The Blog Of Greg Rollett

Alright, part 3 in this little series on Social Proof. This one is going to be shorter on words and longer on examples and images.

Read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.

Many bloggers, info marketers and entrepreneurs/business owners start to gain market share by leveraging the audience of others, typically the media, other bloggers and JV partners. This gives them exposure and also helps to build their social proof, which helps prospects buy into your brand and really give you the edge that you are sharp as a tack and enthusiastic as hell about your market.

There are many different ways to display your own expertise and social proof on your website. Also remember that this isn’t strictly an online tactic. Think about using social proof on your business cards, in your storefront (Zagat Awards, Local Newspaper articles, photos with famous people that eat at your restaurant, etc).

Here are some of my favorite examples:

Nick Nanton - The Celebrity Lawyer

Nick is a local Orlando entrepreneur and someone that has built an entire business model around social proof. From being a best selling author himself to helping others become best sellers, Nick has a great business nack and knows the opportunities that a strong brand and strong social connection can do for your brand. It could be the difference between charging $100/hr for consulting and charging $1,500/hr or more.

Check out some examples from Nick’s sites:

Check out the header to Nick’s site. It features a quote from Brian Tracy talking about Nick (”One of the most remarkable personalities in America“) and then shows some of the more popular places Nick has been featured on including ABC News, NBC, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, the LA Times and more.

All of this comes before you do anything else on the site. That is a great credibility move there.

Next is where he chooses to release content and how he uses that content for social proof and to position his brand. Below is an example from his column in FastCompany.com.

He is branded by Fast Company as a Fast Company Expert Blogger. Do you think this helps add to his credibility? Uh, yea.

Chris Guillebeau

The man behind the Art of Non Conformity, the book of the same name and his quest to visit every country in the world has very quickly and efficiently positioned himself as a leader both online and off for those looking to live a more fulfilling life. At the bottom of his homepage, he has some very effective social proof that helps him relate and become an instant expert to newcomers of his empire. Check it out:

His proof elements come in 3 different forms that are extremely kick ass and really help solidify himself as a leader. The first is the number of countries he has been to. 151 out of 192. That is damn impressive and really puts Chris in a class all by himself. The next is his Top 10 articles. This shows his writing ability and also once people dig into the posts, you begin to see another form of social proof and that is comments. Building a tribe and getting them to respond is huge for social credibility and Chris does it perfectly. The last instance is the classic as seen in and includes heavy hitters like the New York Times, MSNBC, Slate and Internet powerhouse Lifehacker.

Ramit Sethi

The author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich has been producing some killer content on business building and more importantly human psychology over the past few weeks. Maybe it was some of his psychology background that created the sidebar to his uber popular blog. Check it out below:

What I love about Ramit is that he knows the title to his site and blog sound “scammish” and he does a great job of overcoming the skeptics by providing 2 things: killer content and killer social proof. He has 3 elements of social proof that really set the bar high. First is his bio, which is of course written by himself, where he claims,

I’m the New York Times bestselling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I co-founded PBwiki and graduated from Stanford.

In that sentence he does 3 big things:

1. Best selling author - biggest social proof status you can have

2. Co founded PB Wiki (do a Google search for that company)

3. Education. Most people don’t brag about education, but the way he does it makes sense and helps elevate his social status immediately.

Next is the visual social proof with heavy hitters like the New York Time and Wall Street Journal.

Last is an image of his book, asking people to “Buy my New York Times best selling book.” He doesn’t ask them to just buy his book, but to buy his “NYT Best Selling Book.” What book are you more likely to buy, the Joe Schmo author, or the NYT Best Seller? Duh.

Tim Ferriss

No intro needed, but in the image below, note the very top of his site:

In that very small print in the image it says, “Have you seen the new book? It’s already #1 on Amazon”

Got your attention yet?

Chris Brogan

The grand daddy of social media and online human interactions is also using a sly social proof tactic on his blog. Check the screenshot below:

That impossible to read number is the number of people that subscribe via RSS to Chris’s blog. You see many bloggers using this tactic. Other variations are:

• Number of Twitter followers
• Number of Facebook Page Likes
• Number of newsletter subscribers

Dave Navarro starts every email by saying something about the number of subscribers:

Dave Navarro “Stop Settling” Newsletter

(In which I lay the smackdown upon x,xxx brilliant, talented and exceptionally good looking subscribers - please forward this newsletter to someone today!)

Not a bad trick, eh? If people are socially saying you rock, go with it and use it to your business advantage.

Greg Rollett (yea, me too)

Who would I be if I didn’t use my own advice? You can see the image on the right of this and every page of this site and it is embedded below:

Not a bad credibility and social proof list. But in my bio that I have been using, I take advantage of social proof as well:

Name dropping like Whoa. And you know what, it helps people identify with me before I ever hit the stage, jump on a call or talk to a potential client/partner.

And it can do the same for you. The last piece in this series I will be going over the fastest and easiest ways to start building up social proof for you and your own brand. And people that take action can add big ass credibility instantly and start reaping the benefits of what social proof can bring to your table.

For today, drop some notes on what you think about the above examples and anyone you think I missed and is rocking social proof like a champ on their site, their business cards, their storefront or whatever other piece of swag they have.

Looking forward to chatting in the comments.

-Greg