I noticed occasionally he was talking and sometimes there were 10 or so volunteers looking bored and waiting by the phone for callers. WTTW is missing a huge opportunity here, if these volunteers looked like they were taking calls, viewers would be more likely to call and donate. This is the power of Social Proof, where people do things they see others doing.

Ok, so the idea of having volunteers fake like there are calls may be a little “evil”, but why doesn’t WTTW do a text crawler with donations at the bottom of the screen, like Krisi B. from Chicago $70, Tom J. from Elgin $150, etc…

This would let people know that others were donating and quite possibly they would get off their sofas and donate as well.

Infomercial developers know the concept of Social Proof very well. QVC takes live calls from customers, which are obviously to convince others to buy. Other informercials tell viewers if you call and get a busy signal, call back.

Do you really think viewers ever get a busy signal?

These infomercial developers knew how to key in on many consumers inability to resist element of influence, like Social Proof and Scarcity.

With yesterday’s post about Walgreen’s use of Facebook reciprocity, I found some of the statistics in the report quite interesting:

Over 40% of the 1000 study participants said they have “friend” a brand on Facebook or mySpace, and the deals and offers were the primary reason why consumers “friended” a brand on Facebook(36.9%).

What really interested me was that only 25% of Twitter users followed brands, but over 40% follow these brands.

I wish Razorfish had dug further into this data and would loved to have seen how consumers engaged with the brands they friend on Twitter. Do they spend considerable time on the brand’s Fan pages, or is their primary interaction via their News feed?

I’d love to see how other brands are using a quid pro quo model like NBC or Walgreens.

It seems to be working for them as their Fan #’s have jumped quickly into 300,000. It seems like Free Shipping is valued enough by consumers for them to friend Walgreens. I am starting to believe this trend is going to backfire as more and more brands push for share of the consumer’s social graph, they become invisible, like banner ads have become. This example of reciprocity is sort of a quick hit situation, as the offer is only good for today(Monday, December 7th).

I think “REAL” success in the “Facebook Reciprocity Model” will involve these brands rethinking the value of a “fan” and finding ways to make the reciprocity continue as consumers are going to start asking Walgreens what have you done for me lately…

(via @regiskuckaertz)

Foamee, a site created by Dan Cederholm a few years ago is a perfect example of Reciprocity. The idea is quite simple: Someone does something kind or thoughtful for you, and you owe them a beer. It sits on top of Twitter’s API, and allows you to keep track of who you owe beers to and vice versa. It is a way to keep the promise of “Hey, thanks for your help. I owe you a beer!”. And what is better than than giving a beer in exchange for help from a friend.”

(via @regiskuckaertz)

A couple of my favorites are:

Also interestingly, he is using a wee bit of scarcity(in regards to price) to sell them as well, with the accending pricing model.

Looking forward to them.

Found Via: Failure Magazine

Since April 2008 The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has been using peer pressure and social proof to try and get customers to lower their energy consumption by giving them information about their energy consumption compared to their neighbors and to the company’s most efficient customers. Those customers who have gotten this information have lowered their energy usage by up to 2%.

This is a very interesting example of Social Proof, where seeing how others are saving, hits the customer directly in the wallet. What a great idea.

More Info: http://ow.ly/pY9L

This has built a very quick following upwards of 30,000.  This is a great example of Balanced Reciprocity.

Early adopter brands like Starbucks and Coke have been on Facebook for a while, but recently brands have really started to more heavily invest in presences on Facebook. An interesting example of how brands are building followings on Facebook is NBC, which has started promoting many of it’s new shows via Facebook Fan Pages, such as it’s upcoming fall show Community.

NBC is giving visitors to the Community fan page access to the new show’s pilot a month earlier than it’s premiere on air in late September. All visitors have to do is become a fan of Community on Facebook.  It’s a classic case of Balanced Reciprocity, when one agent gives away goods/services to another with the expectation of something in return at a later date. In this example, the value being given way is exclusive access to the pilot earlier than most of the public, and the expected return is that the consumer will be receptive to future marketing message from NBC.

The site tells consumers they must become a fan before watching, but instead of building functionality to limit viewing to fans only, NBC uses messaging to try and influence consumers to become a fan.

I expect this to be pretty successful, and expect to see more and more brands trying experiments like this on Facebook as they try to find new ways to engage with consumers.