5 Easy Strategies to Build Your Social Proof
When was the last time you saw a restaurant with zero reviews on Google, or an Amazon product with no stars and still thought, “Yeah, I’m going to give that a shot”?
Probably not recently! And you’re not alone. Around 92% of consumers won’t buy a product unless it has reviews. If reviews matter that much when picking a dinner spot or buying potholders, imagine how much more they matter when someone is choosing a therapist.
Yes, privacy is essential in mental health, but that doesn't mean you can't ethically and creatively use client input to build trust and credibility. This is where gathering social proof becomes critical.
Here are five creative strategies to help you build up your bank of social proof.
Let these starter ideas kick off your creative thinking, or set up a conversation with us to tailor one of these to your specific situation.
Idea #1
The Sticky Note Project
What it is: Have a board in your waiting room or office with the words “Write down only one word about today on a sticky note and put it on this board.” Have a stack of sticky notes and some pens.
What you do next: Take a picture of the sticky notes or list out the words. Use that picture in a social media post to share the words and feelings of people coming to see you. Do this once a week for a while to show the range of words and emotions. Keep a master list of words for a couple months to see what the most common ones are. Create a wordcloud and publish it on your website under the title: “The most common words patients use before walking into therapy.”
Why it works: It’s anonymous, low effort, and visually powerful.
Idea #2
The Candy Game
What it is: Have a couple types of candy whose names can be associated with emotions or emotional states. For example, Laffy Taffy, Sour Patch Kids, Airheads, Jawbreaker, and Almond Joy. Have a container for each and have the same number of candies in each bowl. Have the client choose a candy.
What you do next: Offer the candy for one week, and then count what’s left over at the end to see which candies were chosen most. Write a social media post about your project and the candy that was most chosen. Include pictures of the candy, and add some professional commentary on that emotion to give unique insight to your audience. Share the total tallies in a separate post, and write a blog post for your website on your experience with this game. Redo the game every couple months.
Why it works: It’s tactile and unique for the client, while drawing strong audience interest and potential for storytelling. Showcases your creativity as well.
Idea #3
The Playlist Project
What it is: Have your clients share a song that has been helpful to them in their mental health journey. This can be done anonymously, through a form, or even on social media..
What you do next: Create a Spotify Playlist with the songs collected, and embed the playlist into your website. Create a social media post about the new playlist and what it represents, and invite viewers to your website to listen to it. Write additional posts over the next two weeks sharing what songs you identified closely with and giving commentary on the power of music in mental health.
Why it works: Builds a sense of community through a deeply emotional medium. Creates a memorable experience on your website to increase memorability.
Idea #4
Color Mosaic
What it is: This one is geared more towards physical office settings. Provide a blank canvas or large blank coloring page in your waiting room. Provide markers or crayons and give the direction to “Choose only one color and add to the picture.” An alternative is to provide more tactile pieces for a mosaic such as beads, feathers, glitter, etc. and then accept a bit more potential for a mess.
What you do next: Take progress pictures to capture how the mosaic develops over time. Post those progress pictures on social media. Post the final outcome on your social media and your website along with a blog post about topics such as the power of community, creative outlets, and correlations you see between colors/designs and mental health needs.
Why it works: Taps into collective participation and provides a visual metaphor for growth and development over time.
Idea #5
Surveys and Reviews
What it is: The most boring option of this list. Just doing anonymous surveys with your clients. Be up front that the purpose is to help others feel comfortable starting their mental journey too. The survey is not meant to be a direct review of you as the therapist. Use it to collect their input on the overall experience, the environment you maintain, the topics you are best equipped to support, and what they would say to someone hesitant to start therapy. Put their input into easily understandable metrics with stars, scales from 1 to 5, or couple-word reviews.
What you do next: Put the highlights front and center on your webpage to show your quality (e.g. “Rated 5 out of 5 stars by 95% of patients” or “She specializes in addiction recovery, which is exactly what I needed”). Share findings back to the insurance carriers you are in network with to see if there are any special statuses you can get. Share your gratitude for your clients on social media.
Why it works: Gives you direct language and data in a non-flashy way. Testimonials and proof points help prospective patients picture themselves getting the same outcomes.
Go ahead and take one of these ideas and try it out in your own practice. The goal of all of these is to collect points of reference for your prospective clients. You already know that there are people close to you that are thinking about going to therapy, or are googling therapists, but never end up going.
Why?
One reason is that it’s hard to commit to something when you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. And that’s the reality your prospective clients feel when they look at your picture and your quick bio but have no outside evidence beyond that. Give one of these ideas a shot, or let us help you start the process.
Red Pine Insights is specifically equipped to help you gather your own social proof and convert it into content that fits your style and your audience. We make this process easy for you, so contact us and hear about the additional free resources we can equip you with.