Fake social proof WITHOUT being misleading?

I am running into this very same issue with https://moneyminx.com, we didn't launch yet so we don't have user feedback yet. I am thinking of solving this in 2 ways? 1) I am asking people on my list for feedback on what they think of screenshots we sent so far. That could give me something to write. 2) I am looking at what potential users say about the state of the current market that I can use. For example: updating a spreadsheet every month is really painful. For your site option #2 may work well. If you find quotes on twitter from systems engineer complaining. You can reach out to them and ask if you can quote them on your site. This site did it that way: https://founderpool.co First Round Capital Founder’s field guide “ ...the best safety net is the wisdom of the community and the experience of fellow entrepreneurs.” That list of quotes like the above as an example has nothing to do with them. They are just quoting famous people from the industry. It's not a lie.

I like the idea but I feel there's a balance to strike with the presentation of humor and ensuring the user doesn't feel the product itself is a fake or satire. Another idea might be to have one of the fake testimonials positioned as "We love this to be you" with maybe a buying flow that offers users who agree to help with product feedback get a discount.

To be honest, I think that the best use of your time is to find the first 10-20 users on your own. I don't think that someone who will land on your site will convert because of a testimonial. If I were you - I would have used Linkedin to reach out to people and ask for feedback. Let them try the product and you'll have 1)Real feedback 2)Testimonials (not sure you'll wanna use them though ;). Here is a text that worked well for us on Linkedin: ________________________________________________________ 1. Friend request with message: 'Hi {receiver.first_name}, my name is Gilad, and I'm just about to launch a new app based on my experience as a freelance consultant and the struggle regarding tax & financials. as a freelance photographer, I think you can help me. Let's connect and I'll explain further. Best, _____________________________________________________ 2. Followup after friend request accepted Thanks for connecting {receiver.first_name} :-) As mentioned, I think you can really help me with my new product. We're in a critical stage of collecting feedback and researching the need for different audiences. I would love to get your feedback on it. Would you be so kind to answer this, very short, anonymized survey. Shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. LINK TO SURVEY Any feedback would be very helpful and appreciated! Thanks, ______________________________________________________ Of course that you can ask them to try your product out and not to fill up a survey. Hope it helps :)

Let me ask: Why do you need social media users? What is your product and what stage are you in?

I understand your pain pretty well, that's what I'm also struggling with. I'd say having fake testimonials isn't bad in case you're not scamming anyone. Humans have this cattle instinct that stops them from trying a product unless someone recommends it. On the other hand, it's kinda obvious that testimonials can be bought. I'd test this option, but my startup Whoonid https://employplan.com/ is B2B for companies with 10+ people and bigger corporations, so we need to post logos of our clients, not anonymous testimonials.

Just be sarcastic, just joke around with testimonials. Humor is a good selling source :)

@caroline_chiari1 For startups, I think the best strategy is to continue offering genuine value and then reaching out to a handful of promising users to test certain features of the product for free. Once that trust and relationship is built, these users can be your source of social proof and testimonials in the beginning.