How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 248

[21]M. Cody, J. Seiter, and Y. Montague-Miller, Men and Womanin th
eMarketplace: Gender Power and Communication in Human Relationships
(Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1995), pp. 305–329.
[22]Cavett Robert, Personal Development Course (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice Hall, 1966).

Making Social Validation Work
The power of social validation can be used to your benefit in any
persuasive situation. If your product or service is socially validated,
people are most likely to use it or to switch to it. People are always
looking around and comparing themselves to see if they line up with
everyone else. If they feel a discrepancy between where they are and
where everyone else is, they will most likely conform to the group
standard. Consider the following ways you can enhance the effects of
social validation to your benefit:
1. The larger the group, the better. The larger the group, the more
people will conform. Social theory shows us that when a group
grows, so does conformity to that group.
2. The greater the familiarity, the better. The more a person can
identify with the group, the more that person will be influenced to
change their behavior and/or opinions. Social validation is more
powerful when we observe people we consider to be just like
us.[23]
3. The clearer the principle of social validation, the better. Find the
best use of social validation in your product or service. Is it the
best selling, the most popular, used by the elite, the fastest
growing? Is it part of a trend or is it the industry standard? Who
uses it? Do you have testimonials from other clients or users?
[23]Festinger, Pepitone,
Deindividuation."

and

Newcomb,

"Some

Consequences

of

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