Over the last few Parts we worked on collecting text and video testimonials.

Well, what are we going to do with them now?

In this Part we look at the power of testimonials on social media.

The first use of your new testimonials is to make sure to publish them on social.

First we’ll cover text testimonials then video.

For text there are a number of levels of doing this:

• text

• designed image

• designed image

Each is more complicated than the last.

First up is just copy/pasting the text of a testimonial and posting it as a quote to social.

I see people doing this but don’t personally - the reason: anyone could make up anything! We need to build trust, not destroy it.

The second option is a properly designed image.

For instance look at these Canva templates:

To make these yours you’d do some branding adjustments and then simply copy paste testimonial text into the template.

It’s some manual work but Canva thankfully makes it a lot easier.

Got lots and lots of testimonials? Senja can output beautiful graphic versions for you - if you have a larger volume and need a workflow this is definitely the way. There are a tonne of social asset templates that it can export to - some examples here.

What about the third option - this is the one I tend to use the most myself: simply screenshot new testimonials.

Here’s an example:

And one from an email testimonial:

Crude right? Looks unprofessional? I agree!

But this is what works best for social engagement for me.

Probably because it’s looks the least manufactured? Because…it’s not manufactured at all!

This causes a pattern break that disarms people. Most scrollers are used to flash looking ads from companies. A raw screenshot undercuts that and stops the scroll.

Obviously testing is the name of the game here. I’d recommend running some social proof testimonials as both a more designed version and a basic screenshot. Same text, different format.

See what works better with your socials.

OK what about video?

First thing first I recommend hardcoding some subtitles in.

Why’s that?

Most people scroll social with their sound off. Unless they are on the same London bus as me and then they are using Tiktok at full volume like a sociopath.

Adding subtitles is thankfully nice and easy nowadays. I personally do mine on my phone using an app called Captions.

You upload the video and it’s automatically scanned for audio to generate subtitles. You choose the style and then you are good to go. Very very simple and the basic version is free.

What about editing? My recommendation is do not edit. Again we are building social proof here and authenticity makes the videos more believable.

If your brand is more corporate and professional then take all of the above with a pinch of salt. My personal opinion is still that you’ll do better with less edited, more “real” assets but that’s a bigger discussion!

To wrap up, how often should you be posting some form of social proof?

I find that one a day is a nice balance. More if you can spin it into a success story about why the customer is doing great. Celebrate their wins. The fact that they happened to use your product is a nice by-product!

Text to Video

Chances are you have a lot of text testimonials and not that many video testimonials.

To balance this out let’s look at how we can convert text testimonials into videos.

Creating custom animated text is tricky but there are now AI tools that can help us out.

I like Typeframes. There’s a demo to play around with the interface:

The basic idea is that text can be made into rapidly animating videos complete with music and lots of eye catching colour changes. Much more engaging than a flat text testimonial and well worth rotating into your mix to test.

If you want to stick to the more “authentic,” less produced type of video then one alternative is to record yourself reading the testimonial.

This works well if you have a heavy focus on personal brand.

The video would literally be you thanking the person and reading out their kid words, reacting and commenting as you go. Very raw, very real.

As with all social media content test test test and see what works best!

Pulling it together

Here’s a reminder of what we’re covering this week:

• Part 1: Collecting text testimonials

• Part 2: Capturing stories with video testimonials

• Part 3: Strategies to incentivise

• Part 4: Social proof goes social media

• Part 5: Supercharge your website