4. Build Social Proof

Building social proof is actually simple to do. I used to think that this was the hardest thing to do in social media, but it’s really not, at least not the way that I decided to do it.

What I do to build my social proof is simply track, document and celebrate any kind of success that I had. This is what I started to focus my weekly traffic case studies around.

All I did was make note of (take screenshots) and document any kind of interaction I got on the social networks, from how many people “liked” and retweeted my posts to any notable influencers that shared my post with their social networks.

Additionally, I began to keep track of my daily marketing activities: including any blog commenting and interaction I did with influencers on their posts, as well as any mentions/comments influencers made on my blog posts.

The point of building social proof is to build trust. Collecting and documenting all of this social interaction and then compiling them into weekly traffic case studies is a fantastic way to build proof and trust very quickly.

Don’t feel that your results aren’t good enough or aren’t worthy of being shared. Your results are your own and you should celebrate them. This is how you start building your story and begin attracting an audience who’s engaging and interacting with your content.

I love doing this and as I went along I really began to look at it like an adventure – documenting and chronicling some of my most exciting and notable business moments into my cyber scrap book that is my blog.

I’ve found that building my social proof in this way has quickly gained the loyalty and trust of my readers. It’s not because I’ve had the best results in the niche, it’s because I’ve proven that I know how to produce some level of results and I’ve been extremely transparent in sharing them with my audience.

One thing that I have noticed, especially with influencers in the blogosphere is that if they see that you’re really putting a sincere effort into creating great content and building up a true business and community, they will take note and begin helping you even more.

Opportunities for even more high leveraged social proof will begin to open up to you that you never saw coming, such as my being asked by Lisa to provide tips/strategies for this blog post.