Social Proof: Finding a Trusted Partner Near Me?
What is the rarest coin of the realm in a world of marketing gone mad?
Trust.
Elizabeth Homes went to prison for engaging in marketing. In my mind, Holmes knew her claims could become true. Fake it until you make it.
The adage in the 80’s was “Trust but verify.” (Which was actually a Russian proverb before we expropriated it.)
The modern equivalent is “We can fake verification.”
We can Fake Verification
I was recently scanning the internet to find a trusted partner to help me with my advertising. One of the sites I evaluated was incredibly bright and shiny. It was a totally modern site with large colorful images and oversized fonts that loaded quickly. The impression the site left was very impressive. I wanted exactly this look and feel for my business.
Impressions aside, I also wanted to verify the integrity of the company behind the site. But how does one go about this in a world where everything can be faked? I don’t have a good answer for that question, and I would love to know how all of you solve that knotty problem. Please comment below. The test I decided to apply was social proof.
If you have a social media site, you know all about social proof. Social proof comes from reviews, certifications, emblems, testimonials, and other trusted authorities. Everyone has these plastered all over their websites.
Social Proof Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau was my first stop. Surely the BBB knows up from down. This is their core business. Sure enough, this advertising company was rated A+. Which was odd because the reviews were extremely bifurcated, and they had many complaints on file. When reviews are strongly divided it always raises a question in my mind. Could it be that the positive reviews are fake, and the negative reviews are real? Surely a business wouldn’t hire people to write negative reviews? Although, a competitor could plant them. It’s not dispositive, but a question is raised.
The negative reviews were brutal, and the list of formal complaints was unusually long. The A+ rating made less and less sense until I read how BBB incorporates these reviews into their rating process. They don’t. “Customer Reviews are not used in the calculation of BBB Rating” says their website.
Scratch one trusted authority. People ask if BBB is more devoted to earning fees from businesses or providing consumers with an honest rating? I don’t know, but I do remember the credit rating agencies’ mortification after the S&L crisis.
Case Studies Social Proof
I looked at the client case studies next. They effused praise and told harrowing stories of small businesses snatched from bankruptcy by a single shimmering ad. Then I noticed a few anomalies. The business names were oddly generic. Best Tire Ever, Cleanest Laundry Near You, Most Food Restaurant. They read like keywords rather than actual businesses. Suspicions aroused, I read through a few cases. The business names and locations kept changing from page to page. On the cover page the business was located in Arizona, but by page three it had moved to Nebraska. I searched the internet and all of those businesses had either gone out of business or they had changed their names to protect the innocent.
That was enough for me. Reviews that read like the War of the Worlds, trusted authorities that couldn’t be trusted, and case studies that had no internal integrity—to say nothing of syncing with reality.
A Huge Mistake?
Maybe I made a huge mistake. Maybe this was the world’s best advertising agency and they just had lousy quality control on their website. Their salesperson was fantastic. He vowed to solve every problem I had, instantly. He promised to save my company. I believed him because that is what he is trained to produce. Just like I’m trained to produce extraordinary organizing results, he’s trained to fake integrity. And he’s just as good at his job as I am at mine.
I really, really, liked this guy. Despite my emotions, I decided to pass. There are a thousand advertising companies, maybe a hundred-thousand companies all capable of producing fantastic results. None capable of a miracle. Even if I passed on a potentially great company, the next company will be just as good, and they might not have gaping holes in their social proof.
Social Proof Truthiness
Instead of “Trust but verify.” the current approach, sadly, has to be “Everything is fake until proven real.” Stephen Colbert, or his writers, coined the term “truthiness” to capture this modern epistemology. Some successful salespeople have a tiny slice of George Costanza in them, “It’s not a lie, if you believe it.”
Forewarned is forearmed.
