Why Fashion & Beauty Brands Should Use Social Proof on Instagram

The power of word of mouth is nothing new, but despite its proven impact, many brands aren’t leveraging "social proof” in their marketing strategies. We’re here to show you why you should—and how to do it.

What is Social Proof Marketing?

Social proof is when your customers promote your products or services for you via Instagram. Because when your customers love your products and your brand, they’ll talk about it. Social proof can take on many forms on Instagram. 83% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on recommendations from people they know.

So family and friends recommending products is great and has been working forever. But what about recommendations from strangers? We got the stats. 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, which is great news for brands. It means that as long as you have people talking about your products online, nearly 9/10 consumers will trust your customers’ recommendations as much as they would if it was one of their friends. And when you couple this with how Instagram users are following and interacting with influencers and friends, the untapped potential of fan content comes into focus. We took a look into the best types of social proof for Instagram, specifically for fashion and beauty brands.

Types of Social Proof on Instagram For Fashion & Beauty Brands

Instagram is one of the best tools for using social proof as a marketing tactic. And, when it comes to the fashion & beauty industry, Instagram is one of the most powerful tools to drive brand awareness and sales. There are five key types of social proof used on Instagram that fashion and beauty brands can implement into their brand marketing strategy. 

1. Celebrities

Utilizing celebrity influence is a strong form of social proof for Instagram because of how impactful they are to their followers. When you see anybody that you idolize using a specific product, you end up wanting that product, especially when it comes to beauty and fashion. Although collaborating with celebrities may seem difficult, we are seeing more and more celebrity collaborations with brands you would never expect. Here are some ways you can begin to work celebrities into your strategy: 

• Start by reaching out to both micro and macro influencer to gain experience.
• Do competitive benchmarking to see what your competitor's strategies are when it comes to collaborations with celebrities. 
• Find celebrities who support similar brands as yours, and have the same morals as your brand.

2. Experts

Depending on your industry, having an expert approve your brand shows reliability and helps consumers trust your brand. People trust the opinion of an expert because they are (obviously) experts in their field or industry. If you are in the beauty industry or fashion industry, having an expert opinion on your products will definitely pay off, especially with the increasing trend of buying safe and sustainable products. Even well-known companies such as Allure classify products as “best of beauty” which gives the products more reliability. 

Once you’ve received expert approval on your products or your brand, be sure to highlight it on your Instagram so your current customers, and new customers, can rely on the quality of your products.

3. Users

If your customers love your products, whether it’s eyeshadow or a new handbag, chances are they’re going to post about it. What’s better than seeing your organic reach soar via your earned content? Repurposing that content on your feed to drive engagement. Below are a few best practices to encourage your community to create content featuring your brand and the steps to follow to repost it on your feed.

• Add a call to action to your Instagram bio. Something along the lines of, “Tag us to be featured” usually does the trick.
• The more you feature your community’s content on your feed, the more motivation you’ll give your followers to be the next regram.
• Leverage Dash Hudson to request content rights of your earned photos and videos in one click. Following the rules has never been so easy.

User-generated content gives your products context. Sharing imagery of your fans using or wearing your products on your Instagram is an invaluable way to demonstrate how your shoppers can make your products their own. And let’s not forget, it will encourage your audience to post about you in hopes of scoring a feature on your feed. It’s the closest you’ll get to word of mouth on a visual platform, and it’s arguably more impactful because, you know how the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Especially when it comes to the beauty and fashion industry, seeing people try out products and give honest opinions makes consumers feel confident with their purchases. Be sure to highlight any UGC that talks about shipping, sizing, customer service, product quality, how beauty products affect different skin types, and more, to give your customers accurate information about your products.

4. Engagements

The more engagements your Instagram page receives, the more reliable your products are to consumers. If you have a big following, but no likes or comments on your content, this is a red flag to people who may be interested in your products. On Instagram, having consistent engagements across the board with likes, comments, shares, and followers show potential customers that real people follow your brand and like your product. Having high engagement on your content shows that your audience is resonating with your brand and that you know what to serve your audience (green flag!). 

Be sure to optimize your Instagram performance with the help of an Instagram insights tool to keep your engagements consistent and high.

5. Verified Accounts

Instagram accounts that are verified are seen to be the most reliable because Instagram has confirmed that the account is an authentic person or brand. The blue check mark beside an account's username portrays a sense of trustworthiness and authenticity which is great for brands trying to build a loyal social media community. Maintaining your Instagram presence is very important for growing your brand awareness, and having additional features such as a verified account benefits your account on Instagram more than you’d think. 

It’s a no-brainer that with social media now an integral part of the vast majority of consumers’ lives, social channels have become a source of inspiration and advice. That’s great to know—but how can you spread the power of social proof marketing from Instagram to your website? We’ll split the answer into two parts: repurposing your content, and on-site galleries.

Leveraging On-site Galleries for Social Proof

Here at Dash Hudson, we believe in giving brands the tools to take their visual marketing performance to dizzying heights. Spirit On-site Galleries is one of the ways that we make it quick and easy for social media and social commerce teams to get the most out of their most important marketing channel—Instagram.

Spirit On-site Galleries allow brands to organize their top-performing earned and owned content, and easily create a photo gallery which can live on any page on your website. You can create an inspirational gallery for your homepage, category pages, and product page galleries, so wherever your potential buyers are browsing, the social proof is there. You’re giving them the chance to see the product in action at the point of sale, while at the same time showcasing use cases.

Spirit On-site Galleries make more than just a better customer experience, they also drive revenue. Skyn ICELAND saw an average sales conversion rate from Spirit Galleries of 5.16%. Now that’s from Spirit Galleries alone, which means you can create a new revenue stream on-site in just a few minutes. We’re not kidding, it is that quick to set up.

It wouldn’t be a Dash Hudson tool without a heavy dose of measurement. You can easily track the number of clicks for each gallery to understand performance at a glance, and for a deeper dive into the analytics—and everyone’s favorite, ROI—sales conversions can be tracked on Google Analytics among other analytics providers.

So there you have it. Take your ever-so-valuable organic content and repurpose it with purpose, all while bringing your audience into your narrative, and driving tangible results at the same👏 time.👏

FAQs

What is social proof and why is it important?

Social proof works around human instincts of following others' actions. It also builds trust and credibility between brands and their customers. Social proof is very important for creating social media communities for your brand that are loyal and you can trust.

How to build social proof on Instagram?

Building social proof on Instagram can be done with 5 steps:

1. Celebrity endorsements
2. Expert Approval
3. Users
4. Engagements
5. Verified Accounts

What is the social proof concept?

The main concept around social proof is “if I see others doing something, I’ll do it too”. It is a psychological phenomenon often used in brands marketing strategies.