Social Proof IS the New Marketing « The Blog of Matthew Loop

Social Proof IS the New Marketing

This was such a incredible article from TechCrunch that I had to re-post it here on my blog. If you’ve heard me speak live, you know I always say, “Never let social proof work against you.” All of my marketing and coaching programs heavily center around this powerful concept.

When you know how to create OVERWHELMING social proof along with positioning yourself strategically, it makes your business unstoppable!

You literally become the go-to expert and market leader people turn to overnight.

Devoting your energy to mastering this one thing alone will produce dramatic surges in customers, sales, and income. Human behavior is highly predictable given certain situations.

If you understand this psychology, your ability to influence and get people to take the action you want substantially increases.

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This guest post is written by Aileen Lee, Partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where she focuses on investing in consumer internet ventures.

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As I’ve written about before, we’re in an amazing period of the consumer Internet.  Despite a shaky economy, many web companies are in hypergrowth.  This is reminiscent of the five-year period over a decade ago when companies like Amazon, Netscape, eBay, Yahoo, Google and PayPal were built.

One challenge, which isn’t new, is the battle for consumer attention.  If you’re looking to grow your user base, is there a best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users?  I’m increasingly convinced the best way is by harnessing a concept called social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web.

What is social proof?  Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something.  It’s also known as informational social influence.

Wikipedia describes social proof as “a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect the correct behavior for a given situation… driven by the assumption that the surrounding people possess more information about the situation.” In other words, people are wired to learn from the actions of others, and this can be a huge driver of consumer behavior.

Consider the social proof of a line of people standing behind a velvet rope, waiting to get into a club.  The line makes most people walking by want to find out what’s worth the wait.  The digital equivalent of the velvet rope helped build viral growth for initially invite-only launches like Gmail, Gilt Groupe, Spotify, and Turntable.fm…. (continue reading)

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

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About the Author

Matthew Loop is an author, speaker, investor, philanthropist, and the highest paid social media revenue strategist in North America. He helps brands, startups, and small business owners multiply their influence, impact, and income by harnessing the power of the Internet. Since 2005 he’s trained over 21,000 clients in 25 countries. Millions have viewed his free business growth tutorials online. Connect with him on FacebookInstagram, and Twitter.

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