by Andrew Wood
As I was traveling round France last month I used hotels.com, Vernere.com and Bookings.com to locate and book rooms. Often when no clear choice was available, I was drawn to the reader reviews to help make my decision. In reality this makes little sense, people's opinions are so different even of the same experience. Nonetheless I read them and was no doubt more influenced by them, than I even know!
The same thing is true of buying a book on Amazon, people want social proof that the book will deliver as promised, if they are to part with their hard earned money. I'm proud of the quality of the reader's comments I have gotten for my books: Cunningly Clever Marketing, Cunningly Clever Selling and The Golf Marketing Bible. I am sure they help sales stay strong.
What are people saying about your club on Golf.com or your restaurant on zagat.com, or any type of business on Response.com?
Most people don't know, but it's something you should check regularly because there are most likely one or two vocal people out there who could be damaging your online reputation, badly.
People do look at and read these comments; they provide the social proof that your offer is what you say it is. Very often, the negative comments about your business are unfair but that doesn't make them any less harmful! They must be contracted with a response or with a stream of positive comments that relegates the negative ones to the dungeons of page ten!
A similar though different phenomenon of social proof occurred on in our nightly quest for a great meal, with a staggering choice of restaurants in every city, in France. In fact, in one part of Paris there were no less than 200 restaurants in a typical city block!
Which to choose?
Well generally not the one with no one in it! (There must be a reason or they don't turn the food fast enough) Most of the time we choose busy but not full restaurants (why wait) because the fact that they were busy physiologically means they are good and in just about every case they were.
A further form of social proof are the positive comments others,(clients, staff, family and friends to start) MUST be ENCOURAGED to provide on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Fastpitch and MySpace to name just a handful. If others are saying good things about you they must be true!
- Check your online reputation monthly.
- Solicit positive reviews from your customers.
- Encourage positive feedback and brand extension on social media sites from customers, staff and friends.
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