Have you ever noticed that no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to grow as fast as that one Facebook Page which is adding thousands of fans a day with little effort? The secret isn’t actually much of a secret. It’s called “social proof”. According to this theory, people will do things that they see other people doing. Thankfully, Facebook has provided you with tools which fully take advantage of this and help you dramatically boost your fan base.

The Hotel Towels Story

In Robert Cialdini’s book, “Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive”, Cialdini highlights an experiment that he completed with the cooperation of a hotel manager. The test was to see how they could increase the frequency with which hotel guests reused their towels, in turn helping the environment. Initially, the hotel chain had emphasized that reusing the towel would benefit the environment. Cialdini’s team however realized how important social proof is, and decided to inform guests that “the majority of hotel guests who encounter the towel reuse signs do actually recycle their towels at least some time during their stay.”

The result of the test was dramatic. “Guests who learned that the majority of other guests had reused their towels (the social proof appeal), were 26 percent more likely than those who saw the basic environmental protection message to recycle their towels.” While the message wasn’t revealed in Cialdini’s book, he alludes to the fact that it was something along the lines of “Join countless others in helping to save the environment”, by recycling your towel.

So what on earth do hotel bathroom towels have anything to do with Facebook fans? A ton! This same technique, in which potential fans become aware that others are also becoming a fan of your page has a dramatic impact. We’ve seen the residual impact of increasing a Page’s fan base a modest amount last for months. Facebook has numerous social plugins which helps you to take advantage of this technique. However, that’s not where it stops.

The Peer Effect

In Cialdini’s experiment, they were not satisfied with a 26 percent increase. Instead, they wanted to see how they could increase the number total number of people recycling their towels even more. In order to increase the number, Cialdini’s team decided to make guests aware of the fact that the person who has stayed in the same room. The results was that “compared to the standard environmental appeal, [this experiment resulted in] a 33 percent increase in the likelihood of participation.” The findings were that:

It’s usually beneficial for us to follow the behavioral norms associated with the particular environment, situation, or circumstances that most closely match our own environment, situation, or circumstances.

On Facebook this translates into people who we have similar interests and lifestyles with. On Facebook, the people who we probably have the greatest similarities with is our friends. As such, Facebook has optimized their social plugins to display the faces of our friends rather than strangers. The result is a dramatic increase in conversion.

4 Facebook Plugins That Leverage Social Proof

Facebook provides Page administrators and website owners with tools that help drive fan growth. All of these tools are highlighted on the company’s social plugins page. However we’re reposting those plugins in this article for your convenience. While not all of these plugins may be the best choice for you, there is most definitely at least one plugin you can take advantage of.

The Like Box

The like box has become one of the most ubiquitous social plugins on the internet. The likebox is simply a box which displays how many people are a fan of your site (or brand), and also includes a list of at least 8 individuals who have become fans. If your friends are also fans, they will be listed in this box. This takes full advantage of the social proof effect that we’ve described in this article. The key takeaway for all the social plugins in this list is this: if you have the option to display faces, do so! If you want the like box on your site, you can go find it here.

Recent Activity Plugin

Another extremely useful plugin is the Recent Activity Plugin. This plugin displays to a user what their friends are viewing on your site. If they aren’t logged in, Facebook will serve up the most relevant pages as determined by the most recent recommendations by users. Some of the metrics we’ve heard from publishers is that this plugin alone can increase overall site engagement upwards of 20 percent. If you want to learn more details about the plugin, you can grab it here.

Like Button

The like button has become Facebook’s single most ubiquitous plugin. It enables a user to like any object anywhere on the web (and more recently off the web as well). While numerous sites have enabled the like button, the most powerful version of the button includes the images of a user’s friends. You can enable this functionality by selecting the option “Show Faces” when using the like button wizard.

Facepile

The last plugin is called “Facepile”, and combined with Facebook’s login button, it can dramatically increase the conversion of new user registrations on your site. Facepile is a simple plugin which displays a list of names and faces of a user’s friends who have also registered for a site. While there’s a chance that none of a user’s friends have used the site, when a user sees their friends’ photos, there will be a dramatic increase in the likelihood that a user registers. While this won’t help you bost fans of your site, it takes advantage of social proof to boost new user acquisition rates. You can learn more about it here.

Conclusion

In addition to leveraging these social plugins, another important thing to keep in mind is that for all new Facebook Pages, investing in ads that drive fans is well worth the investment. The reason is that there is a residual benefit: your overall fan growth will accelerate. This is through the organic distribution of your page through the social graph, as well as the result of the law of social proof. Take advantage of these techniques and you will benefit greatly.

Hotel towels image found via Inky Circus.