With Social Media being integrated into everything from TV shows to businesses, some may see it as a great tool that people have learned to utilize to better their business and personal lives, while other see it as the bane of existence, something that is only cluttering up our internet waves and depriving kids of exercise. Whatever you feel it may be, there is definitely no stopping it now. Many people have found that having an online presence on any one of the most popular websites of today such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and even Instagram have helped them build a long list of social or business contacts. Each platform fulfills a need. These are the building blocks of what social networking is all about.

As someone who helps coach and train business owners leverage social media, I am going to share why social proof is so important to building a product, brand, or business these days… and without it you aren’t going to be able to leverage yourself that well.

Here it is in just 6 words:

“People like what other people like”

In the online world, Social Proof is really just something that we share or see others engaging in or sharing, feel it is something worth checking out because other people are into it, see that others like it, and that helps us to confirm our choice. It’s human nature. A little bit of Darwinian Internet Selection if you will.

It’s the reason Justin Beiber is famous and Lady Gaga has world tours. Alone, these people would be a pre-teen who came too late on the boy-band train and a talented girl with an interesting fashion sense, but because they had a niche that someone liked, people began to flock to it in droves. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and social sharing, we have the behemoths that are these celebrities.

In business, getting the social proof such as the number of Facebook likes, Google’s +1, and Twitter followers and Re-Tweets is a matter of building up a network around the brand or product, and spreading the word about it. To do it smart, you must leverage yourself with tools to speed up the process.

As you see above in my article right below the title, with the social sharing buttons, as people like this, re-tweet it or pin it (which you can do as well when done here 😉 ), what it does is build up a credibility about this particular Article to others, that give it more of a credibility and makes it worth reading (more people that read it, it must be good right? – not always the case but stick with me here)

As a business, you need to ask your clients, friends, people on your email newsletter list and customers to like, pin, share your website links and your content. And you need to make it EASY for them. As humans, we like things that are SIMPLE so make sure your site has Social share buttons on them as mine do or hold a contest.

The best part of this Social Proof, in my mind, is being able to leverage yourself and business. If Dan likes this article, and presses LIKE on the Facebook Button, it goes into his Facebook Timeline where the people that follow Dan will see. This usually results in more people reading it and helps to build the social proof that this Article is worth reading.

Now, the down side, it may seem like it is an easy thing to do, however it require some convincing to getting people to go out of their way to Like or Re-Tweet something for you, if they don’t already like and trust you. However this can easily be fixed with great fresh content. Great Fresh Content is number one in building up your Social Proof. Reviews, ratings, viral videos, and interesting stories and images. These can all can help — It’s about getting more people involved that is really the key.

People like what other people like – so build up YOUR Social Proof today so you can build your Business online AND offline.

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Enjoyed this post? If so, please share on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to let your friends know about it. Your help spreading the word would be really appreciated.