How valuable is SOCIAL PROOF in your opinion?

The value I see in social proof is the concept of getting a friend's recommendation. You're more likely to look at something, do an action, but a product, etc if a trusted friend recommends it to you.

I try to angle my social marketing so I target circles of friends. Simply getting likes or +1s on my site means nothing to me. I need to make sure someone is talking about it.

Paying for social proof? Interesting.

It's actually pretty valuable when it's real as opposed to fake or bought. When it's real, that means that real people actually DO like your site.

The social proof of friends and followers has some value but what's of greater importance is what people are SAYING. Quantity alone isn't enough: it's the quality of the proof.

As to its necessity? People want to be like (or associated with) people that remind them of themselves, or with whom they wish to connect or be associated with. This stems back to tribe mentality.

Is it something you would pay for? No. Because then it's a paid endorsement. Earlier this year NBC's Today program create a viral video. What they lost sight of 9or were blind to) is that when something is paid for (or concocted as in the case of the Today show video) authenticity goes out the window.

Is it something you HAVE paid for? No.

At what point does it become moot? (As in, after a few thousand likes or so does the return on social proof diminish?) Moot? Diminishing returns? Can one ever have enough fans, followers, and ... gasp, potential buyers? I think not.

Thinking of purchasing a social proof package for a new site? BUYER BEWARE!

What are you buying? If you think you can buy customer loyalty your short term revenues might indeed go up. But longer term, as the rented crowd fades or loses interest, revenues might well decline, and so so swiftly.

The other question here is what satisfaction can any IM person possibly obtain from buying customer support? The sudden hit might be nit, but over time, you'll need to buy more and more voices to retain the high. The better way is to build your own crowd. Slower? Yes, but way more satisfying, and ultimately, better for business.

i wouldnt buy because there is alot of likes, unless it was my friends who specifically recommended it.

However if i already had the intention to buy, perhaps a site with more likes would affect my choice, but not a difference of 1000 likes, the difference i guess needs to be 10,000 likes.

That said, 1000 likes probably doesnt really make too much of a difference unless you are targeting a very niche product where there isnt alot of traffic.

The likes can help you to get a boost to your ranking though, but many people are also doing it. and no, i have never paid because of the number of likes on a page, but i do view it because of the number of likes.

I think it depends on the site that you're receiving this social proof on.

For instance...

For Twitter, I would not pay for followers. You can very easily and quickly amass Twitter followers for free (using free services/scripts). Plus, the primary purpose of Twitter is to communicate w/ them, so having fake followers doesn't do you any good.

For Facebook, I would not pay for likes. In my opinion, the primary purposes of Facebook likes are 1) hoping for viral spreading of your site/page (since Likes appear on the Liker's friends' status feeds) and 2) to have another channel of communication to your fans/followers.

For Digg, I would (and have) paid for Diggs. The initial momentum of Diggs is important in getting a new submission onto Digg's hompage. So, cheaply acquiring a ton of Diggs quickly is worthwhile.

And here is where the question lies really: without getting too specific, the niche I'm pursuing is akin to a younger audience, it's not a stupid celeb/porn/lose weight kind of crowd: I'm not targeting dumb people, but I am targeting young people, and I feel like the popularity of something matters to them in regards to whether or not they will stick around.

By the way thanks for all of the feedback, this has been a good discussion, it seems WarriorForum still has a few clever members among its ranks :p

Indirect way of asking OP to post naked pic imo

Social proof! Interesting! But why buy something when you can gain huge follower/likers. If your website is worth visiting.... then there's no need to buy applications.