Ignite Your Ideas With Social Proof

Once again I'm pushing my students to get social proof of their ideas. It's a simple principle: at each stage of development, circulate your thoughts to get feedback. When others show interest (or provide suggestions), then you start taking your own ideas seriously and have the fuel to invest more effort into what you are doing.

There are several different types of people one can seek out for social proof:

1. Homies
   People with whom you have close, friendly relations and would be willing to listen to anything you say just because of that relationship. 
2. Peers
1. Those you know who are in a comparable position (e.g., fellow students)
2. Those you do not know who are in a comparable position (e.g., others who are beginners with your topic also)
3. Enthusiasts
   Those that demonstrate a great interest in your topic, as manifest in content they have curated, events they have been part of, or efforts they have organized to serve that topic
4. Experts
   Credentialed people like scholars, scientists, or other professionals whose job it is to know that topic. Their expertise is evident in formal publications, degrees, or positions of authority.

(I describe these types of people in more detail in "Make Your Content Legit: Four Phases of Social Proof")

These types of people roughly correspond to three types of content or three different levels of development I've discussed previously:

1. Exploration stage
   Bounce ideas off of your homies and peers.
2. Development stage
   Seek out unknown peers also investigating this topic, or enthusiasts who love an excuse to interact with someone interested in the topic. Take the discussion to a deeper level. Start looking for experts.
3. Formalization stage
   Continue interactions with homies, peers, or enthusiasts, but actively seek out experts. Provide them evidence of your more serious efforts to address their topics so they are more included to give you feedback. You can also request a formal peer review.

But where do you find these people to give you feedback? I mean, I know where my homies, BFFs, and family can be found, but these unknown peers, enthusiasts, or experts -- help!

I give about a dozen separate starting points for finding people to provide social proof in this post. These include live web searches, blog search engines, social networks, social bookmarking services, social book sites, social presentations sites, video sites, open educational resources, book stores and libraries, organizations, events... 

This works! In a post about student successes in finding social proof, you can read about specific cases where students found social proof

• via classmates and peers
• via presentations site
• via conferences
• via social network groups
• via Twitter
• via email

Those successes have generally been during the development stage. Other student successes in contacting experts can be found here.

(Image credits: all under creative commons license from Dimitris Papazimouris, Kees de Vos, MsH_ISB [Flickr], Hans Weilenmann)