You have the power to build your own brand authority, especially after you understand, prioritize, and create social proof for your business. Social proof enables you to build influence and brand power. In today’s episode, I’m sharing how to create social proof and what it offers to your business.
Called to Both is brought to you by Joy Michelle, mom of two and multi-passionate entrepreneur who’s on a mission to help others find balance between the worlds of motherhood and business. Called to Both is the podcast for women who have big business ambitions and also want to be intentional and present moms. At Called to Both, we truly don’t believe you have to choose between these two worlds tugging at your heart You can be Called to Both.
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What is Social Proof?
In order to be a successful business, you cannot be the only one singing your praises—this is where social proof comes into play. The purpose of social proof is to show your potential customers how other people have trusted you, had good experiences, and thus makes it less of a risk to invest you in. You’re reducing the perceived risk of working with you when you build a positive reputation through social proof.
Social proof is a term that was coined back in 1984 by Robert Cialdini in his book Influence. This is essentially the idea that people copy the actions of others in an attempt to emulate behavior in certain situations, also known as informational social influence.
This phenomenon can be applied to business marketing as well! When someone is making an evaluation of you or your business, and deciding whether they want to do business with you, their minds are going through an algorithm of trust. You want them to see social proof, because it’s really going to help build credibility towards your brand.
What is considered social proof?
Now how do you build that trust with social proof? A a few different examples of social proof include client testimonials, reviews, “trusted by” or “featured by” logos, industry awards, certifications, published articles, speaking engagements, and endorsements by peers.
In an industry where people don’t ask for a resume, having social proof through these examples is a valid way to show off your expertise and those you’re trusted by.
How to Strategically Build Social Proof in Your Business
Building social proof in your business makes it so much easier to talk about your business and becomes its own version of marketing! Before we dive into the marketing aspect of things, let’s review a few ways you can strategically incorporate and build social proof for your business.
The first comes to requesting, saving, and sharing client testimonials:
- Build a review request and gather those testimonials in your client process.
- When you get a review, SHARE IT!
- Save your reviews somewhere to use it in the future.
Once you’ve secured those reviews, consider thinking beyond reviews & testimonials, like press and bigger endorsements. Like most small business owners, I believed that I wasn’t established enough, successful enough, or big enough to approach big brands for press, but a simple mindset shift changed everything for me, which led to me being featured in Adorama. You have the power to share your knowledge and help others. Publications and journalists are looking for sources for articles all the time; you can get started by signing up for HARO.
Similar to press, you can also build social proof through speaking as a thought leader or educator. Speaking can take different forms like podcasts, masterminds, summits, on stages, and in classrooms. Think bigger than a simple share from a past client—be the thought leader that someone looks to for advice.
We should stop being so shy about our accomplishments in our business, because each of those are stepping stones towards playing a bigger game. This is your invitation and encouragement to step into this role and ask for social proof.
The Brand Authority Blueprint
Everything that we chatted about in today’s episode is actually included in my free guide, The Brand Authority Blueprint. You’ll see everything we discuss in this series on becoming an in-demand brand and decide what you want to be know and remembered for.
Catch the Other Episodes in this Series:
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