Social Proof (noun) – The impact that an individual’s friends and acquaintances have on their likely hood to buy a product or service from a brand, derived from the commentary and activity the friends and acquaintances have with the brand on social networks and in social settings.
Ok so like I said in the video, Andolini’s has been open to the public for less than two full nights as I write this and I wanted to give examples of many kinds of social proof that have happened already. Its a motivator to be out there and get involved, and to ask for help if need be. This results in sales as you will see right now.
Open Announcement and Reactions Social Proof
Here you can see a post on my personal facebook page where I announced that Andolini’s was open. You can see that in the hours since it was posted 10 people have liked it and three more have commented. What this means is a few things:
- A high level of engagement will likely push this post into the ‘Top News’ feed, which will result in just about all of my friends and all of these people’s friends seeing the post and comments.
- By commenting on this, each of these people have brought it to the attention of all their friends via their Wall, where facebook places a notification that Dental Bright ‘likes’ the post.
Interaction and Testimonial Social Proof
As you can see here we have posted several photos of the food that we are serving at Andolini’s which a customer who had been waiting for us to open saw. The restaurant being responsive and answering him in a timely fashion is key here, and I think it is clear that he will be in soon. Down at the bottom Mr. Newman had been in the night before and posted a comment that serves as a quick review and endorsement. This post is a great example of social proof for a couple of reasons:
- Interaction via the posts comments led to Mat letting us know he was coming soon, any of his friends who see his post will take that as an endorsement and be more inclined to try the restaurant.
- A customer that has already come in raves and encourages people to try it. You don’t need me to explain why that is social proof I hope!
Third Party Generated Social Proof
This example differs from the previous two because in this case neither I nor the restaurant initiated any of the posting, it was purely the result of these people being inspired by something they saw or heard about Andolini’s. This is the best kind of social proof, because their friends will see that they were inspired to post and the friends will have a natural curiosity as to why.
The Social Proof of a Champion
Champion (noun) – An individual who is devoted to your brand and is passionate about promoting it for you.
As I have been writing what you have been reading, the above dialogue has been going on on facebook. The social proof of a Champion is a nice thing to nurture and enjoy. In this case the role of Champion is played well by Meah, who starts by praising the restaurant after her first visit tonight. When a friend of her refers to another Italian restaurant in a neighboring town she quickly re-iterates her preference and strong endorsement for our new place. You can see from the rest of the comments that having a champion is a great source of social proof.
Social to Sales – Social Proof
This is actually a husband and wife, and as you can see a post leads to them coming in for dinner immediately. Which is nice as that is the end goal, that in itself is not the social proof. Though it is proof that social media leads to sales. 🙂 Anyway the proof is in the fact that these messages were broadcast to all their followers on twitter, who may very well be influenced just by that, and or ask them how it was today. Anytime a customer shares the fact that she/he is spending money at your place with all their social contacts, repeat after me: THAT IS SOCIAL PROOF.
I have ton more screenshots to share, but I think you get the point by now. If you want to see more just check out the gallery at the bottom of this post.
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Comments
One response to “Social Proof helps Launch a Restaurant”
Spiro – This is so awesome. I’m in love with these kinds of well executed, very well maintained, social media objectives. You did wonderfully, and the social proof did some serious positive damage here man. I’m sure everyone was thrilled with the food! Have to visit one of your places SOON. Gonna be awesome.
Really like how you laid everything out man, this was great.