In today’s competitive world, attracting attendees for your B2B event is becoming a challenging and important task. This is where social proof comes in. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people base their decisions on other people’s actions and experiences. In event marketing, social proof is essential in inspiring trust, generating confidence, and enhancing the authenticity of an event. Most importantly, social proof plays an important factor in future event registration decisions.

With more digital reliance and attendee expectations growing with time, event organizers must use the power of social proof to drive registrations. One such platform is Eventible, a B2B event review platform where attendees can give reviews and feedback for the event they attended, becoming a resource for social proof.

This article will show how you, as an event organizer, can leverage social proof to drive your event registrations in 2025 and how Eventible can be a reliable tool in this journey. 

Understanding Social Proof in the B2B Event Industry

Social proof in the context of the B2B event industry includes attendee-driven reviews, feedback, speaker credibility, and testimonials, that indicate social trust in the event. This social trust is generated because these reviews come from the reviewers who have attended the event. All forms of social proof like attendee reviews, feedback, speaker and influencer testimonials, etc. provide an objective assessment of the event based on the subjective experiences of the attendees. People value these social proofs and feel confident about registering for the event. 

As an event organizer, you can utilize people’s faith in social proof to market your B2B event and enhance its credibility. This point has been reiterated by one of the most influential people in the industry, Noelle Peterson, Senior Director, Global Event Experiences & Field Marketing at UserTesting, in one of Eventible’s podcasts. “Social proof has been instrumental for event marketing in general, it helps establish trust and credibility. We like to showcase real customer testimonials, experiences, and endorsements. So to really enforce our brand reputation. Overall, social proof, influences decision making,” 

Therefore, social proof can be effective in your event marketing and analyzes efforts to help you enhance your event credibility. In this effort, Eventible can be a reliable tool for gathering social proof and utilizing it to boost trust and authenticity. In the following sections, we will learn how will social proof impact event registrations in 2025 by showcasing multiple features of Eventible.

How Will Social Proof Impact Event Registrations in 2025?

Since humans are social beings, we tend to be more agreeable while making decisions if someone of authority and trustworthiness makes the same decision, underlining the importance of social proof in 2025. As attendees rely on peer validation, authentic experiences, and industry endorsements, event organizers like you need to leverage multiple forms of social proof to maximize event credibility and engagement. Let’s look at how you can do that:

1. User-Generated Content (UGC) & Social Media Engagement

User-generated content like reviews and feedback act as hallmarks of social proof that signal the trustworthiness and authenticity of an event. Attendees can share their experiences through photos, videos, and written posts on social media platforms, creating a ripple effect of engagement. When potential attendees see their peers actively discussing and engaging with an event, they are more likely to register. For instance, if a past attendee posts on LinkedIn about gaining a key business network at an event, this organic testimonial can encourage others to join the next edition of the event.

2. Speaker & Sponsor Credibility

High-profile speakers and well-known sponsors possess powerful trust signals for potential attendees. Their presence and engagement lend credibility to your event, compelling prospective attendees to register for your event. For example, an event or conference featuring an exclusive keynote speech from a business leader of a Fortune 500 company, automatically gains immense credibility, encouraging prospective attendees to register for the event.

3. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) & Real-Time Engagement

Real-time updates, behind-the-scenes content, and event highlights create a sense of urgency among prospective attendees. Eventible can be used to showcase real-time review updates for the event, which can push undecided attendees to register before they miss out. For example, you can post about your tech summit event with a “last chance” banner to signal the prospective attendees the final opportunity to join groundbreaking panel discussions and tech conferences, encouraging last-minute registrations. 

4. Influencer & Industry Expert Endorsements

Similar to high-profile speakers or sponsors, getting a positive endorsement from a respected industry influencer can signal strong social proof of your event that your followers will take notice. A single positive review from them can significantly boost your future event registrations. For instance, if a well-known business influencer posts a positive review of your event on social media, it can spike registrations from the relevant business community. 

5. Attendee Reviews & Testimonials

Genuine attendee reviews and feedback build trust and indicate strong social proof and the event’s value to prospective attendees. Authentic reviews on platforms like Eventible that provide transparency can help undecided attendees trust your event and register. For example, a business leader looking for a relevant event to attend sees a 4.8-star rating on Eventible, with reviews and ratings praising networking opportunities, would be convinced to register for the event. 

How Do Authentic Reviews Help in Building Trust?

Authentic attendee-generated reviews convey authenticity and trustworthiness to potential attendees because they come from their peers, whom they’re more likely to trust than any other source compared to marketing promotional material. Another factor is that authentic reviews are spam-free and immune from AI-generated content. According to the event management platform, Swoogo, 78% of attendees are more likely to return if their opinions are valued, emphasizing the importance of collecting authentic event feedback. Platforms like Eventible ensure that all the event reviews are genuine and verified, eliminating concerns about AI-generated or spam feedback while building trust, improving attendee satisfaction, and boosting future registrations. 

Additionally, positive reviews are a powerful form of social proof, creating a compelling cycle where satisfied attendees attract more participants. The next section will look in depth at how positive reviews drive event registrations.

Why Positive Feedback Drives Higher Attendance?

Positive feedback or reviews play an enormous role in deciding whether prospective attendees will attend your event. As stated by Noelle Peterson, “Potential attendees are most likely to register events when they see a positive review or feedback from previous attendees, or they admire brands or thought leaders that are going to be present, this increases the registration numbers, the attendees will show up, engagement and participation at the event will create like a bandwagon effect.”. 

Let’s understand how positive event feedback acts as compelling social proof in driving higher future registration numbers by using Eventible as a source of event reviews. 

For this example, we will use event reviews of 2024 to get an idea of how reviews on Eventible influenced registration decisions for a B2B event. 

In 2024, Eventible had 8902 approved event reviews, of which 65.62% of the attendees’ feedback was positive, 34.14% was moderate, and 0.24% was negative. But how do these reviews translate into real event registrations by new attendees? 

The answer comes from the analysis of all the event reviews for 2024 to gauge the average sentiment of the attendees to recommend the event to their friends and family. A person who has rated high (4 or 5) on the question of recommending the event has a high propensity to attend the next event themselves or bring in first-time attendees.

The following data shows how the reviews influenced the registration decision to attend the current or future event and what percentage of reviews (positive, average, or negative) impacted that decision. 

Positive Reviews:

• 72.43% are highly likely (5/5) to recommend the event.
• 27.07% are somewhat likely (4/5).
• Very few (0.50%) gave a neutral score (3/5).

Average Reviews:

• Majority (68.33%) gave a moderate recommendation (4/5).
• 24.31% were neutral (3/5).
• Very few were highly likely (5.75%) or unlikely (1.61%).

Negative Reviews:

• Only 31.12% were highly likely (5/5), which is much lower than positive reviews.
• 20.99% gave a moderate score (4/5), and 21.92% were neutral (3/5).
• A significant portion (25.97%) were unlikely (1 or 2/5) to recommend the event.

This data shows that positive reviews strongly correlate with higher recommendation rates, positively impacting future event registrations. Average reviews had a neutral or moderate impact. However, negative reviews significantly decreased the likelihood of recommending the event, impacting future attendance.

Therefore, it is evident that positive reviews or feedbacks act as great social proof and an indicator of the trustworthiness, authenticity, event credibility, and brand authority of an event, impacting future event registrations. Next, we will explore how reviews collected from Eventible can be used to create a personalized event experience for attendees.

What Are The Other Parameters That Influence Event Registrations?

Attendee-generated feedback collected by Eventible is multidimensional in nature, so event organizers like you can gain insights into some important aspects of the event, like venue quality, technical support, food and beverage, etc. The practical usage of social proof is not limited to leveraging it to increase future registration numbers for your event. It can also be used to improve the overall attendee experience of your event. This approach is also a direct contributor to increasing future registration numbers.

Eventible can help you understand how attendees felt about different aspects of your event. Their feedback (positive or negative) would help you improve those aspects while enhancing your chances of increasing future registration numbers by leveraging social proof. 

For instance, from the 2024 event reviews data on Eventible’s platform, which takes into account multiple aspects of the event that help reviewers to give an overall score to that event, ‘helpfulness of event staff’ had the highest influence (91.07%) on future registrations decisions (how likely attendees were to recommend the event), in 2024. The following table showcases which aspect of an event had the highest impact on future registration decisions:

With this data from Eventible, it is evident that ‘Helpfulness of event staff’ had the highest impact, which means you have to ensure that your event staff is as attendee-friendly as possible. However, this doesn’t mean you can ignore other aspects that have a lower bearing on future registration numbers, like food and beverage quality. It means you have to improve that aspect so it doesn’t negatively impact your future registration numbers. The following sections will deal with practical strategies to leverage Eventible for social proof. 

What Strategies Should Event Organizers Employ to Leverage Eventible for Social Proof?

In this section, you will learn how to use Eventible to create actionable strategies by leveraging social proofs like user-generated reviews, feedback, and testimonials to increase event registration numbers for your future event.

1. Proactively Collect Reviews

One of the most effective ways to harness social proof for your event is by proactively collecting feedback from attendees right after the event. Eventible understands the importance of timely feedback and empowers event organizers like you to collect fresh insights. Attendees are most likely to provide honest and detailed feedback right after the event when the experience is still fresh in their minds. Eventible can help you capture these fresh insights by encouraging attendees to review the event right after the event has wrapped up, providing you with reliable social proofs that you can use to promote your future event. 

Eventible also allows for automating the feedback request process, allowing automated emails or in-app notifications to be triggered as soon as the event concludes and prompting attendees to give instant feedback. This method also increases response rates as timely reminders have higher chances of capturing attendees’ raw emotions while they’re still engaged with the event’s memory.

2. Highlight Reviews in Marketing Collaterals

User-generated reviews are the most powerful social proofs for building trust and influencing future registration decisions. Eventible helps event organizers like you by highlighting positive reviews and feedback in your marketing collaterals.

The platform allows for seamless integration with your marketing channels by enabling you to incorporate positive reviews into your websites and landing pages. You can download the source code of the reviews directly to promote on your event’s social media and email marketing campaigns, enhancing your event’s authenticity and increasing your event credibility.

Furthermore, you can showcase positive reviews as dynamic review widgets from Eventible. These widgets update in real time with every new review, making your event look more authentic and genuine.

Apart from promoting positive reviews via social media channels, you can make the reviewers promote their reviews without effort. This is emphasized by another guest at the Eventible’s podcast, Hugh Forrest, Co-President & Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, who says that “the idea of the user-generated content, part of the strategy there is that if you’re empowering and giving more authority or responsibility for users to create content at the event, to create panels, to create presentations, to create sessions, that they will aggressively market that stuff to their community. So again, people are always going to trust other people from their community, other users, reviews to get more information.”.

This highlights that the biggest driver of your event would be the reviewers themselves, who will be posting their feedback on Eventible and other platforms, expanding the reach of your future event. 

3. Engage Influencers and Thought Leaders

Influencers and thought leaders hold significant sway in the B2B event industry. Their opinions and feedback can significantly impact future registration numbers for your event. As an event organizer, you can engage with these influencers and thought leaders to encourage them to share their experiences on Eventible. 

As you get influencers and thought leaders talking about your event, it builds trust and authority. Encouraging influencers to review your event can reach a wider audience, increasing visibility and engagement. 

Moreover, influencer endorsements create a sense of urgency, encouraging potential attendees with the emotion of not missing out on or fear of missing out (FOMO). Most importantly, by engaging with influencers and thought leaders on the Eventible platform you can create long-term strategic relationships.

4. Create Case Studies

Case studies are powerful forms of social proof. They provide in-depth and relatable narratives that resonate with potential attendees. You can use Eventible’s resource of reliable and authentic reviews to turn detailed event reviews into compelling narratives and case studies by focusing on aspects that showcase actual results while signaling authenticity

Additionally, you can create persuasive narratives by selecting and organizing common positive themes like impactful networking, quality of the audience, and technical availability, creating focused narratives that highlight quantifiable narratives for your event.

5. Optimize Social Media Amplification

Social media is a powerful tool to amplify your social proof. Eventible helps you maximize the impact of those reviews by enabling seamless social media integration. With one-click sharing, you can instantly share positive reviews on your event’s social media handles. Eventible can also quickly share reviews on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and other platforms. 

Furthermore, you can further maximize your reach by tagging reviewers and influencers who attended the event in your future event post as this encourages them to share your post on their feed, thereby optimizing social media amplification of the social proofs. 

Feedback Beyond the Event: Driving Long-Term Success

As social proof continues to play a pivotal role in influencing future registration decisions for an event, Eventible’s growing influence in 2025 will shape how event organizers market, plan, and execute events, while also helping you attract and retain attendees.

Following is a structured breakdown of how Eventible can drive long-term success:

Overall, in an era of information saturation, finding transparent and trustworthy reviews is crucial for decision-making. Erin McElroy, Former Program Director, Executive Programs & Events at IBM, talks about this in Eventible’s podcast that we have paraphrased, “Social proof is the gold standard—it shapes how people make decisions across every aspect of life, from travel to healthcare. Today, people trust peer reviews over traditional advertising or brand positioning. While marketing strategies still matter, their true impact lies in influencing social proof rather than relying solely on past business tactics.”

Eventible ensures that every event review is reliable and verifiable from actual attendees, ensuring the reviews are free from spam and other unscrupulous techniques. This allows event organizers like you to base your event planning and marketing efforts on the reviews sourced from Eventible without hesitation. By staying agile, capturing trends, and providing real-time insights, Eventible helps event organizers innovate and deliver exceptional event experiences for attendees.

Key Takeaway

The power of social proof cannot be overstated. It has the inherent ability to make your future event a great success without any big expenses. Despite having big marketing budgets for running endless promotional campaigns for your event, at the end of the day it is the word of mouth that really makes the difference. This underlines the importance of having positive feedback about your event, collecting it, and using it to enhance your event’s authority and authenticity. 

Eventible enables you, as an event organizer, to make all this happen while saving time and resources. It empowers you with social proof in the form of authentic event reviews, providing customization options to promote your event and build trust and authority in the B2B event industry.