Applying Social Proof To Your Webinars

What is Social Proof?

“Since 95% of people are imitators and only 5% initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.” Cavett Robert

Social proof is defined as a psychological phenomenon that assumes surrounding people possess more knowledge about a certain situation or a problem and therefore they are more likely to make a better decision. If the group of people who are performing a certain behavior are perceived to belong to the same or similar group, then one is more likely to follow to the group’s behavior.
One well known example of how social proof can influence our daily preferences is to choose the more crowded dinner over the less crowded one.

Why is Social Proof Important?

Ever since Dr. Robert Cialdini named social proof as one of the six “weapons of influence” in his book entitled Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, sales professionals started to pay more attention to social proof techniques as a way to persuade their prospects. However, today when consumers are better informed about the available choices and have higher expectations of both products and services offered than ever before, social proof appears to be more important as an effective tool to legitimate and promote the purchasing decision .

How to Use Social Proof Techniques in your webinar

Unlike sales calls or one-to-one physical sales meetings, sales webinars offer many opportunities to utilize social proof techniques. When carefully planned and well executed, these techniques can significantly increase your conversion rate. Below are some of the unique tools that can help you enhance the social proof level you create therefore the success of your sales webinar.

List of Attendees

Showing a list of attendees is a simple but effective way to increase the social proof. When your attendees see that there are other people who made a dedicated time to be in your webinar and listen to you, they feel more encouraged to listen to what you offer.

World Map

World map can take the social proof initiated by attendee list to the next level by showing the real time location of the attendees. With this unique feature, you do not only show the number of attendees in your webinar but also the reach of your webinar nationally or internationally.

Instant Poll

Instant poll is a great way to keep your attendees engaged. By making the poll results instantly available, you can illustrate your attendees’ thoughts and views on certain issues . If the group of people who are performing a certain behavior are perceived to belong to the same or similar group, then one is more likely to conform to the group’s behavior than if one does not identify with the group. Instant polls allow your attendees to feel closer to the others in the room.

Chat

Allowing an active general conversation among attendees during your webinar is another social proof technique. As an alternative to the public chat option, you can privatize the public chat and allow only the conversations that take place between an attendee and a moderator. You can also forward positive comments, or statements supporting your point to the general chat area to encourage the others.

Social Media Integration

If your webinar platform offers social media integrations, you can start the conversation about your webinar and your offering much before the actual event. Streaming live tweets about your webinar in the platform or adding Facebook like icon to your registration page shows the reach and the impact of your webinar, which translates into positive feelings about your company and your offerings.

Conclusion

Whether it is a night club who deliberately slows down the entrance process to increase the visible line in front of its door, or a waiter who tries to sit her/her customers next to the window, social proof techniques have been executed to positively influence consumers in their purchase decision making process for decades. The marketing webinars, on the other hand, have well established their value to marketers as an application to generate qualified leads with minimal cost. However, social proof techniques that are available in marketing webinars are currently underutilized. By applying these small yet effective changes to your next online presentation, you can significantly increase your conversion rate.