The internet has taken social proof to a whole new level. The explosion of social media sites (MySpace, Del.icio.us, YouTube, Angie's List, blogs, discussion boards, HubPages, etc) has created a powerful social proof PR system. As time passes, failure to generate positive buzz on the internet is going to be a bigger and bigger hurdle to overcome.

Liking
People are drawn to buy from people they like. Now, that's earth shattering news right there isn't it?

Ah, but the research revealed much more. Mainly it revealed that you probably grossly underestimate the impact liking has on buyer behavior.

A story about a famous car salesman drives this point home. Joe Girard was a car salesman in Detroit who used to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "World's greatest car salesman."

Joe's approach was surprisingly simple. Joe would send a greeting card every month to every one of his 13,000 former customers. The only message in the card was: "I like you."