Over the past few weeks we’ve already seen many examples of social proof on this blog, but so far most of them have been about improving perception. Now let’s tackle a more direct question for marketers and bloggers: Can social proof be used to boost your sales?

The answer is a loud and bold YES. And […]

• 9 Comments

Have you ever decided against eating in a restaurant just because their parking lot was empty? Chances are, you’ve at least hesitated about going in. Have you ever been drawn to a club or bar, just because there was a large queue waiting to get in?
If either of these describes something you’ve experienced, then you’ve […]

• 6 Comments

Would you like to see some influence in action?
Over the coming weeks and months I’ll be interviewing people whom I consider to be masters at influence and persuasion in their particular fields of expertise, and I’ll be using some very dubious techniques learned from Japanese prisoner-of-war camps to extract their best-kept secrets just for readers […]

• 3 Comments

Women, which of the two guys in the picture do you find more attractive?
According to Ben Jones and his colleagues at the University Of Aberdeen in Scotland, you’re likely to find the guy on the left more attractive. Here’s why…
They showed pairs of male faces to 28 women, who were asked to rate their attractiveness. […]

• 10 Comments

Here’s a fun experiment to try - one that could even earn you $50: Stand on a busy sidewalk, pick an empty spot in the sky, and stare at it for a full minute. Most likely, what will happen is this: most people will walk past without glancing up, and virtually no one will stop […]

• 5 Comments

OK, as promised a few posts ago, here’s one more example of the law of reciprocity in action, before we move on to “social proof” - what a fun ride that will be!
In the meantime, this particular example had me go, “Wow!” because it had reciprocity and word-of-mouth built-in.
Terry Dean recently wrote on his blog about the […]

• 0 Comments

I came across something impressive the other day, and it got me thinking - if you did this with your customers, sites, and blogs… just imagine the kind of loyalty you’d build.
Here’s what impressed me…
I’d just installed the Criteo AutoRoll plug-in on my site - it’s the red thing on my sidebar that says, […]

• 5 Comments

In the last post I promised to give you an example of the law of Reciprocation in action - here’s a great one, which you can apply right now to get massive responses to your requests for feedback, in any format… whether verbal, or on the Internet.
It’s well known that surveys are a great way […]

• 10 Comments

Every culture on the planet seems subject to this law: It’s the law of reciprocation. The rule says that when people do us a favour, we feel obligated to give something back in return.
Even our language reflects this rule: when we say, “I owe you one” or “much obliged”, we really do mean it, don’t […]

• 14 Comments

The Internet is a remarkable medium. Don’t you think?
It allows you and me to reach out to other people virtually anywhere in the world.
It enables us to publish our thoughts instantly, sell our products to a global market, or just chat about the latest Paris Hilton incident.
And yet, because everyone has the ability to do that, what tends to happen is […]

• 9 Comments