Social proof: The power of peers
At the crack of dawn, I pulled up to the local town beach, surfboard in tow and hopes soaring high. With New England’s pitiful summer surf, the beach was my only chance to catch a few dribblers, and I was desperate enough for water time that I decided to give it a go before the sun came up.
In my non-caffeinated, half-asleep state, I foolishly thought I’d be able to sneak into the parking lot for free, given that ticketing didn’t start for another two hours.
Of course, I was wrong.
An ugly black fence barred the lot’s entrance, blocking me from easy parking and a short walk to the surf. That meant it was time to scour the streets for legal parking and then make the barefoot trek over the sidewalks, across streets, through the woods, down a cliff, then over a bridge until I got to the sand. (Okay, so that was an exaggeration. But you get my point — lugging a surfboard from the street is a pain when you haven’t had coffee yet.)
Before I could turn around, though, I saw a glimmer of hope: four cars parallel parked in a lane adjacent to the parking lot. Spotting an opening, I eagerly pulled alongside the vehicles, and that’s when I saw the sign indicating a no parking zone. These drivers were rule breakers. It was a no-go, then.
But then I noticed the surf bags in each vehicle, and my thoughts took a turn. If those were surfers who were parked there, then maybe I, a surfer, should also park there. I’d bet they parked there every morning and never got in trouble. The beach wasn’t open yet anyway; parking there wouldn’t inconvenience anyone. It would only make my life easier, just like it did for these four other surfers who were probably having a ball in the water as I sat in my car.
That was when I realized I was falling victim to social proof.
In simplistic terms, social proof is the idea that our decisions are influenced by the actions and decisions of others. For example, if a bunch of people in a store form a checkout line on one side of a register, we’re likely to join that line instead of forming our own in a different spot. If we see that a restaurant has hundreds of five-star reviews, we’re more likely to go there than to the small diner with few ratings.
Marketers leverage this all the time. If a makeup company brags that their special eye product has sold out 3 times in the past month, they’re using social proof. If a TV commercial uses customers’ testimonials to sell their product, they’re using social proof. Businesses show how people endorse/use/approve of their products or services in the hopes of influencing target customers.
It’s a little more complex than that, though. Would a 15-year-old girl buying makeup likely be influenced by a 65-year-old’s testimony? Probably not. Why? Because they aren’t peers. They aren’t part of the same group. When leveraging social proof, good marketers typically use peers to influence their consumer base. This means a fitness company that makes products for senior citizens would probably want to show other senior citizens using, endorsing, or approving of their products. Using a young, spritely personal trainer wouldn’t have the same potential for success. In the same way, a hardware store that sells tools to professional contractors would probably want to cite approval ratings from contractors, rather than average DIYers.
When I was searching for surf parking, I only thought of actually parking in the no parking zone when I realized other surfers (my peers) had parked there. Before I realized they were surfers, I’d labeled those drivers as rule-breakers whose example I wouldn’t want to follow. There was no marketing team or business behind this — it was simply the power of social proof in the wild.
So, here’s your friendly reminder that peers matter when using social proof to influence your audience.
(And, no, I didn’t park in the no parking zone, but only because I knew social proof was at work and am a die-hard rule-follower. Ah, well.)
TL;DR
Social proof is the idea that our decisions are influenced by others
Marketers leverage social proof to influence potential consumers
Try leveraging social proof by using consumers’ PEERS, not just random people
Parking at the town beach stinks
See this piece posted at https://medium.com/@meganelizabethwriting/social-proof-the-power-of-peers-5aa6d9c7ed99
