Social proof is a must for businesses marketing their offers online. While there are tons of resources teaching you how to gather testimonials from your clients and customers, they tend to leave out one of the most important parts — how to use your testimonials for social media marketing.
77% of U.S. small businesses use social media to facilitate key business functions, including sales, marketing, and customer service. Anything that helps your business nurture and convert should absolutely be considered in your marketing strategy (like featuring client testimonials) — you just need a little insight on how to do it.
Why Social Proof Works and When to Share It
Social proof is essentially evidence people have purchased your product or offer and it lived up to the value you claimed it had. It’s also one of the six main principles of sales psychology. A testimonial is a formal statement testifying how good your product or offer is and is one type of social proof you can share.
Marketing with social proof works because it shows potential customers and clients your offer is as amazing as you know it is (aka, it’s a huge boost of confidence in their buying decision). Adding your testimonials to your social media strategy can increase your conversions and sales — ultimately, it encourages your audience to take action.
You should start sharing your testimonials on socials anytime you want to attract your audience to your offer. A few examples would be when you’re launching a digital product, opening program doors, booking clients for your signature offers, and in your evergreen promo for your existing offers.
If your goal is to sell, sharing social proof should automatically be included in your marketing strategy.
How to Use Your Testimonials for Social Media Marketing
Now to the good stuff (jk, it’s all good stuff): how to use your testimonials for social media marketing. I’m not just sharing my favorite ways to copy/paste your testimonials into an IG graphic or carousel; I’ll be a little more specific.
Sharing testimonials on social media can be a bit tricky. It’s not as formal as a sales page, but depending on what platform you’re on, how you share your testimonials can range from text screenshots to beautifully designed carousels. It also changes based on what feels right for you and your brand and how formal/informal you like to be.
These are personal recommendations (not rules) based on what I’ve seen while running my own business, launching my offers (and my clients’), and using my expertise in sales and conversions.
How to Market Testimonials on Instagram
Instagram is the third most popular social media platform in the US and has over 2 billion active monthly users — making it one of the best platforms to utilize your social proof and testimonials.
For IG, there are a few ways I love to do this. You can share your full testimonial quotes on your Instagram feed as graphics or carousels or post testimonial messages/screenshots on your stories (and even in your reels).
A creative way that works for both Instagram Reels and TikTok is responding to positive comments and/or feedback and sharing via short-form video details about the offer that the comment is referring to.
Lastly, you should create a dedicated highlight to save your testimonials so potential clients can readily access them when checking out your profile!
Can You Share Testimonials on Threads?
Threads is honestly such a fun platform to exist on and has brought a new level of collaboration for small businesses — and yes, you can share your testimonials there! Share screenshots of messages from clients loving your offers or pull a quote from a longer testimonial for a shorter post.
Since Threads is a collaborative platform, you can share social proof with more than just a testimonial. Make a post celebrating your recent clients and give them a shoutout for being amazing (with permission, of course).
How to Gather Feedback and Testimonials for Your Offers
To have shareable testimonials and feedback, you have to ask your clients the right questions. It’s hard to make a connection with potential clients when your testimonials are only three to five words long (although these help, too, they don’t have the same impact as something a bit longer and more specific).
If you haven’t already, add testimonial forms to your workflows. Build them into your off-boarding process for client work and into your email workflow after a product purchase. Your testimonial form should ask leading questions and prompt your client to discuss certain pain points they experienced that led to hiring you.
If you’re a business owner who understands the importance of high-quality, ultra-specific reviews and wants to ensure you’re getting feedback to support your marketing efforts, check out Testimonials That Convert — a template with pre-written prompts and questions to send clients for better, higher-converting testimonials and reviews.
