Success On .Social

Category: Social Proof

  • Reputation Management and Social Proof

    Reputation Management and Social Proof

    Updated July 6, 2024

    Understanding Social Proof and Reputation Management

    I use the term “social proof” when discussing customer reviews because I emphasize the power of positive feedback. A series of glowing testimonials can put a business on the map—social proof is powerful. It highlights how positive reviews can validate your brand story.

    However, social proof focuses solely on positive feedback and doesn’t address negative reviews or provide strategies for handling them. We’re leveraging your customers’ positive reviews to support your story.

    On the other hand, reputation management considers the bigger picture. It’s a more comprehensive approach that deals with negative reviews and is commonly used in SEO and other industries, focusing on a business’s overall customer feedback.

    For additional information on the idea of social proof, you can refer to this blog post as well as in this webinar.

    Why Reputation Management and Social Proof Matter?

    The following statistics highlight why reputation management and social proof matter. If you ignored customer reviews before, you will now. These numbers are eye-opening and illustrate the importance of providing an excellent customer experience.

    • Most people (88%) like companies that reply to their reviews
    • Almost everyone (92%) trusts what their friends say, and many (70%) trust what strangers say
    • Most shopping (87%) starts with looking up stuff online first
    • Nearly everyone (97%) says online reviews help them decide what to buy
    • Sales pages sell 34% more with testimonials (people saying good things)
    • Over half (56%) of American social media users feel FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
    • Good reviews make people spend 31% more money.
    • Most people (83%) think reviews older than three months aren’t helpful anymore.

    40+ Social Proof Statistics (Latest 2024 DATA)

    Can I Pay a Company to Delete Negative Reviews?

    No! Negative reviews offer valuable insights into your business and how your audience perceives their experience. Deleting them won’t solve the underlying issues and can lead to a loss of trust. Instead, view each review as an opportunity to improve your customer experience.

    Respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. The quicker you respond, the better your chance of improving your rating. Often, people want to be heard. Show empathy and put yourself in their shoes. Before making any judgments, ensure you verify both sides of the story.

    Use these experiences as teaching moments for your team. Negative reviews can be powerful tools for growth and improvement if handled correctly.

    Reputation Management: Key Steps for Handling Negative Reviews

    Negative reviews can significantly impact your business, as clients trust and value the opinions of their peers. Often, one negative review reflects the experiences of multiple customers who didn’t take the time to write a review themselves. Never underestimate the power of a negative review, but remember that handling it properly can help you gain respect and authority.

    Turning a negative review into a positive experience can demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. Here are the steps you should take when dealing with an unsatisfied customer:

    Immediate Steps to Take

    1. Respond to the review immediately. The quicker you react, the higher the chance the reviewer will improve their rating. Resolving the issue within 24 hours makes the reviewer 33% more likely to increase their score. Additionally, responding to reviews shows future customers that you value their experience and are committed to ensuring each interaction is positive.
    2. Take the time to understand what happened. Listen for key phrases like, “if they had only,” or “I wish that,” which can highlight what the customer was hoping for. These insights are crucial for reaching a favorable resolution.
    3. If an immediate resolution isn’t possible, let the reviewer know you’re looking into the situation and set a time to follow up within 12-24 hours. This demonstrates your commitment to addressing their concerns promptly.

    Within 12-24 hours of Review

    1. Gather Information: Get both sides of the story. Did the customer mention names in the review? What was their impression of the interaction? Was anyone else present? Always discuss these details in private.
    2. Review and Reach Out: Assess all the information you’ve collected and then contact the customer. Seize the chance to develop a personal connection.
    3. Be Empathetic and Understanding: Show empathy and understanding while remaining impartial. Put yourself in your client’s shoes before responding. Each interaction is an opportunity to positively impact, it is not a burden.
    4. Listen and Resolve: Have a resolution in mind, but let the customer lead the conversation. This approach shows you value their input and are committed to resolving their concerns effectively.

    Within 36 Hours of the Review

    1. Find a Solution Quickly: Aim to resolve the problem by the 36-hour mark. Consider what it will take to make the customer feel better about their experience. Remember, a lost customer means lost revenue for a lifetime.
    2. Agree on a Resolution: Once you’ve found a solution, agree with the client. Before ending the conversation, ask if there’s anything else you can assist them with. Often, customers will give you another chance to impress them.
    3. Request a Rating Update: After agreeing on a resolution, politely ask if the customer can update their rating. Don’t request a specific score or offer incentives for a higher rating.
    4. Implement Changes: If the resolution involves changing policies, ensure everyone on your team is informed. This prevents the same negative experience from reoccurring with the same customer or others.

    Immediately Following the Resolution with the Customer

    1. Document the Experience: Take detailed notes on the incident, including the customer’s name, contact information, and specifics of the event. Record the resolution details and keep them on file for future reference.
    2. Respond Online: Publicly respond to the review. Apologize for the sub-par experience, mention the resolution, and thank the individual for their business.
    3. Educate Your Team: Use the experience as a teaching opportunity. Discuss the preferred solution for handling similar situations in the future. Focus on learning and improvement rather than punishment.

    Preventing Future Negative Experiences

    1. Make Necessary Changes: To avoid similar negative experiences in the future, consider what changes can be implemented in training, policies, or employee practices. Think outside the box to find effective solutions.
    2. Seek Additional Information: If you receive a negative review about an unfamiliar situation, don’t hesitate to contact the review site for more details. If the site cannot reach the customer to verify the details, they may delete the negative review.
    3. Follow Up Respectfully: If the customer does not change their review, reach out once to check if they are still dissatisfied. However, do not badger them to change the rating. Respect their decision and focus on improving for the future.

    Striving for the Ideal Outcome

    The goal is always a five-star review. We’ve fallen short of that goal when we receive a negative review. It’s time to make the best of a bad situation. Acting quickly, showing empathy, and truly listening to the customer’s concerns can transform a two-star review into a more acceptable rating. Demonstrate to your customers that you value them by addressing their issues promptly and effectively.

    Identify and eliminate pain points in your organization’s customer experience. Remember, your customer should always be the number one priority for your entire team. The moment the customer is no longer the focus, your business starts to lose ground.

  • Webinar: How Small Businesses Can Utilize Social Proof

    How Small Businesses Can Utilize Social Proof

    We followed up the blog post on Social Proof with our Social Proof Webinar!

    In our Social Proof Webinar, we focused on how small businesses can utilize social proof. Including using it on social media as well as in their general marketing campaigns. We started with a simple definition, but then we dug a bit deeper. The three major areas we focused on for this webinar were customer reviews, user-generated content, and micro-influencer marketing. We believe that these three areas can have the highest ROI for small businesses when executed properly. During the webinar, we providing the best practices, things to stay away from, and offered some examples from our experiences. All participants also had the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the webinar.

    Is This The Right Lesson For Me?

    If you are interested in social media marketing or have your own business, then this Social Proof Webinar is aimed at you. It should help you incorporate some of the primary forms of social proof into your strategy. If you are a professional marketer but want to be able to provide small business owners with advice on areas to focus, this could be the right webinar for you.

    Still have questions after the webinar? Please feel free to sign up for a Free 30 Social Media Consultation Call.

    Ok, I am Ready to Conquer Social Proof!

    The webinar is approximately 45 minutes long. So grab a pen and paper and, maybe a drink of water. Enjoy!JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGVDdCVHhSaWJScW8lMjIlMjBmcmFtZWJvcmRlciUzRCUyMjAlMjIlMjBhbGxvdyUzRCUyMmFjY2VsZXJvbWV0ZXIlM0IlMjBhdXRvcGxheSUzQiUyMGVuY3J5cHRlZC1tZWRpYSUzQiUyMGd5cm9zY29wZSUzQiUyMHBpY3R1cmUtaW4tcGljdHVyZSUyMiUyMGFsbG93ZnVsbHNjcmVlbiUzRSUzQyUyRmlmcmFtZSUzRQ==

  • Social Proof Defined and Explored

    Social Proof Defined and Explored

    What Exactly is Social Proof?

    If you hear the term social proof, and you are a bit unsure of what exactly it is, you are not alone. Wikipedia defines social proof as a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. Below are several forms of social proof.

    Types of Social Proof: Recommendations and Endorsements

    • Experts Stamp of Approval: This is when a leader, thought leader, who is well respected supports the product in some way. Social proof in this form can be done on social media via posts and stories. It can also be done on the influencers’ blog. Being quoted on the product or in advertisements for the product is considered another form of expert stamps of approval.
    • Celebrity endorsement: This is a particular form of social proof, based on the popularity, reach, and influence of the celebrity. Unpaid celebrity endorsement holds more value.
    • User Recommendations: Recommendations from users provide a significant vote of confidence in the product’s value. All recommendations can have the same positive impact. From a customer review on your website, a Google or Yelp review, or a simple rating, or a full-blown case study, it all provides feedback from actual users and hold a great deal of value.

    Unpaid Marketing

    • Earned (not paid) Media: Has your product or service been talked about in the news? A news report or newspaper write up are both forms of social proof that will support the value of your product. Earned media is a great way to build brand awareness and increase the backlinks to your website. It is social proof that your business has earned a spot at the table.
    • Social Media Exposure: DO NOT undervalue the impact social media posts and shares can have on a customers decision to choose you. Enough positive shares of your content on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram can be all the proof one needs.

    Peer to Peer Power

    • Peer Use and Reviews: Social media exposure and peer usage and reviews are tied closely together as a great deal of peer interaction occurs on social media every day. Peer recommendations of products result in a consumer being over 80% more likely to purchase the recommended product. This word of mouth social proof is one of the most potent and common forms of social proof.

    Small Businesses and Social Proof

    While I do not like to rule out the possibility of a fantastic opportunity for a small business to rise to the top of its game while garnering celebrity and expert endorsements. I also realize that those Cinderella stories are not easy to come by. Since anything is possible, you can keep your eyes out for potential expert or celeb endorsements, but let’s focus our efforts on the more attainable items.

    Encourage Customers to Write Reviews

    You want reviews! Encourage people to write reviews of your business. Yes, a testimonial could potentially be less than stellar. That is only providing your business with an opportunity to improve; it is not an excuse for removing a customer’s ability to write reviews on your business. Reviews allow for user reviews and can increase your peer-to-peer social proof. Not having the ability to review the business or even the products the company offers sends a negative message. It says that you are not confident in your products and services which can be more damning than a bad review or even two in a sea of great ones. Some companies also offer people incentives for a review. However, before providing incentives, make sure you are aware of the rules of each platform. You don’t want a platform to throw out any review of your business based on a technicality.

    Notes on Reviews

    Most review platforms allow the business to respond to reviews. You should always respond within 36 hours. It does not matter if the recommendation is amazing or horrifying. Respond to every single review.

    Did you get a less-than-stellar mention? Ask for specifics and what they would have hoped for as a resolution. If the customer ignores your request for additional information, you can request to have the review removed. When you get the details, you can see what you can do to improve the situation.

    Share Reviews

    Mix some reviews into your posting schedule. Maybe one a month, and don’t do it to brag. Thank the customer for using your product. Try expressing joy that they solved a problem. Highlight the aspects of your brand story the review supports etc. These are all great ways to utilize social proof in your social media, and it encourages other members of your audience to share.

    Experiment with Micro-Influencers and Influencers

    Influencers marketing can be a cost-efficient way of getting celebrity social proof. This tactic is prevalent on Instagram. What usually occurs is a brand would sponsor an influencer or micro-influencers, a person with a strong social media influence in their niche area, to post about their products. Because of their social media influence, these people are celebrities to their audience. When others see them with a particular product, they will transfer the positive attributes they see in these “celebrities” to the product. Boom, celebrity endorsement!

    My friend Dani Sauter, @blonde_inthedistrict, is an influencer in the beauty, fashion and lifestyle areas and was recently named best fashion blogger by Northern Virginia Magazine. She is one of the sweetest, hardest working and, smartest bloggers (and people) I have met. With over 82K followers, she is an icon to many  DC women. She is regularly recognized on the streets (no joke) by followers who want to tell her about the product she recommended. Other times they let her know they bought the dress she wore in last week’s post, or want to take a picture with her. No joke influencer marketing works.

    Brand Ambassador Programs

    In my previous life, I worked as a retail manager at a campus bookstore. One of the most effective and impactful ways to reach our audience was by engaging our employees (many of them students) as brand ambassadors. It created a peer to peer social proof, and as we know, people value the opinion of their peers. At several of the stores, we were able to take this type of peer to peer social proof to the next level. When a student employee, became an orientation leader, we gained access to a larger group of students we could train and engage as ambassadors. All of these ambassadors had peer to peer contact with the new students. Win Win WIn!

    How Does This Apply to My Business?

    Yes, this was a peer to peer rich location. Peer to peer social proof may be slightly more difficult for some businesses. However, when you take into account the power of social media, your employees have a much deeper network than you may know. Engaging them as ambassadors could help you reach new audiences, niches, and explore alternative business channels you may not have known existed.

    Content Created by Your Audience

    User-generated content (UGC) is enormous; people love it when you share their photo. It has benefits for both parties, including increased exposure to a new audience. Plus consumers are looking for brands to feature more UGC. According to Sprout Social Index, 24% of consumers want to see more User Generated Content. UGC is a great way to build your following and generate some user social proof. We recommend encouraging your followers to use a branded hashtag or reposting user content. Don’t forget to encourage users to share this content not only on your social media but on your website, and brick and mortar location as well.

    Share and Respond to Social Media Shout Outs

    I can tell you that when you receive a shout-out from a customer, you feel like a rock star. A rock star that at least one person likes, and that is a start! So you can try to make it the start of something great by responding with a “thanks man” or more to the user giving you a shout out. Then try sharing that shout out with your audience. It is a great way to show others the love people have for your product or service.

    Humble Brags

    Do you work with clients like New York University, Georgetown, Kimpton, Wegmans, Zillow, Great American Restaurant Group, and others? Mention your clients in your bio on social media, don’t gloat highlight a couple of key clients. How is this social proof? If the top brands you listed are using you, then you must be good enough for the masses! Similarly, use critical metrics for your business in your profile, for example, the number of customers served, the number of houses sold under 60 days.

    Ok, Now I Understand Social Proof

    See, it’s not that hard of a concept to understand. Now not only do you see the value, but you also know how you can highlight these forms social proof you have for your business. Social proof is compelling. A successful business must consistently work to make sure that they are engaging customers and regularly building up their social proof. Especially since three-year-old reviews hold much less power than reviews over the past couple months. It may be hard work, but it is rewarding, and you love it!