Imagine you’re looking for a new bedside table.
Three options catch your eye: one with 500 glowing reviews and a 4.8 star rating, another with 140 reviews averaging two stars and a third with zero reviews.
Chances are, you’ll go with the first one.
That’s social proof in action: a psychological concept that explains how other people’s opinions shape what we buy and who we trust.
Here’s how your brand can use social proof to win sales and competitive advantage.
What is social proof?
Social proof is the idea that people look to others when deciding what to do. Whether that’s checking reviews before buying, following a trending account or choosing the busiest restaurant in town, we trust choices others have already validated.
In marketing, social proof works as a trust signal that tips the scale in your favor. Online reviews, testimonials, customer stories, influencer shoutouts and even community size all prove that people already believe in your brand.
When buyers see that proof, they’re more likely to choose you over competitors.
Why is social proof important?
Social proof matters because people trust people more than they trust brands.
When customers see others posting good things about a product or recommending a service, it reassures them they’re making the right choice.
The numbers back it up:
- 97% of consumers read online reviews when browsing for local businesses.90% of software buyers are influenced by some type of social proof during the consideration stage.
In short: social proof helps your business build credibility and boost sales.
9 marketing ideas for social proof
The value of social proof is clear. But how do brands make the most of it?
Consider this: Gen Z now ranks social media as their number one source of information like product reviews and restaurant recommendations.
That makes social media one of the best places to put your social proof front and center. It’s where your audience is already looking. And it’s where trust gets built in real time.
Here are nine ways brands are using social proof for marketing—on social media and beyond.
Case studies
One great way to showcase satisfied customers is by writing a case study about their experience with your business. A strong case study highlights:
- The problem your customer facedHow you helped them solve itThe results they achieved
Case studies help potential buyers picture themselves in the story. They build trust faster than a pitch because you’re providing evidence that your product or service actually works.
You can share case studies as PDFs, publish them on your blog or repurpose them into social media posts or short videos. For example, our team at Sprout Social recently turned a case study into a LinkedIn carousel, linking to the full story in the caption.
At Sprout, we also have an entire page dedicated to customer stories where we share both testimonials and case studies. Creating a page like this that’s visible in your main site navigation is a great way to showcase social proof.
Testimonials and reviews
Your business might receive testimonials and reviews online, but have you ever thought about sharing those on social media?
Reviews are the quintessential example of social proof. Sharing them lets your audience know what others think about your business—in their own words.
Yellowbird puts a funny twist on sharing customer reviews on Instagram.
Sharing good reviews draws potential customers through the door. And once you master how to ask for reviews, you’ll have plenty of posts in your arsenal.
Using Sprout for review management streamlines your engagement and improves your online presence. When you respond to reviews and testimonials, you show that you care about your customers’ experiences.
Sprout has integrations with Google My Business, Trip Advisor, Facebook and Glassdoor and all customer reviews are aggregated into a single inbox.
User-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is any content your customers create about your brand, like photos of wearing your product or unboxing videos. It’s one of the strongest, most authentic forms of social proof you can share—because it comes from real people, not your brand.
Instagram is the perfect channel for this, thanks to its diverse, visual content types. Plus, the platform’s audience expects to see branded content.
Here’s Chewy sharing a photo of their customer’s pets.
Repost customer content (with permission), tag the original creator and show your audience what your product looks like in real life. You can also use UGC on other platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest or even your website and emails.
To encourage more submissions, run campaigns or giveaways. You can also create a branded hashtag, include it in your bio and invite users to post for a chance to be featured.
Influencer marketing
Similar to user-generated content is influencer marketing. This tactic involves compensating influencers for showing off your brand in their photos.
Here’s an example of lifestyle blogger Hadeel Elmadhoon collaborating with L’Occitane in an influencer marketing campaign.
People follow influencers because they like seeing what kinds of products and services these content creators wear, use and love. That’s why influencer marketing is a great example of social proof and can help expose your brand to a wider audience.
Awards and accolades
Has your business won awards or been ranked on top lists in your industry? Show that stuff off! It’s a great way to let people know that your business is known for its excellence.
You can display awards and badges on your website or share your achievements on social media. Here’s how we do it at Sprout.
Logos of notable clients
If you’ve worked with well-known clients, don’t keep it quiet.
Display their logos on your site, weave them into social posts or feature them in decks. It’s one of the easiest ways to build trust: showing potential clients that big names trust your brand.
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples of this in action. The first is from the homepage of Envato’s website.
Their clients are popular names, which makes this a great form of social proof.
But logos don’t have to stay on your website. Rollstack showcases their best clients on their LinkedIn header. Anyone who visits their page catches a glimpse of who they work with.
This is an excellent approach for B2B brands looking to attract other companies in their industry. It sets expectations and builds confidence in the quality of your work.
Customer base and followers
One of the easiest ways to build trust is to show how many people already trust you.
Share the number of customers you’ve served, products you’ve sold and even issues you’ve solved—it proves you’ve got experience and results to back you up.
Here’s how Salesforce shares its numbers as milestones worth celebrating.
Don’t forget your social presence. A large, engaged following is social proof in itself. It shows people want to be part of your community and that your brand is relevant.
Partnerships and integrations
The brands you partner with say a lot about your credibility. If a respected brand is willing to work with you, customers assume you’re reliable too.
Beauty brands do this all the time. Bath & Body Works partnered up with Disney to co-create a new collection, promoting the collab on Instagram.
For SaaS businesses, integrations act as another form of social proof. Here’s an example of Webflow announcing their integration with Adobe on LinkedIn.
Knowing that your software is compatible with another software that a potential customer uses is a great selling point, but it also makes your business seem more robust and trusted.
Social media mentions
One of the simplest ways to showcase social proof is to highlight when people mention your brand on social media. A shoutout, a tag or even a casual mention shows that customers are talking about your brand online.
Take Notion, for example. When a customer praised the platform’s AI features on X, Notion simply reposted it. That kind of genuine proof builds trust without feeling promotional.
To catch these moments, pay attention to tags and use social listening tools to track brand mentions and keywords. Tools like Sprout Social Listening make it easy to spot conversations about your brand or industry, so you can join in and share the love.
How to measure social proof
Social proof only works if you know the impact it’s making. This means you need to track the signals that show how much people trust and validate your brand.
When you measure social proof, you turn it into a growth tool. You can spark more engagement by celebrating milestones, use proof to influence buying decisions and learn how your audience makes choices in the first place.
Here are some key social proof metrics to track:
- Follower growth and engagement rates. Track new followers, likes, shares and comments. These numbers show how your community perceives and interacts with your brand.Review volume and ratings. Pay attention to how many reviews you’re collecting and your average star rating across platforms. More reviews mean stronger credibility.Testimonials and mentions. Count how often your brand is mentioned, tagged or quoted on social media. Each mention is a signal of trust.User-generated content (UGC). Track how much content your customers are creating about your brand, including photos, videos and posts that amplify your reach.Referral traffic. Use analytics to see how much traffic is coming from review sites, influencer posts or third-party mentions.Conversion lift from proof. Compare performance on campaigns with social proof elements (like testimonials or logos) vs. those without to measure impact on sales.
To measure all this, you’ll need the right tools. Google Analytics helps you see how reviews or influencer content drive traffic and conversions.
Similarly, native social media analytics and ad platforms give you engagement data that shows how audiences respond to proof-driven campaigns.
For a deeper look, tools like Sprout Social pull everything together. Monitor brand mentions, track sentiment and measure how social proof shapes conversations across platforms. We’ll cover this in more detail below.
How to work with brand advocates and creators to amplify social proof
Social proof is powerful on its own, but it becomes unstoppable when real people help spread it. Customers who rave about you, advocates who consistently cheer you on and creators who share their influence—all of them give your brand credibility that no ad can buy.
The challenge is finding those voices, sharing their content and managing it all in a scalable way. Here’s how to find and amplify social proof with Sprout Social.
Discover and share customer content
UGC is some of the most authentic proof you can share. A customer’s photo, a shoutout in a comment or even a casual mention shows your product in action. The problem is, this content is scattered across networks and it’s easy to miss.
Sprout’s Smart Inbox solves that. It pulls every tag, DM, comment and mention into a single feed, so you always see when people are talking about you.
You can tag messages as potential UGC, assign them to teammates and quickly ask for permission to reshare. Once you have approval, you can drop those posts into Sprout’s Asset Library so they’re ready to repurpose into campaigns.
Identify and nurture brand advocates
Every brand has natural advocates: the people who recommend you without being asked. The key is to find them and strengthen the relationship.
Sprout’s Listening tools help you track mentions of your brand, industry topics or even competitor names to see who’s already shaping the conversation.
Listening also surfaces influencers and thought leaders by their impact, so you can spot high-value advocates you might have overlooked. Once identified, you can thank them, reshare their content or invite them into a more formal advocacy program.
Run influencer marketing campaigns
Sometimes you need to go beyond organic advocacy and build structured partnerships with creators to stay competitive. Working with influencers adds scale to your social proof.
With Sprout’s Influencer Marketing platform (formerly Tagger), you can discover creators who align with your brand, evaluate their audience fit and manage entire campaigns in one place.
From briefing to deliverables to performance tracking, the platform keeps everything organized. When the right creators vouch for you, it builds stronger, long-term credibility.
The bottom line: Social proof works best when you amplify it through the voices of your customers, advocates and creators. Sprout Social gives you the tools to discover those voices, build partnerships and scale their impact without the chaos.
Ready to see how it all works together? Schedule a demo.
Use social proof to boost your marketing strategy
Social proof builds trust, drives engagement and helps customers choose you over the competition. From reviews to UGC to influencer partnerships, every proof point is a chance to strengthen your brand.
Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social and see how easy it is to manage and amplify social proof across every channel.
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