Jeff Shuford Presents: Massive Action

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

AS SEEN ON

First edition. December 25, 2016.

Copyright © 2016 Dr. Jeff Shuford.

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Written by Dr. Jeff Shuford.

Also by Dr. Jeff Shuford

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Humans and Robots The Future Is Now

There is No Wrong Just Write

War and Peace

The Future of Technology

As Seen On

Watch for more at techfromvets.com.

AS SEEN ON: THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL

PROOF IN PROVING THE LEGITIMACY

AND CREDIBILITY OF ENTREPRENEURS

AND BUSINESSES.

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One time I went out with my little daughter who was about 4 years old to a supermarket for some light weekend shopping. She had followed me out on this Saturday because she wanted some ice cream and she was determined on getting to the supermarket. At the store her eyes met a bottle of Juice with Disney Star, Elsa well engraved on it. Dad, I want an Elsa juice, I don’t want Ice-cream anymore was all she screamed as she toggled my shirt all the way till I got her the juice. You may say that my daughter is but a kid, but in the true sense, this is how social proof works on us all manifesting in our subconscious.

Without a doubt, brands and businesses are awakening to the importance of Social proof in getting the words of their products out quicker and faster. Business owners targeting the millennial generation especially, find the idea of Social proofing method of marketing a faster and more effective way to reach their audience. More than two-thirds of millennials, according to Fromm’s research, don’t make a major decision until they have discussed it with a few people they trust, compared to around half of all non-millennials. Seventy percent of millennials are more excited about a decision they’ve made when their friends agree with them, compared to 48% of non-millennials, Fromm continues. Female millennials in particular regard shopping as a group activity, shopping twice as often with their spouses, friends or family members as do non-millennial women. Millennials unlike other

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generation make Social proofing easy, they eat your product and tweet about it, they wear your hand made dress and hash tag your brand name on Instagram, they give hair products reviews on YouTube and Tumblr, they put pictures of themselves in your restaurant on Snapchat. The millennial generation is said to be the largest generation in world history and they are the money monster generation with the biggest wallet power. It’s estimated they’ll be spending $200 billion annually by 2017 and $10 trillion over their lifetimes as consumers, in the U.S. alone.

The millennials are in every facet of life thriving and breaking new grounds daily. Medicine, tech, fashion, finance, construction, you name it, it is almost impossible not to find a millennial in a very serious enterprise these days.

With the youngest millennials around age 16 and the oldest around 35, this generation also encompasses a wide range of identity-shaping cultural experiences.

Millennials are always knowledge hungry; they know too many things at once. Shama Hyder, the business strategist for Digital age and founder/ CEO of The Marketing Zen Group noted that Millennials, also referred to as the selfie generation, are often characterized as narcissistic and superficial. This outlook is overly simplistic; the millennial propensity to document life through social media doesn’t come from self-absorption—it comes from a love of self-expression. And the idea of self-expression through imagery is nothing new; many early cave paintings show scenes with people.

Millennials are always very quick to verify anything they have a doubt about; access to fast internet and search engines like Google makes it easy for them to find answers to the things bothering. In other words, it is easy for a millennial to look your business up on the web, I do not want to believe you do not have your business all over their terrain (social media) yet, if you do not have it, I am very sorry, you might have very little appeal to the mobile Gen Yers but if you do, be sure they are checking you out. They want to

know if you are who you say you are or you do what you say you do because millennials see the products and services they select as a reflection of their identity, they are highly discerning consumers. They want to know why products cost what they cost, how they are made, and where the material comes from. Similarly, they don’t want to simply accept that there are bank fees; they want to know why they are being charged fees (the rise of alternative banking solutions like Simple attests to this). And they want options: when evaluating a potential purchase, they want to be able to pick from a range of companies and services to find the solution that best fits their needs (and allows them to express who they are).Millennials want to know how reputable your business is and if you have any street credibility at all. What if they go online and find none of their friends using your service? No celebrity holding out your product on your Instagram? How do they verify the legitimacy of your business?

Per Micah Solomon, Forbes contributor and the president of Four Aces Inc, Millennials are a sociable generation. And for millennials, this sociability is expressed online as well as in real life (IRL), particularly in the many arenas where online and offline activities and circles of friends overlap

Offline, millennials are more likely than other generations to shop, dine and travel with groups, whether these are organized interest groups, less formal groupings of peers or excursions with extended family, according to Boston Consulting Group data. Online, their sharing habits on Facebook, Snapchat, and other social sites, and the opinions they offer on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Amazon reflect their eagerness for connection, as do their electronic alerts to friends and followers (via Foursquare et al.) that show off where they are, where they’re coming from and where they’re headed—online alerts that reflect and affect behavior in the physical world.

There are different types of social proofing methods which can be deployed to get the attention of the millennial to your business

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without it costing you an expensive celebrity Photo session. Do not get me wrong, the millennials are not the only ones that social proof works for.

According to Pew, teenagers today get into fewer fights with their parents than their parents did with theirs as teens. According to authors Joeri Van den Bergh and Mattias Behrer, six out of 10 teens in America eat with their family four or more nights per week. Incredibly, 85% of teens name one of their parents as their best friend, rather than naming a peer. And more than a third of millennials of all ages say they influence what products their parents buy, what shops and restaurants they visit and what trips they take and according to Micah Solomon "this striking lack of conflict between generations means that millennials can be vital carriers of a business’s commercial message to not only their friends but also their parents. At the rate they are spreading the word, it won’t be long until almost everyone passes for a millennial, as far as attitude and buying patterns go"

It is expedient we break down the term Social Proof into a simpler and more understandable fragment. It’s important to note that social proof has been called lots of things. The bandwagon effect, trust symbols, conformity, etc. Per Ailen Lee, a partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said it is the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something. It’s also known as informational social influence Aileen also said, In the age of the social web, social proof is the new marketing.

The force that influences you every day when it comes to decision making, from the biggest decisions like where you want to live, down to the smaller everyday choices like what to have for lunch, is called Social Proof.

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Here’s how Wikipedia introduces Social Proof – Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation. This effect is prominent in

ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior and is driven by the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation.

Social Proof exists because we group together in a society. All other people around you and what choices they make are pushing or pulling you to do or not do certain things. This is an incredibly strong force when it comes to influencing our behaviors. We are pack animals, no matter how independent we think we are unless you live in a cave, you are conditioned by other people around you.

In other words, people are wired to learn from the actions of others, and this can be a huge driver of consumer behavior. Robert Cialdini in his book "Influence (The Psychology of Persuasion)" highlighted as a rule, we will make fewer mistakes by acting in accord with social evidence than contrary to it. Usually, when a lot of people are doing something, it is the right thing to do. This feature of the principle of social proof is simultaneously its major strength and its major weakness.

One of earliest references to social proof was by advertising pioneer Claude Hopkins. Sometime around 1910, he said People are like sheep. They cannot judge values; neither can you and I. We judge things largely by others’ impressions, by popular favor. We go with the crowd. The most effective thing I have ever found in advertising is the trend of the crowd

Jonathan Chan, the Content Crafter and Marketer for Foundr had these words to say about social proof. You see we humans, at our very core, are pretty cynical creatures. We don’t give out our trust freely—it must be earned. But it can be hard for any brand to earn that trust if the potential customer isn’t even interested in seeing what you have to offer in the first place. All social proof is doing is helping you establish that trust with your customer before they purchase by leveraging another quirk of the human brain: our need for advice and confirmation from others before we make a decision. Especially if we are uncertain about the outcome

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I will like you to think of Social Proof as you watching a Charlie Chaplin comedy film; you will notice that you laugh sometimes because of the laugh soundtrack used in the background of the movie? That there is Social proof, you laughed because you can hear other people laughing, or when you see a tweet on your timeline with many retweets from your friends, you want to take a minute to look at the tweet because your friends are retweeting it and you also may end up retweeting. It is a subconscious work on us.

Aileen Lee’s article for techcrunch.com in November 2011 articulates five types of social proof. I will broaden these five types which Aileen highlighted and discuss on how business owners can get their customers to link up with the businesses and also boost their reputation through it;

Expert Social Proof- Approval from a credible influencer/ experts, like a blogger or magazines, can go a long way to influence businesses digitally. Their reviews on your business could go a long way in attracting customers from all over to come to your business. The idea is that they are all knowing in the particular area and have become a household name on the subject matter, everyone would want to listen to what they have to say about this product. A quick example is when I was going to buy a particular phone, I went to a particular blog to seek a blogger’s opinion on the phone, I found the review very uninspiring and I used my money to get a totally different phone because of that blogger’s review of the phone.

The review wasn’t out of bad blood for the company but because they did not do some things right. The credibility of your company starts in your boardroom or your decision room for start-ups and small business owners, the choice you make in the quality of product

you intend to sell will be your first test of credibility. If you fail this first test, social proof will further deplete your credibility.

When the iPhone 6 first launched in September 2014, people had complaints about the physical features of the phone. Many had theirs bending in the middle by the third week of purchase and there was a BendGate hashtag all over social media. Many tech experts and influencers came forward with reviews and why the phone was having such discrepancies, Magazines and TV stations went further bring on some of these experts on their various platforms to talk about the development. Many millennials saw all these reviews and the lines at the Apple stores all over the world dwindled; people began to question the