these days in an era of social media, and while social proof remains an important sales tool for the mom-and-pop-shop on the corner, for ecommerce social proof may be the very foundation of success.

The key to a buying decision is often based upon an influencer – in the old days this was simply called “word of mouth” and it was based on friends and family in one’s immediate proximity. The web has elevated this strategy to “word-of-mouth-on-steroids” by hitting on the goodwill of one customer, and extending the influential reach exponentially through such social media outlets as Facebook to that person’s friend and family, to all of their friends and families, and so on. Pretty soon there are thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people with social proof staring them directly in the pocketbook.

Moreover, online merchants are posting Facebook “Like” links on their sales websites – even on particular product pages – and when the number of “Likes” starts getting into respectable territory it builds a social proof of its own: e.g. “that many people must know something that I don’t.”

Social proof also works in other ways. People tend to gravitate toward things that might be limited, so many ecommerce merchants have built in comments and admonitions on their product page to “Hurry: supplies won’t last,” or something like it. There are also features in online shopping cart technologies, like Magento, which point out, on a product-by-product basis, “ that “5 other people have this item in their shopping cart” and “7 people have it on their wish list” – with only the slightest suggestion that perhaps the visitor should act quickly lest the deal be over or the inventory depleted.

Urgency is a strong component of social proof.  Take such social shopping sites as Groupon or Living Social: when you click into a deal shows how many have been purchased and how much time is left before the deal expires, both strong social proof motivators. In psychology this is sometimes referred to as FOMO – “fear of missing out” – and the term is taking on a life of its own as a bona fide cyber addiction related to all of modern life’s connections opportunities; it’s the crackberry moved up to the meth level.

Ecommerce merchants would be wise – very wise to make sure their websites are positioned for social proof as much as possible. Here are some of the basic steps that should be taken:

• Get accounts for as many of the social network sites as is necessary, with some understanding of demographics (e.g. MySpace skews pretty young)  – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, MySpace, Google+, Tagged.
• Post places on your site – home page and individual product pages – for such boosters as Facebook “Like” clicks to help build a community.
• Brag. If sales are booming or if you have high scores in customer surveys, display such information prominently on your site.
• Have your website linked with Facebook through its Social Shopping Cart feature where Facebook friends can not only share their opinions on product, but where online retailers can interface their own shopping carts to facilitate sales right off of the popular networking site.
• Create and maintain a customer feedback “forum” feature on your website and urge customers and visitors to post comments about their experience which can be shared with all visitors.
• Send out press releases – to local media if that is the marketplace, to industry media if that would help in a specific trade, on PRWeb or other mass distribution PR services. This will build links throughout the web and mentions in any other media, online or print/broadcast, will build social proof momentum.
• Go for endorsements. Just about every sales category has a popular blogger or a hundreds of them, and traditional an online media are important. If you can get favorable product (or service) reviews, you can tout it on your site, and even link to it. This builds social proof and also street cred.
• Many industry trade publications hold awards competitions for “best of” categories, and many general business magazines have “Top Minority Businesses” or “Top Women-Owned Business” or “Top Small Business” features, rankings or competitions. Winning one, or being ranked in one – even if it’s in Albuquerque -- will pay social proof dividends everywhere. People like what they perceive as popular products.
• Build in a feature in the shopping cart that says “People who bought this item also bought…” Some studies show that such information can boost the sales of the second product by 12% to 15%.
• Build in the feature on the individual product page that says “5 other people have this item in their shopping cart” and “7 other people have this item on their wish list.” This will suggest urgency, a social proof strongpoint.
• For sale items, closeouts and special offers create urgency with such copy as “While supplies last,” or “Until midnight tomorrow.” Also urgency.

Some of the social proof features can be added to your site through a Content Management System, like ExpressionEngine – things like blog posts, news releases, forums, etc. And adding social media buttons is a relatively easy task. Also, the best shopping cart technologies – the Number 1 is Magento – either have many of these features and services built6 right in or they can be obtained and integrated easily as sponsored or third-party extensions to boost the power of the technology. The lesson here is that putting social proof marketing on your website will prove to be an evolving process that will have to be tested and updated (additions and deletions) on a fairly regular basis to maintain Best Practices.

And also keep in mind that social proof can also work negatively – if the crowd suddenly senses that the crowd is moving away from something, social proof could dent or destroy sales even faster than it built it up. Experts advise to, obviously, have a top-quality product but to always work diligently to have a top-notch shopping experience, a no-hassle purchasing process, and an exceptional shipping and delivery expectation and fulfillment. Any glitches without immediate and forthright resolution could cause negative comments that will rage as social proof.

Unleaded Group of Denver is a premier website design and development firm, with complete SEO and social media capabilities, which specializes in building ecommerce websites using the Magento solution, the top shopping cart technology in the world.   Phone 720-855-UNLEADED (865-3233) for complete details.