Are "social proof" icons proof of your value?
Are "social proof" icons proof of your value?
Or, does the "social proof" lie in your messaging?
Recently, I came across an interesting FB post shared by entrepreneur Sol Orwell.
Now, the person who posted these social proof icons clearly leveraged them in a misleading way.
But, the fact that Sol brought the topic up inspired me to think about the validity and need of using these icons in the first place.
During one of my many rebrands prior to discovering my current niche, I played around with using these icons on my website, as well.I had about 6-8 in total, pulling from the various jobs I booked over the years, including some of my television work.
Although I had legitimately worked for each of these outlets, a part of me felt that I was positioning myself as a promotional billboard for these companies, rather than focus on promoting the solutions to the problems that I solve for my clients.
Eventually, I ended up trashing the social proof icons, and dedicated time to developing more insight into my own services.
I then rebuilt my site around this new messaging in order to give potential clients more context about the type of experience they can expect when they hire me.
I decided that I wasn’t interested in selling the idea of where I’ve been or what I’ve done, but rather, I wanted to focus solely on how I serve.
Now, this doesn’t mean that I am straight-up, poo-poo’ing the “social proof” icon strategy entirely - for now, it’s really not my particular cup of tea.
I know several colleagues, clients and mentors who leverage this method, and it works very well for them.
But, Sol’s post does pose the question for me, once again…
...and, I am interested to hear what you think about this topic:
Are these “social proof’ icons something you value when you’re vetting a potential client, referral partner or mentor?
Are they a huge piece of the puzzle for you when determining whether to engage this person or not?
Or…
Are you swayed more by the power of the message they present with respect to how they serve others?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you...because I care, :)