

Why Social Proof Matters To Your Startup - dshipper
http://dshipper.posterous.com/why-social-proof-matter-to-your-startup

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noelwelsh
It's an interesting post but I don't think the statistics actually support the
conclusion. The 1st blog post _referred_ 1'500 people -- we don't know how
many actually visited the blog post. The second post had 3'000 visitors.
Without knowing the bounce rate from the first post we can't compare these
stats.

UPDATE: The other point to consider is that this is purely post-hoc reasoning.
I can think of at least one alternative explanation -- the people who arrived
from the first blog post were already motivated enough to click another link
so they were more likely to purchase. Without doing some kind of experiment to
differentiate these hypotheses we can't make a judgement one way or the other.

It probably sounds like I'm raining on the author's parade. That's not my
intention. I really like that he's put these figures online and is trying to
analyse. I hope I'm just showing that the issues are more subtle than they
seem at first.

~~~
dshipper
Hey Noel thanks for the feedback! For your first point about the blog post
both of the stats that I referred to when it comes to visitors 1500 vs 3000
are both the number of people that were referred to the site from each blog
post. So I wasn't talking about the traffic stats for the blog posts
themselves, I was only talking about stats that I know for both of them which
was how many times they referred visitors to DomainPolish.

I think that your second point is interesting. What do you mean by more
motivated to click? I can tell you that the bounce rate on the home page was a
fairly consistent 30% for both posts, which leads me to believe that people
just trusted the site more when they read a review from someone else and felt
more comfortable buying.

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toumhi
It's also a very good example on how to use HN to get exposure for your
product:

1- show HN post

2- let someone else blog about it (or ask for it) and submit to HN

3- post again about the comparison of #1 and #2, with a interesting reflexion
(social proof)

I wonder what's coming up next :-)

~~~
imcqueen
I think part of the winning formula in this case was that it's relevant to HN
- (HN readers are the demo for DomainPolish). I wrote the article because I
thought it was a cool service, I never expected anyone to read it.

I wrote the whole post in 15 minutes, it was a stream of thought that turned
out to be relavent to the community.

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petercooper
Social proof is very important. Even subtle aspects can have significant
impacts. I think social proof ties in with another area that I think may even
be more important: the impression of longevity.

With both my own and others' projects, I've noticed that if you don't give an
impression that you've been around a while or that your project/product is in
active use or production, you'll find it significantly harder to gain
traction. I think this is why the "trick" of using screenshots, videos, and so
forth, tends to work well, since people get to see something that, supposedly,
is in action, rather than a floaty promise.

If you're launching a podcast, an e-mail newsletter, or something where a sign
of activity will boost signups, make sure you get a "few in the bag" and can
do your public launch at episode 5, issue 7, or whatever. Likewise, with a
business like that described in the post, make sure you can get some early
reviews, some testimonials, and some blog posts in the bag so that you look
like you're going places, even when you aren't.

~~~
dshipper
I think that this is a great point. You want your project to feel like its
been around forever and will continue to be around for a long time. That
inspires confidence in your users to buy from you and/or recommend you to
their friends. Without longevity they can't be confident enough in you to
invest themselves.

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OpenAmazing
It doesn't even have to be someone credible.

Simply puting some images of human faces on your site near the call-to-action
button helps. The Facebook widgets that show who has "liked" your site work
great for this. Our eyes are drawn to pictures of faces and a group of faces
next to a button says "these people tried it, what is wrong with you?"

Some more: * Pictures of faces * A testimonial (one face and one sentance) * A
number indicating usage (4,243 downloads today!) * Expert reviews (TechCrunch
loved it!)

~~~
dshipper
Excellent point. I should definitely add a few more things like that.

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jacques_chester
I don't think this is a good example of social proof in the sense Cialdini
referred to in _Influence_.

~~~
toumhi
It is social proof IMHO. A social proof of one, but a social proof nonetheless
- social proof coming from a fellow HN user might add some authority to the
mix:

"social proof: People are more willing to take a recommended action if they
see evidence that many others, especially similar others, are taking it."

"authority: People are more willing to follow the directions or
recommendations of a communicator to whom they attribute relevant authority or
expertise" (summary of Influence:
[http://www.sellingandpersuasiontechniques.com/influence-
summ...](http://www.sellingandpersuasiontechniques.com/influence-
summary.html))

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jpr
Working servers matter more, the page doesn't load for me.

