Automate Social Proof to Increase Site Engagement and Conversions

Introduction

According to Forbes, efficiency is one of the basic objectives of any technology.  Automation is one way to achieve optimal efficiency on your website.  By automating tedious and repetitive tasks, you can improve accuracy and productivity by letting the technology do the heavy lifting.  Automation allows companies to deliver enhanced customer experiences.  Assisting customers along their eCommerce journey provides for a more personalized and responsive experience that increases website engagement and conversions.

We will explore Social Proof, and why automating trends will increase website engagement and conversions.

What is Social Proof, and Why Does it Matter?

Social Proof is a psychological and social phenomenon of social influence, where people copy the actions of others or mimic their behavior.  Social Proof is prominent all around us.  Some examples of Social Proof include:

• Follows, likes, and comments on Facebook and Twitter social network platforms which can serve as perceived proof that the source is trustworthy and reputable. 
• Explore Feed on Instagram’s social network platform which can serve as a discovery source of new products or topics.
• Lines of customers in front of a food truck which can serve as a perceived proof that the Chicken Fajita Brat is worth waiting in line for.

Social Proof validates a person’s actions by the actions of others.  Because the actions of others are constantly changing, exposing social proof on your website can be a tedious undertaking with a high risk of error if attempted manually.   Companies risk losing credibility if a website visitor notices that social proof displayed on your website is based on non-realtime data.  Loss of credibility can cause a reduction in website engagement.

How Does Automating Social Proof Increase Site Engagement and Conversions?

Exposing social proof in real-time on your website helps to capture the curiosity of your visitors, enticing them to further engage with your website and convert into a sale.  It’s a way for visitors to discover trending products that they might not have otherwise seen, in a similar fashion as Instagram’s Explore Page.  Trending products encompass your whole website and take into account the actions of all of your visitors.

To be effective, the trending data exposed must be current.  Keeping up with changes in social proof can be a daunting task for marketers as the content and data are constantly changing.

Automating the process of exposing trending products saves your team the time it would take to analyze website data and manually update the website.  This automation allows for a fresh new experience for your visitors every time the trends are refreshed.  It gives them a reason to dig deeper and discover new products.  It increases engagement on your website.

While marketers know there is a link between website engagement and conversions, the correlation between the two can be confusing.  Many see that while increasing engagement may take a long time, it means seeing a higher number of visitors and thus greater revenues if your conversion rates are consistent. 

Closing

The key to a successful social proof tool is that it is based on automated, real-time updates.  This will free your marketing team to be available for other tasks, while keeping the content on your website current and visitors engaged.  Interactions with a trending page should show that conversion rates for visitors that engage with the page are exponentially higher than those who didn’t view the page.