Sound Bite: How Solopreneurs Can Get and Leverage Social Proof Effectively

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We all rely so heavily on social proof these days, whether we're asking a friend for advice, reviewing testimonials, searching through Google reviews, or whatever. 

We all do our background research when we are trying to find a new solution, which always makes us wonder why more solopreneurs aren't implementing this tactic in their own businesses. 

In this episode, we have a full conversation about this and give our thoughts and opinions on what you should do about it.

This is a great episode if you are trying to build those reviews and testimonials and get that social proof out there. So be sure to tune in.

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

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So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, click here to check out SoloSuite Intro!

Episode Transcript

Carly Ries: 00:00

We all rely so heavily on social proof these days, whether it's asking a friend, testimonials, Google reviews, whatever. We do our background research when we are trying to find a new solution, which always makes you wonder why more solopreneurs aren't implementing it in their own business. So Joe and I have a full conversation about this. We give you our thoughts. We give you our opinions on what you should do about it.

Carly Ries: 00:22

This is a great episode if you are trying to build those reviews, build those testimonials, and get that social proof out there. So be sure to tune in. You're listening to the aspiring solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Rees, and my co host Joe Rando and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of 1. We take pride in being part of Lifestar, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions.

Carly Ries: 01:03

We help people work to live, not live to work. And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around, or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. Okay.

Carly Ries: 01:26

So before we jump into this episode, I just have to share this new free offer we have called the solo suite starter. Being a solopreneur is awesome, but it's not easy. It's hard to get noticed, and most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone until now. Lifestar's solo suite gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one person business. So if you're lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even if you're just lonely running a company of 1, be sure to check out Solo Suite Starter at lifestar with 2 hours dot com and click on products and pricing at the top menu.

Carly Ries: 02:05

It's the first one in the drop down. Again, it's totally free, so check it out at lifestar with 2 hours dot com. Click on products and pricing, and it's the first one in the menu. Hope to see you there. So, Joe, I have a question for you.

Carly Ries: 02:18

When you you recently moved to a new town, so when you are looking for new restaurants, how do you make your decisions?

Joe Rando: 02:26

Usually, I go to Google Maps, and I look at the restaurant, and I look at the the the the average review score, and then I read some details. And it usually gives me a pretty good indication of whether I wanna go to that restaurant or not.

Carly Ries: 02:41

Okay. Because it's

Joe Rando: 02:41

not just the scores because, you know, it could be the the right you know, some people like food like I'm not saying this, and I'm gonna get hate mail, but I don't like barbecue. I don't like it. Everybody I know loves it. They rave about it. So, you know, if I find out it's barbecue, I'm looking at the next place.

Joe Rando: 02:58

But, anyway

Carly Ries: 02:58

I'll get more hate mail. I don't like doughnuts, so we'll we'll both

Joe Rando: 03:01

take a call. With that one too, so I guess we're gonna get lots of hate mail.

Carly Ries: 03:05

Yeah. Well, I'm glad that that was your response because you fell into my trap, which, we didn't prepare for any of this. But my the the point I was trying to make is, all that social proof, which is what we wanted to kinda talk about today. What we see time and time again with many solopreneurs is they aren't getting those testimonials. They aren't getting those reviews for their business, and that really hurts them.

Carly Ries: 03:29

And a lot of times, what I have seen is that they're nervous about reaching out for those. Right? Because they don't wanna seem like they're being pushy or salesy or asking for something. But my response to that is if you provide value and if you give your clients and your customers enough value, then make it ask for yourself and get those testimonials and get those reviews because those will those separate you from the competition more than I think most things these days. Do you agree with me?

Joe Rando: 03:57

I I agree totally. I also think that the idea of being afraid to ask for something that, honestly, a good chunk of humanity is gonna be honored that you wanted to add their voice to your to your, you know, website or whatever because, you know, people love to be heard. Right? They love to be noticed. So if you're doing a good job and they don't feel like they're they're having to put their name on something that's a lie, I think the the majority of people are gonna be honored and happy to help.

Joe Rando: 04:22

That's my my experience anyway.

Carly Ries: 04:25

I I worked for a company once that had 100, 100 of 5 star reviews. And you can say, wow. All of their customers are are super happy, and all of their clients are super happy. And that was the case. But my boss also made such a point to go after those reviews and to make sure that the clients and the customers were leaving those reviews and would check it and be like, hey.

Carly Ries: 04:48

Also, I know we discussed you would leave a review. Have you done that yet? And just kinda do, like, a drip campaign on it. And he would ask for the reviews. He wouldn't ask for the 5 star review.

Carly Ries: 04:58

But I think innately, people are like, oh, well, if I'm getting asked, like, I should do this. So there's there's no harm in asking for it. If they don't if they wanna leave a review that and they don't like your services, they'll leave a negative review.

Joe Rando: 05:09

Don't ask those people for a review.

Carly Ries: 05:10

Yeah. Yeah. There's actually a software out there where it it emails your clients automatically for a 5 star review, and it'll automatically post the 3 stars and up. And if it's 2 stars or less, it sends you an email asking for the feedback to be sent to you directly and why. So there's tools that can even do this for you.

Carly Ries: 05:31

But I think a lot of people assume that people just, out of pure goodwill, believe reviews and testimonials, which some people do, but making that ask isn't a bad thing either. And I think you need to see it as I have provided so much value for these clients and customers. I can make this tiny ask in return.

Joe Rando: 05:48

Well, what the going back to what we talked about in the in the last podcast is, this concept of, you know, marketing being about just building trust first and then inspiring action once you've built that trust. And I think if you look at something like a testimonial, it could really build trust fast. But I do think there's some distinctions in testimonials. You know, you see a testimonial that's got no name. That doesn't do much for me.

Joe Rando: 06:15

That's probably, you know, the business owner or the business owner's mother. You see testimonials with a first name and a last initial. Nah. Okay. So but if if you see a testimonial with a first and last name and maybe a link to their website, that's where you go, okay.

Joe Rando: 06:31

This is real. This is a real person. You know, like, I look on talking about the Google reviews. You know, one of the things that happens is some companies pay somebody to make all these fake reviews for them, and they got 5, you know, 5 star reviews, but they're they're fake. And if you look at the people, you can go in and see very quickly that they reviewed this place, you know, up the street from me and then a place in Florida, a place in California, and something in the Bahamas.

Joe Rando: 06:54

And it's like, I don't trust that person. You know? I think they're just getting paid to give reviews. So you gotta make sure that when you're doing this, that you're doing things that build real trust.

Carly Ries: 07:04

Well and it's funny you say that because we are grateful enough that we have primarily 5 star reviews for our podcast, and those are genuine. We're so appreciative of those. And we have a community member that left us a review that was 4 stars. It's our only 4 star review, which, again, we'll take that. No problem.

Carly Ries: 07:22

But she did try because she was like, you have a great podcast. This is wonderful, but it has to look real. These can't look like fake reviews, which they're not. And she was like, but I figure if I give you 4 star review, it'll make it look really good.

Joe Rando: 07:35

Honestly, that is not wrong. I I really I use that myself sometimes. One of the things, if I see, you know, a 4.8, I go, Oh, I don't probably have to dig in real hard to see if these are fake or not. Whereas if I see, you know, 120 reviews, every one of them is 5 stars, I'm like, oh, that's impressive.

Carly Ries: 07:54

There is one caveat, and I would love to even hear some, like, listeners' takes on this. So email us at either carly@lifestarwith2r's.comorjo@lifestarwith2r's.com. The one area I think that's harder to get reviews and testimonials is in the coaching or the therapy space where people don't necessarily want to know don't want others to know that they are either seeing a coach or seeing a therapist or something, and I've heard that it's hard for those professions to get reviews in testimonials. But what I would say is, for for my take, what I would say for those, independent coaches and therapists, like, have on your website, like, test videos available upon request. And that way you aren't, like, publishing if if people don't want their information out there in the public but are okay talking to people if they need, somebody to talk to.

Carly Ries: 08:46

I just those are those are areas where test materials get a little tough, but I think there are workarounds Yeah. For that.

Joe Rando: 08:52

And, I mean, it depends. I mean, some I mean, I bet there wouldn't be too many people that would be upset about, you know, Tony Robbins putting him down as a coaching client. So it depends on what the coaching's about, I think, too. Some coaches are just helping people do better in business and they say, Everybody should have a coach. But if you're doing something where you're helping people get over some kind of trauma or something where it's a little bit maybe not something I wanna put out there.

Joe Rando: 09:16

That's a great point. And then, you know, you might have initials. And I would look at that personally more favorably if somebody had quotes with just initials, if they were doing something where you could clearly see that somebody wasn't gonna be excited about having your name blasted all over. So

Carly Ries: 09:33

I think the one last point I wanna make, moral of the story, is get that social proof out there, put it on your website, but also remember where your audience is and get the reviews there. Our audience is not on Facebook, so we're not asking for Facebook reviews. But our audience is on LinkedIn, so it'd be cool for, like, recommendations on LinkedIn and all of that. Or if you're a local business, get that Google listing up there and get the the Google reviews and all that. You don't need to get reviews everywhere.

Carly Ries: 10:01

You just need to get reviews where your audience is and focus on those. So so, don't waste time where your audience is at. Yeah.

Joe Rando: 10:09

We have we have 1 5 star review on Google Maps.

Carly Ries: 10:13

Oh, yeah. Even though we're not a local business, so we've been trying to get rid of that forever.

Joe Rando: 10:17

That's okay. But, but anyway, a couple of things. One of the things that I would I would say is that if the customer really likes what you're doing for them, but they perceive that you're time stressed, that can mean that people aren't going to be excited about giving you, you know, social proof because they're afraid that you're going to get more taken up, and, it's gonna cost them some of your attention. So it's important, I think, you know, if you're doing something that's personal touch based with with people, if you if you are time stressed, you probably don't wanna let your customers know that because it's gonna make it harder for them to be excited about sharing your stuff. And if you are time stressed, you better start looking at some other things like automation and outsourcing.

Joe Rando: 11:00

We can talk about that in another podcast. But, you know, but that's, I just think that's something that I've had that experience myself of working with somebody I really like working with, but being worried that putting the word out too broadly was gonna cause them to be stop being able to pay as much attention to me.

Carly Ries: 11:15

Mhmm. That's a great point.

Joe Rando: 11:17

Another cool thing. Did you know that if you put your social proof next to your lead capture form, like, if you put it right there, that the the response rate on the form goes up drastically? And, I just I think that this is something that that people should really realize. If you have some social proof, you can put it elsewhere too. But if you put a little bit of social proof next to your form that the the submission rate goes up a lot.

Carly Ries: 11:42

Yeah. That's a great point. Yeah. And put it on your website. Put it in on your home page.

Carly Ries: 11:45

Just wherever it makes sense to put it, like, next to a lead capture form, do it. Yeah. That's my 2¢. That's all I got for today, Joe.

Joe Rando: 11:54

Me too. Alrighty.

Carly Ries: 11:55

Alright, listeners. Well, thank you so much for tuning in as usual. Please leave that 5 star review. Subscribe to our YouTube. Subscribe to the podcast platform of your choice.

Carly Ries: 12:04

We love putting on these shows for you and want to continue doing so. We appreciate that. We'll see you on Tuesday with another guest interview on the aspiring solopreneur. Take care.

Joe Rando: 12:13

Bye

Carly Ries: 12:16

bye. You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At Lifestar, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs.

Carly Ries: 12:36

Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestar.com. That's community.lifestar with 2 r's.com.