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 felt the power of social proof. Why do we behave that way?

If we’ve never eaten at a particular restaurant before, and don’t have access to any reviews or we don’t know anyone else who’s eaten there, we tend to use whatever information is available to us at the time - which happens to be social proof - we look at what others are doing, or not doing.

In short: if the restaurant is busy, we tend to assume it will be good. If it’s empty, we’re hesitant.

Of course, after actually eating at the restaurant, we’re in a much better position to determine whether the restaurant is any good or not - we don’t need to rely on the social proof shortcut any more.

When someone comes to your blog, and they’re not familiar with it and don’t have much information about it, guess what? They may check whether the parking lot is empty or not.

Why does social proof matter anyway, for a blog? Well, it plays an important factor in whether people decide to listen to you or not - i.e. authority. If other people are listening to you, maybe I should listen to you as well.

Plus, I believe success breeds success. We tend to follow others who are, or appear to be, successful - why would the same not apply to blogs as well?

Test your blog’s Social Proof Rating

So how well does your blog convey social proof? I’m coining the phrase Social Proof Rating (SPR) as a measure of how well your blog does. A new blog would have a Social Proof Rating of 0.

Let’s look at 5 elements of your blog that can increase or decrease your blog’s Social Proof Rating…

(1) 7 subscribers on your Feedburner counter?

If your RSS feeds are “burned” by Feedburner.com, then a potentially useful little gadget is their Feedburner counter, which you can use to display the number of RSS subscribers you have.

A decent number can have a positive social proof effect, because it demonstrates that other people are reading your blog. (If you’re displaying 200 or more, add 2 to your SPR. Between 50 and 200, add 1.)

On the other hand, I’ve seen sites display their Feedburner counter, and it’s saying 7. All it implies is that your blog isn’t being read by many people. (If you’re showing less than 50, subtract 1 to your SPR!)

Of course, this may not be true - I know of sites that get hundreds of visitors a day, so they’re not unpopular - yet they have tiny Feedburner counter stats that virtually never change! In this case, what’s the point in showing it?

When showing off your stats, your aim should be (at least partly) to give the impression of social proof. If your Feedburner stats are currently low, simply don’t show them! (If you’re not showing your Feedburner stats, no change to your SPR).

There are, of course, exceptions to any “rule” (not that these are rules, of course). For instance, if your blog is brand new, and you have a method for rapidly increasing your Feedburner stats, then a low but rapidly increasing count could have a positive social proof effect. Everyone’s signing up, it seems to be growing fast, so it must be good.

(2) Visitor counters

As with Feedburner stats, visitor counters can give away that nobody’s reading your site. If you’re getting 3 visitors a day, why advertise this fact? (If you have a visible hit counter that shows less than 10 visitors a day, deduct 1 from your SPR.)

Of course, if your stats are pretty good, and you’re getting hundreds or thousands of visitors a day, then displaying these stats are likely to have a positive social proof effect. (Is your visible hit counter showing more than 50 visitors a day? Add 1 to your SPR.)

(3) Comments, please!

When your visitors leave comments on your blog, they’re usually doing any or all of three things: (a) expressing their thanks for your content, (b) contributing to your discussions, and/or (c) making a small commitment to your site.

Comments have many advantages for a blog, but the benefit that is relevant to this discussion is social proof. A blog with lots of comments looks like a busy blog, a popular blog, a blog that’s actually read - i.e. social proof.

Once your blog is well-established, getting comments is usually easy. But if your blog is new, then go out and ask for comments! Find some relevant blogs, post some quality comments that add to their discussions, and ask the blog owner if they could return the favour. (You’ll be surprised what the law of reciprocity can achieve!) Smaller, newer blogs are better, because they’ll probably be more appreciative of a genuine, thought-out comment.

Once you have comments, consider adding the most recent 10 or 15 comments in your blog’s sidebar, and possibly rewarding your top commentators with a link to their own site! (For self-hosted Wordpress blogs, the “Get Recent Comments” and “Top Commentators” plug-ins will do these.)

If you’re getting an average of at least 1 or 2 fresh comments a day (which should be fairly easy even for a new blog), then give yourself 1 extra SPR point.

(4) Digg widgets, etc

Some of the “social sites” such as Digg, offer buttons that you can place on your site, so that visitors can “Digg” your site from your page.

If you’re getting a lot of Diggs, then it can add to your Social Proof Level to display the number. For instance, if your button says 350 Diggs, it means that 350 people who read your article have rated it, and given that there’s usually quite a high proportion of people who might read an article but not bother to Digg it, it implies a lot more than 350 people have read your post!

It may be more useful to use networks and social sites that specialize in your particular niche. For instance, PlugIM.com is a Digg kind of site, for the “internet marketing” community, and Sphinn.com is similar, with a particular emphasis on search engine optimization. So I use the PlugIM and Sphinn rating widgets on my internet marketing blog, The Smart Web Letter.

If you can get a consistent rating of about 5 or more with one of these social networks, then add 1 to your SPR.

(5) Faces, faces, faces!

The picture at the top of this article is actually a screenshot of a MyBlogLog.com widget from somebody’s blog. (I’m not going to tell you which blog - just for fun, I will pay $10 to the first person who correctly identifies the blog in question, based on the faces they see! Post your answer in the comments below).

Most of the blogging networks have “widgets” you can put on your blog, that enable your visitors to see which of their network’s members came to your blog recently. If you can get a well-known blogger to come to your site through these networks, their mugshot will appear in the widget, giving your site a little boost of social proof!

In addition, the default number of faces shown in these widgets is 5 - 10 images (each image representing a member), but I suspect the site from which I took the screenshot at the top understands the principle of social proof fairly well - I count 60 images displayed in their widget!

The sight of so many faces adds to the site’s social proof rating - plus, it makes the site look and feel more friendly. After all, I’m sure we all like to see a friendly human face or 60!

If you have 10 faces showing from a social network like MyBlogLog, add 1 to your SPR.

Putting it all together

Take a look at your blog, and give it a social proof rating.

If you scored 0 or less, your site is screaming that nobody visits! The effects of each element are compounded. For instance, you could get away with no human faces if you had a high Feedburner count. Or you could get away with a low Feedburner count if you had lots of comments.

But if you’re running a blog which displays 7 Feedburner subscribers, has no comments, and few if any “faces”, then you’re seriously lacking in social proof. Don’t be the restaurant that nobody eats in just because the parking lot is empty!

Remember, even if your blog is brand new, you can start soliciting comments right away. Just start communicating with other bloggers, and everyone who’s a member of one of the blogging networks like MyBlogLog.com is a blogger, so you’re not going to have a problem finding people who blog.

If your SPR score is between 1 and 3, then you’re doing quite well - but there’s always room for a bit more social proof!

If you scored 4 or more, then you’re a bit of a social proof pro, aren’t you? I bet you’re popular at parties

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!