Social Proof – “What’s It All About, Alfie?”

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Social Proof –  “What’s It All About, Alfie?”

Social proof – if you’re in online marketing, network marketing – actually any kind of marketing, you here about it all the time.  It’s one of the most common principle of marketing and persuasion.

Particularly in the digital era, people will often follow other people’s opinion, thinking consciously or unconsciously they must be right.

We use social proof to become an authority or expert which lead to followers which leads, hopefully to more business.

So we use social proof to show how much money we made, how many sales we made, people we recruited, leads we generated.

And we use that social proof to show that the correct behaviour is:

• Liking you
• Considering you as an authority or a celebrity
• Performing the action you are pushing for

But “What’s it all about, Alfie?” (referencing an old old movie my mom use to sing the theme song…) is that all social proof is about?  

I think not!  Social proof is also about people connecting with people.  We shouldn’t forget we are in a people business, even if it is in a virtual environment.

How genuine we are, how  ‘real’ is what builds long term connections.

So on that note – and  not to brag but mostly because it made my day, I’ shaing a small clip from an email I received from an old acquaintence I’ve known marginally for over 15 years…..I was asking her for a favor:

“I don’t know that I believe in past life, but if there is such thing, we must be connected somehow. we keep running into each other in most unlikely places (like on the airplane sitting next to each other). You seem to pop in my life once in a while – a gentle way to remind me we must stay in touch with one another, :-P.

Isn’t that awesome – that’s why I love this business.

Have a brilliant day!