Why Instagram Is King for Social Proof

Published by Peter Yang on March 30, 2020March 30, 2020

Why Instagram Is King for Social Proof

In a world saturated with fake reviews, how do Shopify merchants build customer trust? Instagram may be your answer.

What is social proof?

You and your friends are looking for a bite to eat. Unfortunately, you all forgot your phones at the hotel and won’t be able to depend on Yelp for culinary advice. Down the street, you spot two restaurants with similar menus and interior design. Restaurant A seems rather empty even though the lights are on and the sign reads “Open.” Restaurant B, on the other hand, is thriving with people, and you’re wondering why they got all the business. Naturally, your friends flock to Restaurant B, and while you’re introverted and feel slightly bad for Restaurant A, you don’t want them to view you as a party pooper and tag along.

So what happened? Were you being unassertive and perhaps a little subservient to your friends’ demands? That’s part of it. Truth is: One restaurant looked lonely and depressing while the other was seemingly backed by dozens of happy customers. The presence of those customers socially compelled you and your friends to dine there.

In short—and to end this long-winded analogy—social proof is taking a course of action because others have taken or are taking it. It happens around us all the time, from polling your friends for the best pair of sneakers or actively choosing to listen to Spotify’s Top 100 playlist. You do it because other people are doing it.

But there’s a caveat: The people supporting that action/event/product need to be trustworthy. For example, you might feel tempted to purchase an item online if it has 50 positive reviews. But what if I told you all those reviews were written by a bot? Or worse: The merchant wrote them himself? You’d probably think twice at best or be repelled from every buying again at worst.

61% of electronics reviews on Amazon are fake.
—The Washington Post

Remember: Social proof is all about putting a face to the name. When you have a text review with one sentence and the reviewer’s initials, it’s harder to trust because we, as readers, feel disconnected from the person leaving the review. We need more concrete validation that they are real people sharing similar values to our own. And that’s where Instagram comes into play.

Why Instagram is Different

Instagram offers a platform where people can share pictures of themselves in their best moments. Sweet elevator pitch, right? This visual content is 100X more compelling than text, which is why people are scrolling through their Instagram feeds and not reading blog posts all day—unless, of course, it’s this blog post. But besides being addicting, Instagram posts are a lot more trustworthy. Why?

You can see the person’s face or, at least, the product they purchased. Instantly, you know the reviewer’s a real, living human being.
You can see how many followers they have, which is a huge signal of credibility and, more importantly, ropes other people into the equation. Remember how your friends chose Restaurant B because more people were eating there? Follower count has a similar effect. (Likewise, if the reviewer has 0 followers, it can be a negative sign.)
You can see comments as well as how many likes the post has. Like follower count, these are other social factors that bring other people into the picture and increase trust.

If you’re still not convinced that Instagram content is key for social proofing your Shopify store, take a look below. Which review looks more authentic?

Beyond Instagram posts, brands can look to Highlights as a creative way to build customer trust. These create a kind of “live social proof” you can include on your site to make visitors even more likely to buy.

How do I get started?

The good news is that if you’re selling on Shopify, you probably already have an Instagram following built up and a number of high-quality posts you can embed directly on your site.

The bad news?

If you look around on the Shopify App Store, you’ll find plenty of apps that let you display Instagram feeds but only accommodate customer photos. This is a limitation since you’re missing out on all the social proof that comes from displaying follower counts, likes, and comments.

Using Reviewerly, you’ll be able to display (and collect) authentic Instagram posts and Highlights in their entirety in a neat feed located on your homepage. This results in maximum social proof for your brand and a pleasing visual experience for your customers.

Why Instagram Is King for Social Proof