Page 131 - The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business - PDFDrive.com

CHAPTER NINE

Social Signals and Social Proof

“Sincerity – if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
– George Burns

I’d like to do a test on you—right here, right now. Ready?

Imagine that you move to a new home with a lovely yard and you’re
interested in starting a rose garden. Roses can be tricky plants to grow, so you
need information to help guide you through the best practices for a beginning
gardener. Like most people, you start with a web search, and you’re delighted to
find that the top two search results fit your needs precisely. Both articles are
brimming with tips, detailed guides, and illustrations to get you going. One of
these articles has been tweeted five times. The other one has been tweeted 452
times.

Which one will you read?
I’ve used this little test in hundreds of classes before thousands of students
and not one person—not one!—has ever answered that they would read the post
with five tweets.
My friend, you have just experienced the awesome power of social proof! All
things being equal, in a case like this the quality of the content doesn’t really
matter. Neither does the heroic brand of the author, the credibility of the
publication, the distribution, promotion, or clever SEO. The content is poised to
ignite simply because of a number.

Putting social proof to work

We use social proof as a shortcut in our real-world decision-making every day.
Things seem easier to buy when others validate that it’s a smart option.

Social proof is powerful in situations where people don’t have the facts they
need to make an informed decision. To help resolve uncertainty, people look for