Why you need social proof on your website and how to get it
Add Social proof to website through widget
To integrate social proof on your website to add credibility to your business by cool content examples, you can use a third-party tool like widget. And here Elfsight Social Feed comes to rescue. This widget is a unique tool for marketing not just stuff, but emotions and experiences. With it you can form a custom feed composed of the content from real people from various social platforms: Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Vimeo – and display it right on your website.
Create a gallery or social proof for your website in 1-2-3!
How to add Social proof to your website’s HTML code
HTML can help users create a website for almost any intent. While the creation of the website itself might not seem that difficult, when it comes to examples like embedding some elements like social proof, you may want to look for help from some third-party solutions like our widget. All that has to be done here is to apply an easy-to-use configurator and then embed the installation code to the site or some specific page on it. Here are the steps you need to follow in order to embed the social proof widget to your website:
First, you’ll need to acquire the code of your social proof widget. Follow these steps:
- Register or log in to your account on Elfsight Apps.
- On the Applications panel, choose the Social feed widget that you would like to embed to your website.
- Click “Add to Website” next to the name of your social widget. Then you’ll see a popup window containing the installation code.
- Left-click on the installation code and copy the code of the social proof widget.
Now that you’ve got the installation code of your Social feed you can go on and add it to your website’s HTML code.
The process of embedding the Social feed widget with your cool content examples is easy to perform, simply follow these steps in order to get it done:
- Log in to your Elfsight Apps admin panel.
- Form your widget with social proof and customize it.
- Save your social widget.
- Copy the installation code from the popup window.
- Place the code of the widget to the required place at your website.
Keep in mind that if you don’t know how to style your social proof feed, you can always get inspired by any of our examples below. Let’s proceed to this part.
Add Social proof to your website through trusted reviews
Customer reviews are among the most popular ways to bring value to your business and add social proof to your website. By seeing lots of reviews from your real satisfied customers, your new potential clients will get the understanding of your business and the high level of customer service you provide.
And we’ve got one of the simplest ways to add customer reviews to your website – with the help of our All-in-One Reviews widget! Creating the widget is really swift and doesn’t require any additional actions from your side.
Social proof on website examples
The examples of social proof on websites come in many forms. This can be an Instagram post, a Facebook longread, a video on TikTok and many, many more. Social media has grown into a huge part of our life and tons of different content forms are generated there, this means that you can get inspirational examples on an everyday basis. We offer you to look at some cool examples of forming our Social Feed widget. This may help you understand which way you can form your widget to make it work right for your business goals.
Social Masonry
This social proof widget is presented in a form of Masonry grid allowing you to perfectly fit it into the free space on a page. The accent color of the widget is blue to emphasize the hashtags. It’s one of the best examples for those websites that are ready to dedicate a lot of space for social content on their pages.
Social Masonry Dark
If you want to give your social news feed a stylish look, use a dark theme in combination with a Masonry grid. If you were looking for some examples of cool and stylish dark themes, it’s definitely one of them.
Social Timeline
Using the List layout, you can create a social feed filled with news taken from several sources at once, which your users definitely won’t miss. One of the best examples of feed for those users who want to create a stylish content compilation combined of different sources.
Social Grid
If you are looking for clean and crisp shapes, then you should definitely pay attention to the Grid layout. With it, you can create a whole section filled with posts from different sources. Great way of creating a social proof section on your website.
Social Masonry Colored
Add some vivid color to your website design by painting the social widget bright blue and using the Masonry layout. This is one of those styling options that suits website owners who are not afraid of using bright colors.
Full Width Social Carousel
A full-format Carousel social feed will allow your audience to get acquainted with all the posts in your interactive feed in detail and won’t let them escape your website too early. One of the best examples of creating a stylish and clickable social proof section on your website.
Social Carousel
An interactive social posts carousel will grab the users’ attention and motivate them to scroll your page as far as possible. If you were looking for some motivational examples, it’s one of them for sure.
Small Social widget
This is a great option for those who cannot allocate a lot of space to the full-format social proof widget on the website’s page. The Slider layout will allow users to see more.
Social Slider
The Slider layout is a great way to focus on the visual of your social proof widget. If you have something to brag about to users, use this option.
Why Social proof is important
Let’s start with some important stats on social proof you may want to know:
- 66% of consumers trust online consumer reviews.
- 95% of people rely on other people’s opinions about products. Particular attention is paid to negative reviews – they are studied by 53% of respondents, and 37% are interested in how the company reacts to the negative.
- 54% of US shoppers read reviews on Google when looking for offline stores.
Social proof is a powerful tool that can help you gain new customers and strengthen relationships with your current audience. While the concept of social proof has existed long before the advent of social media, it has become a vital component that can help or hinder the growth of social media. Each social media has its own metrics by which social proof is measured. Twitter has followers, retweets, likes and favorites. YouTube has views, subscribers and likes. Instagram has followers, likes, and story impressions.
These metrics are closely related to social proof as the number of these metrics form the social proof a user has. A Twitter profile with thousands of followers, retweets, likes and comments has positive social validation. On the other hand, a Twitter profile with few followers and poor user engagement has negative social proof.
In relation to Internet marketing, there are the following types of social proof:
- Customer reviews. The audience willingly pays attention to the opinion of ordinary buyers.
- Reviews. They help potential buyers get detailed information about the properties and characteristics of the product.
- Social media signals: likes, shares, comments. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of signals are important here.
- Opinion of famous experts. They may take the form of testimonials or reviews.
- Celebrity opinion. For some audience segments and product categories, the word celebrity replaces dozens of reviews and hundreds of testimonials.
- Elements of the site interface: numbers, icons, customer logos, images of awards, etc.
- Informational: case studies, white papers, research results.
You can use any or all of these types of social proof to promote your project. But be cautious as there might be some problems when using social proof improperly. Even strong social proof may not work if experts make mistakes when publishing it. Let’s break them down below:
Lies
Fake reviews, numbers taken from your head, fake cases – all this will work against you. Be sincere, do not deceive your customers.
Blurred facts
The lack of clarity in terms of social proof also makes customers suspicious. Therefore, reviews should not be limited to the phrase “I liked everything” – ask customers for detailed feedback. In cases, indicate specific data and numbers, and ask them to avoid words like “a lot / little” and “good / bad”.
A large number of social proof
When there is too much evidence, clients simply won’t take the time to study it all. Due to this fact, they may miss your strongest evidence and not buy anything.
Too much success stories
Sharing success stories and product benefits solely is not credible. Nothing is perfect in this world, and everyone knows it. Therefore, before buying, customers want to know about the pitfalls as well. If they describe the perfect picture, people will understand that they are being deceived.
Talking about failures and jamming is not shameful. Publish unsuccessful cases, stories of mistakes you made. Write about it easily and with humor. Then you will get even more trust from your customers.
Conclusion
Social proof is a necessary attribute of online sales. The more facts used on your website, the more credibility it inspires. Provided that the evidence is real. Testimonials and case studies are the most powerful tool, so pay special attention to preparing them. Consider bonuses so that customers are willing to share their opinion online.
Use everything for the good of the company, even negative experiences. If you have a couple of negative reviews, don’t hide them. It is better to show that you learned the lesson, corrected the error and improved the quality of services than to deny their existence.
