Guide to Social Proof Marketing, Psychology, and Examples


Social proof is a roof-term for things like: user-generated content (UGC), word of mouth, testimonials, video testimonials, reviews, fear of missing out, and many more.
In short: when we’re unsure what to do, we copy what other people are doing.
Marketers and sales teams who understand social proof marketing use that behavior to make buying from them feel like the obvious, safe choice.
If you want a shorter intro, start with our overview of what social proof is. This guide goes deeper into the psychology, types, and practical strategies for marketing, sales, and conversion rate optimization.
After reading this article you’ll:
- Understand how social proof actually affects behavior
- Recognize and use different types of social proof
- Add social proof elements that increase conversions on landing pages and key touchpoints
- Turn existing happy customers into a systematic growth engine
We Follow the Crowd
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior. It's the "safety in numbers" instinct.
In the digital age, this instinct drives commerce. If we are unsure, we look for stars, reviews, and testimonials to guide our wallets.
of customers read online reviews before buying a product.
What Is Social Proof? (Quick Refresher)
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon: when we are uncertain, we assume that other people know better how to behave
We look around, see how “people like us” are acting, and copy them. That’s true whether we’re choosing a product, a restaurant, a lawyer, or a B2B software tool.
If you want to go deeper into the studies, we’ve broken them down with practical examples in:
But here’s the short version of the classic experiments and what they mean for marketing.
Robert B. Cialdini is probably the most cited person on this matter, because he’s globally referred to as the “Godfather of Influence” thanks to his extensive research on the psychology of influence.
According to him, social proof states that one way we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct. The principle applies especially to the way we decide what constitutes correct behavior. We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation when we see others performing it.
In other words, if someone else is doing something, we’re very likely to think that we should be doing that as well.
The Trust Gap
Traditional advertising is losing its grip. Consumers have shifted their trust to peers and even strangers online. The data shows a stark hierarchy of trust sources.
Peer Recommendations
The "Gold Standard" of social proof. Recommendations from friends and family are virtually unbeatable.
Online Reviews
Strangers on the internet are trusted nearly twice as much as paid corporate messaging.
Early Social Proof Research
In addition to the studies Caldini has performed, there is also a wealth of other research on social proof.
Muzafer Sherif: A Study of Some Social Factors in Perception (1935)
Muzafer Sherif (1935) showed that people’s judgments shift when they’re in a group.
Sherif set out to explore how individuals perceive their environment based on their own habits of perceiving. Crucially, he emphasized that a person’s cultural group shapes these habits. Different groups interpret social situations in different ways, which means perception is never purely individual.
Put simply, Sherif wanted to understand how group identity influences behavior. At the time, the prevailing belief was that behavior stemmed only from internal factors like drives, attitudes, or emotional states. Sherif challenged this by showing that our social surroundings and group affiliations play a decisive role.
To illustrate this, he used an example about how societies perceive time.
In Western cultures, time is divided into seconds, minutes, hours, and longer periods like weeks, months, and years. But in a jungle tribe in the Andamans, time is tracked through a “calendar of scents.” Their deep connection to nature allows them to mark seasonal changes by detecting how different trees and lianas bloom at different times of the year. Their perception of time is literally shaped by the environment and cultural context they share.
In his experiment, Sherif asked subjects to estimate the speed and direction of a dot of light that wasn’t actually moving at all. First, individuals estimated the movement alone. Then, he observed their estimates when placed in groups. The result was clear: once people were part of a group, their judgments shifted and began to align with one another.
What Marketers and Salespeople Should Understand from Sherif's Findings
Every action we take is influenced by the social groups we identify with.
These identities guide how we interpret information and make decisions.
When creating digital marketing campaigns, it’s essential to consider the group norms, shared beliefs, and cultural frames your audience brings with them, not just the individual in isolation.
This is why trust-based marketing works so well. It taps into people's unconscious way of trusting people whom they relate to.
Solomon Asch: Conformity Experiments (1951)
Solomon Asch devoted his psychological research to understanding how individuals either yield to or resist the pressure of a majority group, and how each choice shapes their beliefs and opinions. His work established foundational methods that are still used today to study how conformity is influenced by factors such as task importance, age, sex, and culture.
His best-known contribution is the line-judgment experiment.
In this study,
- Participants were asked to complete simple perceptual tasks: identifying which of three comparison lines (A, B, or C) matched a reference line shown on the left.
- Only one participant was the actual subject; the others were actors instructed to give predetermined answers.
- The subject had no idea that the rest of the group was in on the experiment.
- The task itself was trivially easy: anyone could see which line matched. But the real test was this: what would you do if everyone before you confidently stated an answer that was obviously wrong?
The Asch Conformity Experiment
Solomon Asch established foundational methods to study how conformity is influenced by group pressure. His famous "Line Judgment Task" revealed how easily we yield to the majority.
Participants were asked: "Which comparison line (A, B, or C) matches the Reference Line?"
The Reality:
Line A is the obvious match. Anyone can see it.
The Twist:
Actors in the group confidently claim "Line B" is the match.
The Pressure to Conform
When subjects answered last, they were far more likely to conform to the group's incorrect judgment, even when they could clearly see the right answer.
"I’ve experienced it myself: sitting in a group of twenty, holding an opinion opposite to everyone else... sweating, voice shaking... as all eyes turned my way."
When you win over a visible group, others follow. Authentic testimonials encourage prospects to align with the majority who already trust you.
Asch varied the order in which participants responded. When subjects were required to answer last, they were far more likely to conform to the group’s incorrect judgment, even when they could clearly see the right answer. The pressure to align with the majority proved powerful.
Many people know this feeling firsthand. I’ve experienced it myself: sitting in a group of twenty, holding an opinion opposite to everyone else who answered before me.
I remember sweating, my voice shaking, and my face flushing as all eyes turned my way.
Still, I held my ground, and in that case, I later learned I was right.
The broader lesson for anyone using social proof is straightforward: when you win over the public, or even a visible group of people, others tend to follow. A handful of authentic customer testimonials can be enough to signal reliability and encourage prospects to align with the majority who already trust your company.
Main Types of Social Proof (with examples)
There are many ways to categorize social proof. In practice, these are the most useful buckets for marketing and sales:
- Expert social proof
- Celebrity and influencer social proof
- User social proof & UGC
- Wisdom of the crowd
- Wisdom of friends
- Negative social proof (what to avoid)
You can find more real-life social proof examples in our dedicated guide, but here’s how each type works.
5 Pillars of Influence
Social proof isn't monolithic. Different audiences respond to different authority signals.
Expert
Approval from credible industry leaders or authorities.
Celebrity
Endorsements from famous icons we aspire to be like.
User
Reviews and case studies from current, happy customers.
Crowd
"Join 10,000 others." Safety in large numbers.
Friends
Direct recommendations from peers you know personally.
1. Expert Social Proof
We trust people who clearly know what they’re talking about: industry experts, recognized specialists, respected brands.
How to Use Expert Social Proof
Use the presence of well-known customers, but don’t stop at showing their logos. Spell out what they chose you for and the outcomes they achieved.
A logo alone signals recognition, but a logo paired with a concrete result creates real persuasive power.

Read the full case of how the Academy of Brain increased its website's performance by adding customer comments instead of just logos.
Highlight quotes from people in influential roles such as “Head of Marketing”, “CEO”, or “Chief Digital Officer”. Their seniority strengthens credibility and reassures potential buyers that your solution works at a strategic level.
Turn expert feedback into short, sharp case snippets or full case studies.
- Add logos of well-known customers – and don’t stop there. Explain what they use you for and what results they got.
- Highlight quotes from people in key roles: “Head of Marketing”, “CEO”, “Chief Digital Officer”.
- Turn expert feedback into short case snippets or full case studies.
If you want to dig into the role of trust in complex B2B purchases, read about b2b buying decisions.
Pro tip: instead of just a logo wall, combine:
Logo + name + title + concrete outcome
That’s what actually moves the needle.
Here's an example of expert social proof in form of a testimonial wall widget:
By using Trustmary, you can collect feedback, testimonials, and reviews through one streamlined survey. This makes it far better than getting the occasional enthusiastic email from customers, like “I love the service, our sales have increased by 150% in three months!” that you can't use in marketing.
Instead of letting messages like that sit unseen in someone’s inbox, Trustmary automatically gathers this kind of praise and publishes it on your website. In addition, Trustmary makes your reviews AI-friendly, and helps your social proof become visible in AI search engines.
And importantly, Trustmary's feedback collection flow does so without repeatedly bothering high-profile customers with manual review requests.
2. Celebrity and Influencer Social Proof
We also attach emotions and trust to people we admire: celebrities, content creators, niche influencers.
Pepsi is famous for creating high-end annual campaigns with celebrities.
In 2019, they partnered with Cardi B, who then promoted the collaboration on her Instagram account as well.

Of course, you don’t need Cardi B-level budgets to benefit from this. Hiring micro-influencers with a focused, engaged audience often work better, especially in B2B and niche markets.
For inspiration on how brands use FOMO and social proof in campaigns, check out:
Typical ways to use celebrity / influencer social proof:
- Sponsored posts and reels
- “As seen in” media or podcast mentions
- Guest appearances in your webinars, events or social channels
Celebrities often have a large number of followers, which means that social proof works especially well in creating brand awareness.
Just remember: credibility > follower count. The influencer has to make sense for your audience.
3. User Social Proof and UGC
User social proof is your success stories: reviews, testimonials, case studies, screenshots, UGC videos, social posts from real customers.
This is often the most powerful form of social proof, because it shows believable, relatable people getting real results.
Examples of User Social Proof
- Text reviews on Google, Facebook, industry sites, or your own website
- Video testimonials where customers tell their story in their own words
- UGC on social media: unboxing videos, product photos, “before & after” posts
- In-depth case studies for high-intent buyers
Want to see B2B-flavored examples? Head to our guide on social proof examples.
Visual Social Proof
If you sell anything remotely visual – ecommerce, hospitality, physical services – you can go a long way with visual social proof:
- Customer photos on product pages
- Before/after galleries
- Instagram posts embedded as proof that real people use the product
For more e-commerce-specific tactics, see our guide on social proof e commerce.
4. Wisdom of the crowd
Wisdom of the crowd is any numerical proof that “lots of people chose this”.
Typical examples:
- “Over 10,000 users”
- “4.8 / 5 average based on 1,254 reviews”
- “Used in 25 countries”
- “Most popular plan” labels
- “Best seller” tags in product listings
Numbers are fast to process, and they create a subtle “everyone else is doing it” effect.
Pair these stats with testimonials and case snippets to make them even more convincing. If you love numbers, our social proof statistics article is your rabbit hole.
5. Wisdom of Friends
Friends, family, colleagues, and peers are our most trusted “influencers”.
We’re much more likely to try a product if:
- a friend shares a review or post,
- a colleague recommends a tool in Slack,
- or we see that “3 people you know follow this page”.
You can tap into this by:
- Creating referral programs where social sharing is part of the flow
- Encouraging customers to share their review on social media after leaving it
- Making sure your review platform or widget supports one-click sharing
6. Negative Social Proof (what not to do)
Negative social proof happens when you accidentally highlight the behavior you don’t want.
For example:
“Only a few people have shared our story, but we’d really appreciate it if you did.”
Most people will think: “If nobody else is doing it, there must be a reason” – and skip.
The same effect was seen in a famous experiment at Arizona’s Petrified Forest, where a sign saying “Many past visitors have removed the petrified wood…” actually increased theft, because it normalized the behavior.
Avoid language like:
- “Hardly anyone…”
- “Only a few customers have tried…”
- “Help us get our first review!” (on a high-traffic page)
Instead, emphasize what people are already doing, even if the numbers are modest:
- “Be among the first to try…”
- “New feature – early feedback has been fantastic so far!”
Conclusion on Forms of Social Proof
Ultimately, you need to determine which types of social proof best support your business. For some, securing endorsements from industry experts is essential.
For others, credibility hinges on being listed with trusted organizations like the Better Business Bureau.
Different audiences respond to different signals of trust.
The most reliable way to cover every angle is to consistently collect reviews and testimonials from your existing customers. Once you have them, you can repurpose that proof across social media, landing pages, pricing pages, and wherever prospects make key decisions.
This creates a unified layer of credibility throughout your marketing.
Trustmary can help increase your sales by 32% by placing social proof where it matters the most.
Reputation Management and Social Proof Belong Together
You can’t have strong social proof without solid online reputation management
Reviews, ratings, testimonials, and case stories are all public signals of your reputation. The way you respond to them is visible, too.
If you want to go deeper, especially in high-trust industries, we recommend reading the following articles:
Why Reputation Management Matters for Social Proof
- Trust: Happy customers leaving reviews = trust signals you can reuse everywhere.
- Decision-making: When people compare similar options, reputation often wins.
- Damage control: You will get negative feedback. Responding quickly and fairly turns it into proof that you care.
- Visibility: Reviews and ratings are ranking factors; more and better reviews improve your search visibility.
Tools like Trustmary help you manage this at scale, especially if you’re handling multiple review sites and channels at once.
By adding versatile and relatable trust signals to the right parts of your customer journey, you're increasing your chances of convincing potential customers that you're a good and reliable option to consider.
6 Actionable Social Proof Strategies for Your Marketing
Next, let’s go over six effective strategies to boost your marketing with social proof.
Especially after the COVID-19 hit us, social proof has become even more important. Review interactions have gone up 50% compared to pre-pandemic times.
1. Tell a Story
From the beginning of time, humans have shared stories about their experiences with others. It’s still done by everyone all over the world, but you should also use social proof as a marketing tool.
We are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it’s embedded into a story.
Use every type of social proof you have available to tell a coherent story on your website and across social media platforms.
How to Tell a Story?
- Let your existing customers’ voices be heard – Make them the main character
- Highlight the problem they had
- Let your customers tell how you helped them
- Focus on the emotional side, but include a few key numbers
Storytelling is more about raising emotions than about stating facts.
Here’s a great example from TANA on how to tell a compelling story by using both text and video.
Social Proof that Helps You Tell a Story
1. Video Testimonials
Your client is the star of the show and tells their story in their own words. Let them speak freely and don’t script the filming. Ask open-ended questions. We recommend outsourcing the filming of testimonials, so that they become more authentic.
Testimonials can and should be posted on your social media and on your website. Place relevant video testimonials on product pages to convince the people who’re already considering buying from you.
You can post a short clip of the video as an ad and guide the interested audience to go to a different page to watch the whole video.
If you don’t have any video testimonials, I've got good news for you. You can try using a social proof sofware to collect them.
2. Review Popups on Your Website
When you have someone on your website, let them know that other people have bought from you. You’ve probably seen this done by hotels and ecommerce websites (“5 people are looking at the same hotel” or “Madeline just bought this product. There are only 4 left in stock”)
Those are more about creating urgency and work with the principles of fear of missing out. Nevertheless, they focus on building trust by using the voice of your satisfied customers.
If you claim on your product pages that your services increase sales by x%, add review popups that prove your point. Not said by you, but by your happy customers.
For example, if someone is looking at our product page on measuring and reporting customer experience, it’s effective to showcase then and there that some customers actually have successfully used your product to do just these things.
Here are some ways you can customize the social proof popups shown on your website:
- Show reviews from Google, Facebook, Trustmary
- Page visitors
- Content
- Social media followers
- Event feed
- Videoplayer
2. Use Supporting Copy near CTAs
Call to actions (CTAs) are a way to get people to convert, to perform an action, such as, subscribe to your email list, go to your website, book a meeting or buy from you.
What you really need to do to convince people to act as you want is to add social proof as supporting copy next to the CTAs.
Let’s imagine that someone is scrolling through your site and sees the new product you launched. You added a “add to cart” CTA and hope that they see what a great product you have.
You drive traffic to your product page, but no-one clicks on the add to cart. You’re lacking proof that it actually works.
Try adding comments, reviews and testimonials from your real-life customers to boost the conversion rates.

Now your visitors have the masses to trust (favorited by Max and 8 more) and they have a real-life human being recommending the product.
When you add social proof near CTAs, keep in mind the following:
- Offer more information about the product
- Let your customers speak for you
- Highlight the comments that were the most surprising to you
- Do A/B testing to see which social proof boosts your conversion rates the most
3. Social Media Extravaganza
Social media is an excellent platform for spreading your social proof. Make sure that your customers and prospects feel that they can easily interact with you and to ask questions.
In addition to keeping your social media channels up-to-date, do at least the following:
- Make sure people can reach you through many channels (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok,...)
- Answer within reasonable time
- Thank everyone for their comments and feedback (even though they might be negative!)
- Share any positive feedback you receive
- Praise your advocates
- Consider having an industry leader or a celebrity to takeover your social media
- Try out influencer marketing if you’re in B2C
We all look for companies’ social media profiles to check their opening hours, reviews and offerings in general. Make it easy for your prospective customers to choose you over the competition by providing them with positive social proof in every way possible.
If you get someone to come to your social media channels, make it impossible for them to not buy from you by showing them how many people already love you and why.
4. Collect and Showcase Reviews
In order for you to develop your business, you need to know what people really think about you. Collecting reviews is an excellent way to gain insights on your business.
In addition to gaining insights, you’ll be able to showcase reviews to any prospective customers and to build trust in your brand and product.
A great way to do this is to import your existing reviews from Google and Facebook and use them lead generation popups.
One of our clients actually reached great results with this tactic. When they added a lead generation popup with a review to their web pages, they started getting over 60% more contact requests from prospective customers.

Trustmary is a great tool for both collecting feedback and showcasing it in multiple channels –automatically. You can find all case studies here to get your inspired to start improving your business while adding social proof to boost sales.
Talking about case studies...
5. Use Case Studies
Case studies will take a lot of work to create, but they’ll convince even the most doubtful potential customer. By creating data-driven and in-depth analysis of your services, you can make prospects relate to the problems your customers have had. At the same time, they realize that you are there to solve those issues.
After you’ve gathered the data and written it in a neat format:
- Post them on your blog
- Post them on your social media
- Share them via newsletters
- In case the case studies include information that is otherwise not widely share to public, create gated content to generate leads
6. Supercharge Landing Pages with Social Proof
Make social proof the cornerstone of your landing pages. Especially after the COVID-19 stopped us from meeting anyone face to face, being able to build trust online has become increasingly important.
With social proof, more is more.
Showcase reviews and testimonials wherever possible. However, keep in mind that they need to be relevant to convince potential customers to become customers.
Ask demographic questions in surveys to be able to add that extra dash of reliability to your social proof.
Checklist for Adding Social Proof on Landing Pages
Consider having at least these forms of social proof on your landing page
- Logos of industry leaders
- Video testimonials
- Social proof popups
- Names and faces of satisfied customers
- Key numbers (users, countries served, …)
- Reviews and ratings from third party review sites
- Press mentions
- Celebrity or expert endorsements
- Current influencer marketing campaigns
- Customer favorites
- User generated content (UGC)
One cool example I just saw from Granit was this UGC addition on their product page:

Use A/B and multivariate testing to figure out which elements increase conversions the most. If you’re looking for a tool to gather social proof, place it easily on your website and landing pages AND to do the testing on what it works, follow this step-by-step on getting more social proof.
Conclusion on Using Social Proof in Marketing
The most important thing is to have as much content as possible to test out different approaches. Before you can start to optimize anything, you need to have a starting point to improve on.
Social proof marketing has been one of the fastest growing phenomena in marketing and will continue to grow in 2024. In order to be able to do social proof marketing, you need to have satisfied customers and you need to know why they’re happy. Furthermore, add consistency to your social proof strategy. It's not enough to do it once a year, it's a process.
Have a look at social proof examples in B2B marketing to get even more insights on improving your own strategy.
5+1 Actionable Social Proof Strategies for Your Sales
In the next section, we’ll go over 5 actionable social proof strategies you can use to increase your sales. As trust elements in B2B, like reviews, testimonials, and logos are increasingly important in influencing purchase paths.
Before we do that, you need to understand two things:
- What does your sales funnel look like
- What stage your leads are at in your sales funnel
Here’s what a customer journey may look like for some companies.

Typical stages of customer journey
- Awareness
- Research
- Selection
- Delivery
- Follow-up
Not every message works for all audiences. If someone is at the need stage and not even aware that you might be a fitting solution, they’re most likely not interested in the fact that your NPS is 78. They’re interested in finding someone to solve their problem.
More importantly, try to shift your thinking from funnel-oriented thinking to the idea of a flywheel. Flywheel is a circle of continuous value production, where actions follow each other over and over again. Aim to prove your worth to your prospects at each stage of the process to ensure steady growth.

Okay, now we’re ready to go over how to use social proof in your sales.
1. Counter Objections
Use testimonials from happy customers to counter any objections your potential customers might have. Research what are the most common objections prospects have about you and showcase them reviews or testimonials that counter these objections.
2. Imply that They Need You…
… Because so many industry leaders have needed you too.
Let them read between the lines that you’re the right choice to fix their problems too. Use testimonials from industry leaders and showcase the concrete benefits they have gained by using your services.
3. Add Reviews to Your Sales Presentation
Show the names, faces, titles and companies of your satisfied customers and include a short quote from them on your collaboration. In other words, bring your satisfied customers to the meeting with you! It's better to see faces, names and companies rather than just the typical logos of most known customers.
People assume that sales presentations are just about going over the technical details, but you can surprise your audience by showing them what others think about you and your product. Sell them your product with emotional content!
If you have many great video testimonials, use them with caution when presenting. You can always attach the video to an email later on, but this might be your once in a lifetime opportunity to make an impression with the whole picture. Choose the video testimonial that this prospect can relate the most to.
Pro tip: Fo a little digging through LinkedIn to see if your potential customer is connected with one of the people featured on your video testimonial or reviews. Include the ones they're acquaintances with as they'll be the most impactful.
4. Attach Testimonials to Offers
If you’ve reached the stage where you can send an actual offer to a customer don’t lose this golden opportunity to add social proof.
They’re already at a stage where you’re a strong candidate. Give them more reasons to choose you. Spice your offer by sending them a short quote of what someone else in their industry has thought about working with you.
5. Include Happy Customers to All Communication
Every interaction counts and in the digital environment it’s easier to provide social proof examples than it is in face to face meetings.
Add Social Proof to:
- Your email signature (short quotes, NPS score, reviews, logos,...)
- Your short bio on social media
- Check-out page
- As an automated message to your chatbot while they’re waiting for you to answer
- Helen from your area says: This product changed my life!”
6. Find Out Who's Leaving You - Before They Even Know It
Measuring your NPS is a great way to track customer loyalty. Once you start measuring customer satisfaction regularly, you'll also be able to reduce your customer churn rate.
How? By being able to solve their issues and to tackle any misunderstandings once they arise. You can't fix what you don't know is broken.
Conclusion on Social Proof Strategies for Sales
These were just some examples of how you can boost your sales with social proof. The more authentic and creative your communication is, the more of an impact you can make.
You can truly stand out from your competition when you stop blowing your own horn and let your satisfied customers’ voices be heard.
The Ideal Growth Flywheel
How social proof creates a self-sustaining cycle of business growth.
1. Collect
Gather reviews and feedback automatically from happy customers.
2. Showcase
Display social proof on your website to build immediate trust.
3. Convert
Turn more visitors into buyers using the trust you've built.
4. Repeat
New customers provide fresh reviews, spinning the flywheel faster.
Collect
Gather reviews & NPS automatically.
Showcase
Display widgets on high-traffic pages.
Convert
Build trust and increase sales.
Repeat
New customers fuel the cycle.
In case conversion rates are a new topic for you, we recommend reading our Definitive Guide to Optimizing Conversion Rate first.
So, why is social proof important from a pure conversion perspective?
Because it reduces perceived risk.
When visitors see that:
- People like them had the same problem
- Those people chose you
- They got the outcome your page promises
…clicking the CTA becomes a smaller psychological leap.
4 Ideas to Boost Conversions
- Add social proof directly into your CTAs
- “Enjoy the same benefits as our over 200k users”
- Place social proof near all primary CTAs
- Logos, quotes, or a concise stat are enough
- Add social proof to your pricing and checkout pages
- These visitors are closest to buying; don’t leave them alone
- A/B test different types and placements
- Different segments respond to different proof
Best Social Proof Tools & Software
Doing all the above-mentioned manually is possible, but not sustainable.
In our overview of social proof tools, we go through different categories of social proof software, including:
- Review and testimonial collection tools
- Website widgets and popup tools
- UGC and social feed tools
Here’s how Trustmary fits into that landscape:
- Import reviews from Google, Yelp, Capterra and more
- Collect text and video testimonials with one streamlined flow
- Build and embed branded widgets (carousels, popups, badges)
- A/B test which social proof converts best
- Measure NPS and other feedback – and turn the best feedback into public proof
FAQ on Social Proof
How is social proof defined?
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon which means that people adapt the behavior of others when they’re unsure how to act. They assume that the masses know what to do.
How much can social proof increase conversion rate on websites?
The limit does not exist. The more personalized social proof you can showcase to each customer, the better your results will be.
Can social proof also be used to my disadvantage?
Yes, if you use the wrong type of wording it can lead to negative social proof. For example, writing “Only a few people have reviewed us. What is your opinion of us?” will most probably result in getting even fewer reviews in the future, as people tend to act the same as the majority.
Try phrasing it “Mike said that our products are really useful for him on a daily basis. Please let us know your thoughts on our product!”. Once your numbers increase, you can say “Hundreds have already reviewed us. What is your opinion?”
I'm interested in creating social proof, which tool should you use?
There are many fish in the sea when it comes to choosing the best social proof app to fit your needs. Here are 5 you should consider using:
- Trustmary
- Fomo
- Trustpulse
- Provesource
- Evidence.io