Social Proof Strategies for Speakers: Amplify Your Authority

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Do you want more stage bookings and speaker referrals without being pushy?

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Well, it is time to let other

people start speaking for you.

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Today we are diving into social

proof, and that's gonna be things

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like how to use testimonials and case

studies and referrals to grow your

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influence and to fill your calendar.

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Welcome to Present Influence the show for

professional speakers and communicators

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who want to impact, influence, and inspire

with their talks and presentations.

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My name's John Ball, keynote and

communication coach, and your

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guide on this journey to mastery

level communication skills.

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social proof is when we look

to what others are doing or

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saying to decide how to act.

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It's pretty hardwired.

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Cialdini says this, we view a

behavior as more correct in a

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given situation to the degree that

we see others performing it Now,

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let's keep that as a foundation for

everything else we're gonna talk about.

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But let me tell you how social

proof nearly ruined my day.

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I was on a bus one time going to a place

that I'd been many, many times before.

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In fact, I was going home.

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I knew the route, I knew the stop, and

I was certain I was on the right bus.

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But then at a random stop, everyone

else got off the bus all at once.

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Every single passenger except me.

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The driver and I suddenly thought,

wait, did something change?

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Am I wrong here?

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I actually stood up.

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I was halfway to the door,

and I paused and took a breath

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and thought, no, I know this.

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I'm not wrong here.

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So I sat myself back down and the bus

carried on to my stop, took me home just

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like I expected, but the pull of the

crowd had me doubting myself and nearly

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made me override what I knew to be true.

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So social proof interferes

with our trust mechanisms,

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whether that's good or for bad.

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There is just a certain reality

that we tend to trust more

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credibility from a third party

than from an individual themselves.

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I guess it's the natural bias we have

that people are generally not gonna

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talk themselves down if it's other

people talking about someone else.

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we tend to have a little

more trust in that.

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So there are ways you can

highlight credibility boosters

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that will work on and off stage.

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Things like testimonials, maybe in

your slides, maybe even videos, crowd

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reactions in your speaker reel, These

are all things that can highlight

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your credibility and your expertise.

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As a speaker, you want to have things

like logos of past clients and companies

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that you've worked with, video of you

on their stages if possible as well.

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You can have as seen at or as

heard on if you have books as well.

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More social proof, especially

if you have some reviews of your

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book here's a little pro tip.

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If you are doing sales from the stage,

whether it's a book or a course or

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coaching, try telling a quick success

story or client case study that shows

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transformation, that's social proof,

working in real time, Even if you're

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not selling directly, these stories

will plant the seeds for future

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bookings, follow ups and referrals.

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Social proof doesn't always

just fall into your lap.

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People don't always just offer

up giving you a testimonial.

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Some people will, people who are

in the industry, they know that

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testimonials are beneficial to

you and they may well offer it.

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And you can be one of those people

perhaps to offer it to other people.

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Now if you know Cialdini's

tools of influence, you'll know

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reciprocity is one of them.

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We'll come to that in a later video.

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But with that law of reciprocity, if

you are offering to do testimonials

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and support for someone else, you're

more likely to get that back as well.

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But nearly always, the best

time for action is in the moment

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when things are happening.

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So immediately after a successful

event, you can ask, would you be open

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to giving a short testimonial about

how the session landed for you, or

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what you took away from this talk?

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What you enjoyed and what was the most

valuable for you or for your team today?

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You ideally want to get that on

video, but if you can get that

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in a feedback form or some email

feedback, it's still just as valid.

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But do always make sure to get explicit

permission from those people and

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companies to be able to use that.

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So from an ethical side, if you

are using someone else's words,

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results, photos do make sure that

they've given you the green light.

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I've seen things go very wrong, but

people publishing testimonials from

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clients thinking that would be fine,

then finding out it wasn't fine and the

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client's being incredibly unhappy and

in all honesty, those are the kinds of

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things that can damage otherwise good

and healthy professional relationships.

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LinkedIn is a great

place for social proof.

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It's pretty much exactly

what it's there for.

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Most people, especially when they're

checking out a speaker or checking

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out a coach that they might want

to work with, they're gonna want

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to see your LinkedIn profile.

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That's one of the places that

they might check if people.

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For the people who do a little bit

of digging and homework, they will

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look not just at your website, but

at your LinkedIn profile as well.

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They want to see consistency

congruency, and they want to

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see results there as well.

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Asking your clients attendees to endorse

you in talks, in posts, repurposing

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some testimonials, maybe into carousel

posts or quote graphics or even polls.

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Now you can post up clips from your talks.

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You can tag some of the people who

you know are there Hopefully they'll

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come and comment and say good things.

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You can also add in a referral

CTA, know an event or a company

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that could use this message.

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I'd love a warm intro.

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Now, a bonus tip for using LinkedIn.

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LinkedIn has a built-in

recommendation request system,

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which is written social proof.

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So your referrals on LinkedIn

will be there for pretty much

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forever, as long as you post them

up and, and get them through.

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One thing I'll say with that is.

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Act fast, act quick.

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If you're gonna ask for referrals, because

if several days or weeks or months have

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passed since the event that you are

asking for a referral from, it's far less

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likely that you're going to get that.

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Is the danger to social proof?

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Well, sometimes people

like to inflate their egos.

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They'll use generic or totally

fake testimonials, and that

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will lose your trust much

faster than you'll ever gain it.

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So real testimonials, real specifics,

and that are about you and about specific

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events or talks or workshops, whatever

it is, are gonna be much more meaningful.

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And again, you don't want

these to be super long.

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There is one thing right at the start

of a talk or presentation that's gonna

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matter more than just about anything else.

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When you are coming on the stage,

you do not really want to be the

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person who is introducing you.

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You want somebody else to do that.

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And I have talked about this in other

videos, but I will mention it here

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'cause I think it's incredibly relevant.

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You want to have an introduction written

out in advance and make sure whoever is

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introducing you, has that and keeps it

with them, reads through it, and that they

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use that when they're introducing you.

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And so you will get a proper introduction.

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You won't have to go through all

the hassle or bother of introducing

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yourself and giving yourself

your own credibility boost.

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It's much better out the mouth

of someone else and if they don't

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have any planned to introduce you,

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find out who the event organizer

is and get them to do it.

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So you always want to have

somebody else introducing you.

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If you have an assistant with your

invite and that's the only person

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you can do it, get them to do it.

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But have someone who is not you

introducing you on the stage

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with a pre-prepared introduction.

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You may want to use a similar thing

for podcasts that you might go on as

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a guest, or YouTube shows where you

want to ideally provide them the right

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kind of content or information to use

as an introduction for you so that

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you are not leaving things to chance.

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The important stuff will get said and

you will get your credibility built

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and focused on in the right way.

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So we must curate these things

Practically with social proof.

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You probably will want to include

them in some slides at some point

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if you're gonna using them on there.

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It could just be a short quote.

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It might just be a printout from a social

media comment or something short and

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punchy, , but not huge long testimonials.

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People generally won't read them.

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They'll scan them, and you do not want

all of that on a slide, especially if

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you are still up on the stage talking.

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So short one or two line

testimonials, no more than that.

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But you may actually want to use some

case study stories within your talk and

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presentation to make your points, if

you are working with a structure that

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is very much a sort of problem solution

structure, you are definitely gonna want

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to talk about people that you've worked

with, results that you've had, and not

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from our point of necessarily making

the sales there, but really it kind of

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allows people to have the experience

vicariously through someone else's words,

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and we tend to trust that, again, more

than we would just saying, well, you

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had that experience or you did this.

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It's like, um, what you do for

yourself or your own development.

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Is not really, maybe it should be, but

it isn't as important or influential

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as somebody else's opinion of you.

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So we do tend to override

trust where we assume there

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are gonna be automatic biases.

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And you may even tell a story and then

say, afterwards, that story came from one

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of the clients in my group or program.

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Now if you have book sales maybe pull

some of the blurbs, some of the comments

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and endorsements from your book into

your talk and presentation as well.

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Especially if you have the books and

the room that people, are potentially

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gonna buy, give them the opportunities

to see what other readers are saying.

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Much the same as you know, on Amazon.

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You would hopefully have reviews of your

book, good or bad on Amazon as well.

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I also think with these kind of things,

if you have a really stinky, horrible

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review, sometimes it's good to throw

those in as a bit of humour, as a bit

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of not taking yourself too seriously

and also even a bit of vulnerability.

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Like you're not there to be perfect.

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You may have even seen that thing from

a coffee bell, which is along the lines

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of, um, come and try our coffee, which

one Lady on TripAdvisor says is the

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worst coffee she ever tried in her life.

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It is the kind of thing.

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People will laugh at that and they

say you are not taking it seriously.

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You obviously don't think that your coffee

is the worst coffee ever, but it's jokey

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and it does tend to resonate with people.

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Now, if any of this is helpful, make

sure you hit like and subscribe.

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We are still only at number three

of seven on Cialdini's influence

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principles for speakers in this series.

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next up is gonna be number four, liking.

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And that's gonna be things like being

more likable as a speaker without losing

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authority, without pushing too hard.

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We don't like people who try

too hard to be liked, right?

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But then we still have reciprocity,

consistency and unity to come after that.

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So make sure you are subscribed for the

series and hit the notification bell.

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I'm doing a bit of standup tonight,

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so I will also be bringing you

hopefully some video of that, unless

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it goes really badly, even then

I might just share it with you.

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So if you want to see some of my

standup and also get more of this series

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in Cialdini's influence skills for

professional speakers and communicators,

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make sure you're subscribed hit

the notification bell so you get

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notified when the episodes come out.

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And I'll see you next time.