Using social proof ethically and effectively for psychologists and therapists

Welcome to today's episode of the Business of Psychology. This is a solo episode where I'm going to be talking about social proof. 

A lot of the time people assume that social proof is all about testimonials, and that's really frustrating to me because there are actually lots of ways that you can improve your marketing with social proof, and it really frustrates me that we overlook many of them when our less qualified, less ethical counterparts tend to be very good at exploiting them. 

A key way that we can improve our ability to transmit our psychological mental health expertise out there is by getting a little bit better at using the lesser thought about principles of social proof, so today we're going to be thinking about what social proof really is, the psychological constructs behind it, and how it works. And then we're going to think about how we can use it in line with our ethical frameworks. 

Listen to the whole episode or read the transcript for details of the three psychological concepts involved in using psychological proof in your marketing, the six types of social proof that we can draw upon, and the actionable techniques I've translated this into that would work for a psychology or therapy business.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links:

Dr. Robert Cialdini - 7 Principles of Persuasion

Melina Palmer - The Brainy Business Podcast

Advertising standards authority advice on testimonials (the bit for medical products is particularly interesting)

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Email: rosie@drrosie.co.uk

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SPEAKER

Rosie Gilderthorp

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Business of Psychology. And today you've just got me. It's a solo episode, and I'm going to be talking about social proof. Now a lot of the time, people assume that social proof is all about testimonials. And that's really frustrating to me because there are actually lots of ways that you can improve your marketing with social proof, and it really frustrates me that we overlook many of them when, trust me, our less qualified, less ethical counterparts tend to be very, very good at exploiting them.

So a key way that we can improve our ability to transmit psychological mental health expertise out there is by getting a little bit better at using the lesser thought about principles of social proof. So today we're going to be thinking about what social proof really is, the psychological constructs behind it, and how it works. And then we're going to have a think about how we can use it in line with our ethical frameworks.

Okay. So what is social proof then? Well, essentially there are three psychological concepts involved in using psychological proof in your marketing. It uses the concept of herding. We like to validate our decisions through following the actions of others. That's something that is part, inbuilt into human behaviour. We also like to follow other people for a sense of safety. So if we're uncertain, we will follow other people. So that's what we mean by herding.

It also involves framing. Social proof can really contribute to framing your offer as valuable, making it seem to somebody as though it has a value to it.

And finally social proof often involves the halo effect. And that's where the credibility of others can extend to your brand.

So, if you're interested in this sort of psychology, then do you have a look at the work of Robert Cialdini, particularly the six principles of persuasion. You can find that on the influence at work website. And obviously he's got a ton of books that you can dive into, if you're interested in that behavioural economics stuff, which I do think is absolutely fascinating.

So social proof is essentially a way of using herding framing and the halo effect to frame your service as valuable and reliable and nudge people into booking with you or buying your product instead of that of your competitor.

There are essentially six types of social proof that we can draw upon, and I've borrowed these definitions from Melina Palmer from the brainy business podcast. And if you haven't listened to that podcast before I'd really, really recommend it. That's the brainy business by Melina Palmer. She's also got a couple of really interesting books out there, she's a research psychologist who has contributed a huge amount to the way that we think about using psychology in the world of business. So I expect if you're listening to this, you'd probably be really interested in her work, and I've borrowed the six types of social proof from her podcast and her books, so please do go and check her out.

So Melina has identified six types of social proof.

The first one is expert. This is where high credibility individuals extend their credibility to your brand.

The second one is celebrity. This is where influencers and well-known people who are congruent with your personality and your values extend their endorsement to your brand.

The third is user. This is what most people tend to think about our social proof. And this is where we use client testimonials from people who are similar to your ideal client to trigger that herding, and in-group bias that we talked about a minute ago.

The fourth is wisdom of the crowd. This is the sheer volume of people where you're maybe giving stats about the actions of others, mentioning existing clients, and generally making it known that there are lots and lots of people, you know, engaging with your service and working with you. And again, that's all about that herding effect.

And then finally, we've got the wisdom of friends, your word of mouth recommendations, certifications, qualifications. The kinds of things that lend that authority.

So, what I've done is I've translated this into some actionable techniques that would work for a psychology or therapy business. And this is similar for whether you're running a straightforward, independent practice where you're seeing individuals or referring, group therapy, organisational work, or whether you are offering something like online courses or more passive or semi-passive products. The principles are exactly the same and the ethical dilemmas are the same too.

So let's think first about the most ethically contentious, the one that gets talked about the most often in our professional groups, and that is testimonials. This is where you take a direct quote, video or sound bite from a client and display it on your website or social media to provide direct social proof. It's user social proof and it's the thing that most people expect this whole episode is going to be about, when in reality, it's really only a small part of social proof.

If you work in a clinical capacity, so you're a clinical psychologist, counselling psychologist, or a therapist, this can be a really tricky area because we are talking about using client data here. So the first thing you need to do is check the guidance from your professional body.

The BPS doesn't have clear or explicit guidance on this. I will update this episode if I find out that they do. And I just can't find it because in the back of my mind, I am sure that I saw something from the BPS on this when I researched this topic a couple of years ago, but it now seems to have disappeared. I can't find it for the life of me, which means it's not useful. It isn't, if it can't be found. But I will update this episode and put it in the show notes if I do find something from them.

But what I did was I had a read of the code of ethics and the code of practice. And I came to my own conclusion based on those two documents. And the conclusion that I came to is the anonymised testimonials for clinical groups are best for reasons I'll discuss in a minute, but that full testimonials from my coaching clients and students would be okay so long as I have explicit consent, but that's just my reading and you must make your own judgement. So please do go to your own code of ethics and practice and make your own judgement.

That said some professional bodies do explicitly state that you cannot use testimonials of any sort. For example, the UKCP have a total ban on this kind of social proof. So if that's your professional body, just skip this bit because you can't use testimonials. There is no loophole. But do keep listening to the rest of this podcast as there are lots of other ways to use social proof.

So there are a few things I'd really recommend if you're using testimonials to make them both ethical and effective.

The first one, as I've mentioned, is always to get explicit consent. We can't take any shortcuts on that, whether you're clinical or nonclinical or you're offering a service or product, always make sure that the testimonials that you get you've got explicit consent for using them. And tell people how and where you're going to use them.

The second thing I think you need to consider is power dynamics. So you might choose to keep a client anonymous, even if they say that they're comfortable with their identity being shared. My personal view is that therapy clients stay anonymous always because there is no way that I could delete that data completely from the internet, if they were ever to change their mind. And because of the nature of the therapy relationship. I worry that people might consent to try and please us sometimes and I want to safeguard against that, so I make sure that they stay anonymous.

I think that's less likely in other relationships. So for example, with my coaching clients, with my students in psychology business school, I think it's much less likely that they are going to say yes to something that they're actually uncomfortable with. In an attempt to please me or end the relationship well, so I consider that to be a much lower risk, and so I'm comfortable with using data that is not anonymised if they explicitly consent to that. And I always give an option to use that quote in an anonymised way as well, so they really know that there are options available to them, and there is no pressure on them to consent to it.

So to make sure that it's effective, you need to be using user experiences from real clients or students and ideally people that have paid you. So I know that when we're starting out, we might be wanting to use testimonials from people that we've seen for free. I did that when I started my coaching work, but very quickly, if you can, you want to replace that with people who are as similar as your ideal client as possible, and therefore that should be people that have paid.

The testimonials that you use should be as relatable as possible. You want to enable your ideal clients to see themselves in the words that are used. And that means giving details about the transformation that they've been through, the journey that they've been on, but maybe excluding some details that might be alienating for some of your ideal clients.

So when we talk about our ideal clients, it's important for us to consider the diversity that there is within that group. So if there is, you know, big economic diversity in your group for example, you don't really want somebody mentioning details that might make it seem like your service is really only for people like that, who have that kind of a car or that kind of a concern. If that doesn't represent your entire ideal client group, then it's okay to remove some of those alienating or potentially alienating details.

It's also okay not to include your name and the whole testimonial. It's okay to pull out the relevant parts and just use bits that would work for, for example, a film trailer. It's good in fact, to mix up longer and shorter quotes and pull out the most salient bits for people. Research has extensively shown that it doesn't really matter if you don't include the name, for example. So don't worry about it. If you want it to make it anonymous, or you want to just pull out quotes rather than pleading these big, long paragraphs, but actually research shows that that can work quite well.

It's also a good idea to mix up the modality. So you could share some screenshots which, you know, if you're doing those anonymously, you can use Canva to scrub out people's names. You can use a combination of video and sound. Maybe some that are more graphics, so you've put them in nice fonts and some that are just straightforward texts. It helps different people's learning styles to see it in different ways.

But always, always make sure that they're super salient to your ideal client, using testimonials that really focus on that transformation your ideal client wants to see, rather than nice, but irrelevant stuff. Like Rosie is lovely. I really enjoyed working with Rosie. You know, much as I love to see that and that, you know, makes me feel warm and fuzzy., actually for somebody considering working with me, it probably doesn't matter that much. So making sure the stuff that is likely to matter to your ideal clients is front and centre.

So that is all I'm going to say about testimonials today. And we've got a lot more to talk about when it comes to social proof.

So the next kind of social proof that you should really be considering, our expert endorsements. This is stuff like getting people to write a foreword for your book, getting reviews for your course, media appearance, sharing the logos of places that you've appeared at the bottom of your page. And maybe endorsements from other places. So if you have done work with a prestigious university, if you have a prestigious position within your professional body. Sharing all of those things, they lend you endorsement from other people's expertise. So, this is really, really important. If you've written a book, then getting people to review your book, getting people to review your course that have a bit of expertise, a bit of authority about them is really, really, really important.

So make sure that you're not missing out on that and use your professional networks for that. This is a way that we can help each other out. There are lots of people listening to this podcast. You have a huge amount of credibility in that area. Maybe you could be writing forewords for each other's books. And this is something that we could get a lot better at and I think would really boost our industry, our expertise as a whole, if we were better at sharing our expertise around in this way.

Another type of social proof that we need to consider are celebrity endorsements. And you might think of this as typical influencer marketing. The most obvious examples of this are those brand partnerships with celebrities that we see on social media, like Stacey Solomon, advertising clothes for kids.

However, my partnership with a local, very well known in this community, antenatal teacher has a similar effect. It got me in front of her audience and I was able to borrow some of her authority. So think creatively about who you could partner with, who fits that definition of celebrity for your ideal client? Not necessarily for, you know, somebody that's got millions of followers, but maybe somebody who's got a strong local presence in your local community or has a lot of authority within your very specific specialism.

So consider who has the authority. You need to reach the audience that you want to reach. Who do they trust? And that might be micro or local influencers rather than big celebrities. Think about partnership opportunities, what can you offer them in return for that endorsement? It may be that it is appropriate for your specialism to pay somebody who has a high credibility with the audience you're trying to reach.

But it might be that if you're dealing with a local smaller influencer, that you might be able to offer them something that they can't provide on their own, maybe. Some free training or Instagram lives, where you can deliver real value for that audience might be enough for them. So think about it as a partnership that is reciprocal.

And finally a word of caution, make sure anybody that you partner with in any capacity shares your brand values. This is absolutely crucial because it will not work if there is a mismatch. I mean, not only is it socio unethical to partner with somebody that doesn't share your values but it also will be a lot less effective. So for example, if Stacey Solomon were to partner with a, you know, high-end but ethically dubious fashion company, that will not work for her. Stacey Solomon does extremely well marketing George at Asda, I believe it is, or one of the supermarket brands, because that fits with her brand values. She's all about affordable but sustainable fashion. That's really important.

So you cannot deviate from your brand values just because somebody's got a million followers and they're willing to partner with you. That doesn't mean it's going to work. Make sure that if you do this, you really place your values at the heart of your decision-making.

Another type of social proof that I feel we should be using a lot more than we do, it's really simple but I don't see many psychologists and therapists doing it, it's just mentioning your client work, sharing your client and student experiences in a less direct way. So this is talking about client work in your content, your blogs, your emails, your social posts, in an anonymised way. If that feels better for you to give people the sense that you are working with people like them.

It can be as simple as reflecting on something you learned from your day at work or something you're excited to implement with your clients this week. It might be sharing wins that your clients have had, if that's appropriate to your area of work. And you can name them if you're in an area of work where it feels okay to do that, but I wouldn't want to do that with my therapy clients, for example, but I do feel comfortable talking in general terms about, oh, you know, I've been seeing lots of people recently who are struggling with OCD in the postnatal period, and I've just read this really exciting article that's got some tips in it that I can't wait to share with them. That feels completely appropriate. It's not giving anybody's personal information away, but it's showing people that I'm actively working with people with the struggle that they're struggling with, and that's a really powerful type of social proof. And we could all be using that.

We also need to think directly about this herding effect. We're more likely to follow someone who already has a high number of followers on social media. We are also more likely to go to a restaurant that has lots of Google reviews. Higher numbers reassure people, and this works together with user influence. No one wants to go to a bar with only one person in it. And it's also true that it triggers scarcity and loss aversion if people think that you're going to be booked up.

So this can be tricky for us. Things like Google reviews are difficult, partly because we can't control them. But also because it can be identifiable for the individual. I do believe there is a way of leaving an anonymous Google review, but often when people leave the reviews, they don't switch that on and it can be identifiable. So it may be something that if you're running a therapy practice, for example, you don't feel comfortable encouraging people to leave Google reviews.

However, I do think that we can be a bit more creative about the way that we use these. So for example, I wouldn't want my therapy clients particularly leaving me Google reviews. A couple have, I couldn't stop them from doing it, but I did speak to them about, you know, that maybe not being something that I was particularly comfortable with, because again, it can't really be removed. Although we can hide these things, I'm led to believe that nothing is ever truly deleted on the internet and it makes me a bit twitchy. So. I have spoken to people about that.

But I wonder, you know, could we be leaving reviews for each other? If we work on a collaborative project together? I think it's important that these reviews only come from people who have got direct experience of your work, but I think so long as the review explicitly states, you know, I delivered training with so-and-so and, you know, found her to be very insightful on this topic. Or, you know, this person provided consultancy in my business. This person provided a training session for my staff. I think when we have those kinds of interactions with people, I don't see why we couldn't have Google reviews on our page for that.

And it does provide a bit of a reassuring use of numbers for us. The other thing we can be doing in terms of triggering this herding effect, making people feel more confident, is to share statistics that are a bit more general. So we could be saying things like, you know, last year we supported, you know, 200 people through their journey with depression. I don't know, just pulling that out of my backside really, but we could be sharing those general statistics about the impact that we're making for our communities more widely. This is something I certainly failed to do and there really isn't much of a downside to doing it. So sharing some of those numbers might reassure people that other people are getting benefit from your service.

I also think there's a benefit, and we've talked about this in other podcasts, to sharing the general statistics on the efficacy of the kind of therapy that you're providing. All the kind of work that you're doing if you're not working in direct therapy. So if there are stats that show that CBT for a particular struggle is really effective, then share that on your social media, so you're giving people that confidence that comes from higher numbers in a slightly more creative way than just having tons of Google reviews like a restaurant might do.

We also need to make sure that we are using our credentials to their best. So listing out your qualifications, the letters after your name. Your logos, like your HCPC BPS BA CP badge, publication logos that you've appeared in, any awards that you've won, any media appearances that you've had.

All of these things can trigger the halo effect. They give reassurance that somebody is credible when we land on their website. So making sure that those things are there somewhere on your website, and I'm not saying having long lists of all of your qualifications, because that just switches people off, but some kind of logo letters after your name that just give people that impression of, okay, other people trust this person, so I'm safe to use this service because they are trustworthy. That's really, really important. Especially as we strive to differentiate ourselves from maybe the less credible people who are out there confidently marketing themselves.

So the final thing that I want to say about social proof, the final method of social proof that I strongly believe we should all be using, is word of mouth. Prioritise word of mouth. It's the ultimate social proof and it can never be beaten. It comes under Melina Palmer’s the wisdom of friends, but it really is that good old fashioned recommendations from trusted people, friends, family, and trusted professionals.

This kind of social proof is available to all of us and it should be at the heart of your marketing plan. And I've been talking about it absolutely loads recently on this podcast or a video that I shared with my email list this week. So if you've got any doubt about it, recommendations are the thing which will supercharge your private practice.

So, whether you're just starting out or whether you're really well-established, to get high quality referrals in the volume that you want them, the best way of getting those is through word of mouth and developing your professional and your business network. So do prioritise that.

So I hope that I've given you some thoughts about how you might be able to use social proof effectively and ethically within your practice. I'd be really interested to hear your thinking on this topic. What you're using at the moment, whether you feel comfortable using social proof, whether maybe this episode has helped you to find some ways of using social proof that do feel comfortable to you if perhaps testimonials in that traditional format, weren't feeling like a good fit for your values.

So please share your experiences with me. I'm really interested in this and I'd like to see us all using social proof a bit more effectively in order to get our knowledge out there and shared with the people that need to hear it. So please share your experiences with me. I'm over @rosiegilderthorp on Instagram, or you can find me on rosie@drrosie.co.uk