The Customer Certificates That 3x Social Shares
The Story
Wiz started giving “Cloud Security Excellence” certificates to customers who eliminated all critical security issues using the platform. “When they reach zero, we send a personalized certificate. And they share it.” (Source 1).
The same playbook was extended to people completing Wiz’s CTF challenges (Source 1).
The result: “our social shares jumped by 300% almost overnight.” (Source 1).
The single design rule that determines whether a certificate gets shared: “The real trick is to make the recipient’s name the largest element in the image (not your own logo).” (Source 1).
The compounding effect: “When you make your customers look brilliant online, they share it with their entire network. Their network sees it and wants the same recognition.” (Source 1).
Tom’s framing of the underlying principle: “It’s really simple: Make other people look good, and good things happen.” (Source 1).
Lesson for Creators
Most B2B “customer marketing” makes the company the hero — case studies framed as “how we helped [customer]” with the company’s logo and metrics center stage. Tom inverts the geometry: the customer’s name is the largest element, the company is just the issuer. The result is that the customer feels seen and shares, which puts the company in front of the customer’s entire network. The 300% spike is the surface metric; the deeper unlock is that Wiz’s customers became the distribution channel for Wiz’s brand. The critical design choice is the size hierarchy on the certificate — get that wrong and it looks like a pat on the back from the vendor; get it right and it looks like an award the customer earned.
Related
- Employee Advocacy - 100 Percent Work, 100 Percent Credit — the same “make others look good” pattern, internal version
- Infographics That Add No Information — same shareability-via-ego logic, different artifact
- The Wiz Drops Playbook — the broader Wiz strategy these certificates fit into
- The Sponsor Deck Tweet That Sold Out Months of Ads — Packy McCormick: contrast - making yourself look transparent rather than making others look smart
- The Dink Awards - A Niche People’s Choice Made the Industry Co-Promote — Thomas Shields: same “make others look good and they distribute it” logic, scaled to entire industry orgs as winners