Who@'s Blog

Social Proof – It is all about CONTEXT

November 28, 2011 at 02:51 Leave a comment

Social proof can be helpful but also misleading in some instances and more valuable in others. Just because 100 people like something on Yelp or Amazon doesn’t mean you will like it too. But that is about taste and not trust. ebay ratings are about trust.

It is far more valuable to have folks you know and share a common interest/perspective than 100 random people who may or may not share your tastes. If a friend of mine who is a foodie and has similar tastes as I tells me to try some restaurant, then I’m much more interested than if the “crowd” likes it. Same for a friend who shares my tastes in movies. Food and Movie critics are a form of institutionalized social proof and, if the critic has displayed similar tastes as you have in the past, they can be a good indicator for you as well.

What isn’t mentioned is also the dataset. Is the social proof coming from, say 100 hard core rednecks from the south or from 100 snobs in New York City? I’d take 100 rednecks opinion on BBQ and fried catfish over a New Yorker any day, but want 100 New Yorkers to tell me the best sushi place. The rednecks might think the sushi is BAIT!  It is all about context.

Other forms of social proof, such as an ebay rating aren’t about tastes, but about integrity in a transaction and the inverse may be true there. Just because you have a friend that purchased 1 thing from an ebay member generally isn’t as sufficient as if the ebay seller had 100 positives experiences b/c that form of social proof is about trust, not taste.

I have a lot of respect for Scoble and the brand he’s built and all he’s done for entrepreneurs, but the comment he makes about having 66k subscribers can be dangerous too. Both Friendster and MySpace had lots of social proof in terms of active and engaged users but lost that trust or the user found a better option and the switching costs were too low to keep them. Bernie Madoff built his entire fraud on “social proof” b/c this name or than name at “the club” was also an investor.

Social proof can be a proxy for trust in certain cases, but it also needs to be taken in context. Often times, fewer proof points from people you trust and share values with is superior, but in other cases, like the ebay example I gave, it is better to have more social proof points.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: marketing, social proof, trust, viral.