With over two billion active users, social networks are a great way to promote your brand and accelerate the growth of your business.
Unless, of course, you’re doing it wrong.
To understand how fans can become consumers, major brands invest time and money to analyze their fans’ needs and behavioral trends. This is because converting social media fans requires more than constant sharing; it requires an understanding of the ways they interact and build relationships.
It’s social media after all.
People are rational (more or less)
The reason is a primary characteristic of people. It plays an important role in most of the decisions we make in our daily lives. Likewise, your social media fans may still be looking for a reason to finally try your product or service or click on your call to action.
According to a study by Ellen Langer of Harvard University, people are more likely to respond to certain requests if given a real reason, no matter how absurd.
In the context of marketing, it is related to the idea of a value proposition, which aims to demonstrate a benefit that the user obtains by doing or purchasing something. The slogans of several brands, of course, refer to this approach, with Loreal’s Why You’re Worth It the outright winner in this regard.
Similar psychology can be applied to social media to encourage many types of engagement — from clicking posts to joining a community, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing a product.
Also, try adding a single “why” or anything that seems to be the reason for your request and see what happens.
Reciprocity translates into loyalty
Another common social norm that applies to marketing via Twitter or Facebook suggests that people feel compelled to help someone they have helped before. In practice, the reciprocity rule allows you to do the following:
- Ask for something in return instead of waiting for a voluntary act of reciprocity.
- More questions than is given. You can even exchange a smile for money.
In the field of social media, this means that companies need to establish mutual interaction before asking anything from their users. Therefore, a fan is more likely to respond to the company’s request if it helped them solve a specific problem or get an answer to an industry-related question. Just help your audience…
- Share informative content
- Answer your questions right away
They will then feel that they owe something to your social page and it may be much easier to persuade them to do something for you (take out a survey, free trial, etc.).
A prime example of a company that has used a similar tactic in its social media strategy is Madewell, which launched a #totewell campaign to encourage users to share their images with branded bags and the opportunity to appear in corporate ads. . Long after the campaign ended, people continued to post their photos on social media and became true evangelists for the brand.
A sense of urgency drives action
The familiar urgency has long been used to design effective call buttons on websites, but is often overlooked in social media strategies, unfortunately because its application can go far beyond copyright.
If you’ve ever wondered why limited-time offers and promotions work on social media, here’s your answer.
As with regular promotions, they are more likely to complete an action if people feel they might lose out if they don’t respond quickly without worrying about it. For example, Facebook recommends adding the copy urgently using tips like “free delivery, this weekend only”, “and direct sale in 12 hours” and “two more days” to get more appointments.
While this sense of urgency works for real-time deals or holidays, you can also create an implicit sense of urgency by adding words like “now,” “today,” and so on. to general statements.
Consider: “Sign up for our newsletter and discover a world of marketing” vs. “Subscribe to our newsletter and discover the world of marketing today.”
The effectiveness of these headers has been demonstrated in a series of tests conducted by Marcus Taylor of Venture Harbor. He explains that implementing a sense of urgency in his marketing campaigns has helped him increase sales by 332% and recommends adjusting his bids as follows:
- Increase clarity
- Increase relevance
- Improve the value proposition
- Reduce anxiety
- Reduce distraction
- Add urgency
Curiosity makes you want to know more
When people see a gap between what they know and what you promise they can learn, they are more likely to follow their innate need to learn more. An FMRI experiment found that people’s brain activity increased when confronted with a question that piques their curiosity, making them more involved in a particular topic.
Other studies have shown that the gap can be bridged by addressing the issue directly, as in the case of presidential campaign debates on TV, which aim to educate people about specific issues and thus give them more confidence in their choices.
However, with brands, especially through social media campaigns, companies need to strike the right balance between transparency about product information and a sense of mystery associated with its benefits. For example, by combining informative posts with posts that pique their fans’ curiosity, companies can get the right effect. Additionally, the approach can be combined into a single placement or ad to capture audience attention and drive conversions.
On social media, having a strategically developed business with content that applies basic psychology lessons will likely bring real benefits to the business.