#SocialProof – How to Build Social Proof

We’ve talked about #SocialProof before. It’s the “psychological preference for doing what other people are doing, because if other people are doing it, it proves that it must be worthwhile”. It’s what gives power to celebrity brand endorsements and phrases like “Limited Edition”.
So how do you build an influence wave of social proof? 
First of all, you need to understand that it is far easier to jump from 20,000 YouTube subscribers, Facebook Likes, etc. to 50,000 than it is to go from 0 to 1,500. This is called a growth curve. You will need to grind to build your social proof from scratch.
Secondly, you must leverage the numbers that provide the most impact. If a brand new food blogger has 18k Pinterest followers on their niche boards, there must be something going on that they need to analyze and figure out how to capitalize on.
Here are thirteen types of social proof and tips on how to get started: 
1. Raw Quantity: The number of people engaging or interacting with you. Gather these numbers immediately. For physical/digital products, how many sales have you made? Blog or podcast: how many countries do people listen or read from? Social media presence: number of followers and number of posts fall into this category. 
2. Celebrity and Expert Endorsements: This could take up a post all its own. When you’re first building your social proof, the likelihood of a celebrity endorsement is slim. Experts in your field, however, are much easier to approach. These are called influencers and influencer marketing is its own niche.
3. Testimonials and Quotes: Authors use other author or industry professional’s quotes on their covers. Testimonials are a fantastic way to build social proof. 
4. Featured locations: Did you show up on a podcast? Have you been featured in a popular or industry standard publication? If not, why not contact larger publications for guest posting? They are often starved for online content, so take the time to target your niche. 
5. Certifications: completely self-explanatory. If you have any that can be used as social proof, display them proudly.
6. Referrals: the #1 trusted source of advertising as proven by numerous case studies. Start by creating a referral program where a referring customer receives a discount for their loyalty. 
7. Gazing: Use photos and images to draw the reader’s eye to your call to action.
8. Ratings and Reviews: One of the most important parts of your Online Reputation and also the fastest growing part of social proof in our mobile market. Encourage your customers to leave reviews, but be careful if you offer perks. This can seem scammy and have the opposite effect you’d intended.
9. Case Studies and Proof of Concept: Lead by example in using yourself as a case study or use other people’s transformation studies as proof. 
10. Limited Time Offer or The Fear of Missing Out: Give a deadline, and stick to it. Create exclusivity. Both of these combine to make a very strong case for social proof.
11. Social (Media) Proof: This is really difficult from the beginning. You can start by creating a hashtag that represents you and your business. Use it and encourage your clients and customers to use it as well.
12. Rankings: New product launch? Use a product launch site. Food blogger? Try to get on Food Gawker. Almost every industry has submission sites that can get your brand noticed and give you the ranking you need to jump to the top.
13. Integration and Platforms: If your product or service is used or integrated with others, show it. 
14.   SEO: The higher your rank on Google, the more automatic credibility you give your brand and your business. 
How are your doing with your social proof? Any questions? Tell us in comments and we’ll tackle them in a future post.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

#SocialProof – What is Social Proof?

Social Proof. It’s a term that’s thrown around quite often in marketing and social media management, but what is it? 

Social Proof, also known as informational social influence, is where people assume the actions of others to affect their choices. It’s a type of conformity that relies on the reviews and influences of “credible” sources to make decisions.  
Basically: the customer wants proof that they’re not wasting their time on your product or service and they use social influence to determine your worth.
According to venture capitalist and blogger Aileen Lee, there are five types of social proof:  
  1. Expert social proof – A credible expert or “voice of authority” in an industry is very influential. This is one of the reasons you see/hear “doctor recommended” in advertisements. It’s why Food Network became so influential on the food industry from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s.
  2. Celebrity social proof – Celebrity endorsements are an advertising staple. According to an article by Lee, an endorsement by Jessica Simpson and aesthetician Nerida Joy helped Beautymint attract 500,000 visitors on day one of its launch.
  3. User social proof – This involves user success stories, traditional case studies, and also encourages users to create videos using the product, service, or app. Jazza from Draw With Jazza, one of the most influential rising star YouTubers on teaching people how to draw both traditionally and digitally, launched an Arty Games app in June of this year. Within twenty-four hours of its launch on all platforms, there were over 10k images, videos, and reviews posted on social media. The more people used it, the more people bought the product. People began using the Arty Games Challenges on their live twitch feeds, and sharing their success and failures in their drawings.
  4. Wisdom of the crowd – Wisdom of the crowd is basically the popularity of a product. This is where you see terms like: “Most popular post” in a blog, “Most popular video”, “X million copies sold” about a book or song, etc. Likes, shares, and followers fall into this category as well.
  5. Wisdom of friends – How many times have you watched a show, read a book, or went to a place based on a friend’s recommendation? It’s “the killer app of social proof in terms of 1:1 impact,” writes Lee, and there’s a good reason why. It is the heart of social proof. There is no more intimate social circle than that of your personal friends. If they don’t like something, it’s hard to deny their influence on your choices.
So what does this mean? It means that social proof is necessary to your success in a business. Likes, followers, reviews, reactions, endorsements, and more all make up the heart of your social influence. So how do you determine your #SocialProof? We’ll cover that soon. For now, start with the basics. Go to your social media channels and write down your likes, followers, etc. for each of your influence circles. Keep track of your reviews, and be ready to take the next step in building a strong foundation to launch your brand into social media success.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

#TimeManagement- What Are You Worth and When Do You Outsource?



One of the most overlooked aspects of growing your own business is the amount of time you invest in ongoing projects, day-to-day processes, and promoting your business through social media and other resources.

You can’t expect others to value your time if you won’t. #TimeManagement is about managing your energy, not filling in the white space in your daily calendar. It’s important to know where your strengths lie and then choose others to fill in the gaps via outsourcing.

This requires an honest assessment of your abilities and accurate representation of your time spent. Here’s an easy way to get started. Make a to-do list for your week. Write down what’s supposed to get done, and make sure you include the marketing side of your business. Just for fun, predict how long it’s going to take you to accomplish each task. You can round it to the nearest half hour, if you like.

Each day, keep an accurate hourly record of what you’re doing. Make sure you include when you go through email, phone conversations, when you eat, updating reports, etc. Add any emergencies that occur to your original to-do list. If you find that you forgot something important that has to be done every week, make sure you add that too with a side note that you’d overlooked it.

At the end of the week, see what was done and what drifted to the side. Look at your to-do list. Did you get it all done? If not, what is left? And of those tasks, which are the ones you really don’t want to tackle?

Look at your hourly record for the week. Did the actual amount of time spent on each task match up with your original predictions? If you’re anything like me, probably not. I tend to underestimate the time it takes me to do the tasks I enjoy or tasks I do on a regular basis. It’s rare to overestimate time, by the way.

Try this for a few weeks and see if you have any underlying patterns. The things that are constantly being swept to the side still need to get done. Consider outsourcing for better performance in those areas. Choose people who are skilled in that particular aspect of your business. You don’t have to be great at everything. As a matter of fact, the key to success is surrounding yourself with the people who can get the job done so that your vision can be realized.

Phylecia Jones, amazing Budgetologist and owner of Keeping Up with Mrs. Jones, would tell you – you have to know what your time is actually worth. What are you worth per hour? If you know that number, you will have a better sense of whether certain tasks and responsibilities are even worth the time you are spending on them. If you can find a team member that can expertly accomplish that work for less than what your time is worth – then there is no better argument for the need to outsource some of what you do. Attempting to be an “Everything CEO” keeps you from being able to focus on the aspects of your business where you excel and where growth happens.

What many small businesses and entrepreneurs discover during this process is that outsourcing time-consuming tasks tends to free them up to win new work. This is an imperative part of business growth. It’s time to let go and invest in your own profitability and success. 

Your time is precious and you need to realize that. Know where your strengths lie and choose team members who can fill the gaps. We have a network of fantastic power partners and would love to give you an introduction to a company that can help you #BeAwesome at what you do!

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

#TimeManagement – Scheduling Your Content

Social media is an important part of your business, but it’s not the only part of your business. Yet some days it feels like we fall down the rabbit hole of social media information, losing hours of productivity without gaining ground on getting the word out to our customers. 

It doesn’t have to be that way.

One of the most effective #TimeManagement tools for social media involves scheduling your content. By having your posts and articles ready to go, ahead of time, you’re less likely to dive into real-time social media and get lost.

Using tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to manage your updates makes it even easier. Instead of logging into several different platforms, you can use a tool to update each branch of your social media outreach on one easy-to-use screen.

Create an editorial calendar. You schedule meetings, lunch breaks, and more, so give social media the time it deserves. Planning ahead means you can focus on a solid plan that can be measured and adjusted as needed. It’s an excellent time-saving strategy. The cost of time up front is more than made up within the first month of scheduled posting. It also helps with decision-making. 

Several studies have concluded that the human mind can only make so many decisions in one day before impulse control goes out the window. Seeing that you’ll be writing about “x” today takes away the extra focus you would otherwise need and allows you to divert that attention to something else that may need it more.

We hope these #TimeManagement tips help keep you and your social media campaigns on track. Do you have a plan in place? If so, let us know in comments! 
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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

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