4 Social Proof Examples to Inspire You

Social Proof Explained

People tend to follow others especially when they don’t know what’s the right behavior for a specific situation.

For instance, you visit a bank and see people standing in a queue to wait for their turn. Consequently, you will take your place at the end of the queue. This happens, because that’s the right behavior to follow in that situation.

You then visit a different bank next week. This time, people aren’t standing in a queue. You won’t ask them to make a queue, but rather you will mimic that behavior.

This human behavior is explained by the psychological phenomenon social proof which states that people undertake the correct behavior that’s acceptable in a given situation.

Social proof is widely used in marketing to generate sales. Research shows that more than 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends more than advertising. Another study found that customer testimonials increase the conversion rate of a sales page by 34% and 97% of consumers say that online reviews influence their purchase decisions.

Social proof is one of the best ways to increase conversion rate, sales, revenue, and brand trust.

There are several types of social proof that businesses use. These include:

• customer testimonials
• celebrity endorsement
• customer referrals
• reviews on third-party sites
• social media shares
• case studies
• user generated content (UGC)
• guest post
• influencer marketing
• certifications
• press mentions

The Benefits of Using Social Proof

Positive feedback and social proof will help you create brand awareness. Therefore, it makes sense that getting more social proof and using should be made a prominent part of your marketing strategy.

Some further benefits include:

• Do better conversion rate optimization
• Get a bigger share of your market (works especially well in a competitive industry!)
• Influence your target audience better
• More visibility on social media platforms (algorithms love UGC)

4 Social Proof Examples to Inspire You

Here are the best concrete social proof examples from the internet to inspire you so you can do even better to persuade your audience.

1. Video Testimonials

Video testimonials from customers, celebrities, experts, and social media influencers provide your business with some of the best social proof.

Videos are authentic, mainstream, and trustworthy. Video testimonials are very common and are used by brands of all sizes. Here are a few inspiring social proof examples of video testimonials:

Real Estate Skills

One great example of how video testimonials create value comes from Real Estate Skills.

The company offers free and pro courses on how to wholesale and flip houses without doing any marketing.

A part of its pro training includes asking for a video testimonial where they talk about their experiences on the program.

Students can include their biggest wins, the most important thing they learned, or the overall review of Real Estate Skills.
Since most students are happy with the program, it has become easy for them to send over short yet positive testimonials on their experiences.

Ryan Zomorodi, COO & Co-Founder @ Real Estate Skills

Their review page is one of a kind.

I’ve personally never seen so many user-generated video testimonials on any other company page.

Zomorodi also states that: “We use these reviews in our marketing, especially on our website and social media. Showcasing real student experiences helps potential clients understand the value of our courses. Positive reviews have also significantly aided in attracting new clients by showcasing the success of our alumni.”

💡 Before you start thinking about how you could get as many video testimonials for your business, make sure your customers are at this level of happiness. Only very happy customers will go through the trouble of providing you a video testimonial.

Glaston

Glaston concentrates on providing their customers with machinery, technology and expertise in making outstanding glass.

This customer testimonial showcases their machine, its uses, and the benefits to potential customers. The testimonial targets a specific audience effectively. The customer shared their complete story, how the machine helped him, and discussed the major benefits of using the machine.

Notice that the video testimonials are professionally recorded. These types of testimonials boost brand image and are appealing. If your budget isn’t cut out for high-end video productions, you can create amazing video testimonials using Trustmary’s video testimonial software.

2. Quotes

Quotes or text testimonials are the most popular testimonials among marketers for the fact that they are extremely user-friendly.

It’s hard to convince a happy customer to come to the studio to record a video testimonial for your company. Sharing a simple text testimonial is straightforward.

Your customers can send these through email or using a tool like Trustmary testimonial tool for texts. It lets you collect testimonials easily and quickly for your business.

Here are the most inspiring social proof examples of text testimonials:

Trustmary features customer testimonials on where they matter the most: Near a call to action. The quotes have been collected using Trustmary and embedded on the website with a testimonial carousel.

The names of the customers are shared which makes these testimonials verifiable. It is a perfect approach to sharing quotes from customers. Make these verifiable by sharing customer photo, link to social media account, name, company, designation, and other details.

3. Customer Reviews

These are reviews or ratings that are usually published on third-party review sites such as Yelp, Google Maps, and others. If you want to get star-ratings from these sites, you have to get your product published there.

Once you start getting reviews, you need to share them with your customers via email, on social media, your website, and other channels. Here are the best customer review examples:

4. Celebrity Endorsement

Nothing works better than celebrity endorsements because they have a huge fan following which brings your product and brand in the spotlight almost immediately.

Imagine a celebrity with over a million followers shares an image of your product. You’ll love it, right?

Though expensive celebrity endorsements are the best social proof examples out there. Here are the ones that will inspire you:

Samsung

Ellen Degeneres used Samsung Galaxy Note to take the selfie. The tweet received more than 3 million retweets in just two days. Samsung was the official sponsor of the event so everyone noticed that the selfie was taken from a Samsung smartphone.

Amazing, right?

Yeah, okay, this is an old example. But this example is still a great one.

Skims

Skims is Kim Kardashians’ brand, and she knows how to play the celebrity endorsement game.

For instance, its Valentine’s day 2024 campaign features Lana Del Rey as the main figure.

I mean… When the brand, product and celebrity in the campaign align with one another, it’ll create massive sales.

Lana is a great fit, as her audience will for sure want to look like her.

The landing page places Lana front and centre, so this is a rather extreme case of celeb endorsement.

Small brands don’t have the money for this type of collab, but many take to TikTok to find popular creators there.

In a way, they are also celebs, and definitely more budget-friendly than international stars.

Social Proof Tactics You Can Try

Next, we’ll organize some common tactics based in different categories.

Scarcity and Urgency

This is all about creating the sense that people will be missing out if they don’t act soon. Hotels, airlines and retailers are using this tactic.

• Only a few products left!
• 9 people have this product in their cart
• 3 people are currently looking at the same hotel
• Low in stock
• Last chance!
• Offer available for 23 hours!

Influencer Marketing

If you find an expert or other influential person in your field, you can use their persona to build trust in your brand.

• Testimonials
• Endorsements
• Product reviews
• Collaboration posts
• IG stories
• Writing about you in their blog
• Unpaid endorsements (TikTok and Youtube are filled with these!)

Numbers Matter

Showcase how many people already use your product, follow you, share your content, etc.

• Bought by 1,345 people
• Our newsletter has +50,000 subscribers. See for yourself what the buzz is about!
• 580,000 views for this post
• These are out best-sellers
• Others also viewed
• +9000 happy customers!

User-Related Social Proof

At the end of the day, users want to know what current users think about your product or service. Try to implement at least the following:

• Video testimonials
• Testimonials
• Reviews
• Ratings
• Case studies
• Client logos
• Quotes

Read also our comparison of the best social proof apps and social proof software.

Conclusion

Social proof examples are everywhere from social media to TV to newspapers to blogs and beyond.

The widespread usage of social proof and testimonials is a clear sign of the fact that it works.

Getting social proof and using it smartly to drive sales and engagement is what your brand should master. Else, you won’t stand a chance to compete.

Further Reading

• How to Get Testimonials From Customers (With 7 Examples)
• The Easiest Way to Gather Patient Video Testimonials