If you want to improve your social media results fast, you may want to consider focusing on psychology. Psychology is the study of the human mind and what affects human behavior in a given context. Use this strategy to make your readers feel connected to you and your brand, to build trust and at the same time make them feel better about themselves.
As you improve your social media posts, you should remember that understanding the human mind and behavior takes a while. You must be able to find the best approach for you to take in order to meet your goals as a brand and as a business entity. You need to invest in making an effort to your business goals and making people want to want you. People will notice you more if you influence them, so read on to find out 7 psychological studies for you to get tips to improve your posts.
#1 Framing Effect
A person’s response to a situation differs whether it is seen as advantageous or disadvantageous to them. This is something you want to look into when you create your next social media post. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman conducted a study on polling groups of participants on which treatment they are going to choose for disease-infected people. Participants chose those who give the clean and simple gain in life-saving, and the alternative of a treatment which has clearly a negative effect.
Positive scripting is a way to improve your social media posts. Frame your content in a way that it directly impacts the reaction of your audience. As much as possible, express your message in a positive way so that your audience can see a clear gain from what you what them to know and understand.
#2 Social Proof
Perhaps the most popular psychological phenomenon in the hype of social media posts is the informational social influence, also known as social proof. Among various types of this, user social proof is key to improving your posts as it encompasses the approval or positive reception of the current users on a particular experience with the brand and its product or service. Metrics range from ratings, reviews, likes, favorites, case studies, awards, recognitions, and even the overall development of the brand and its offerings.
Building a steady following and fan base is vital in this way to improve your social media posts. While it may be tempting to purchase fake followers and spam for likes, this will hurt you in the long run. If your brand and offerings aren’t as good as it seems to be, not only will you lose customers but your credibility as a business entity. It may take a while for you to reach your ideal level of social proof to make a great impact on people, but you should trust your brand and the offerings you have developed to cater to the needs of your target market.
#3 Conformity and Social Influence
Improving your social media posts entails the understanding that people change the way they behave to be more like others. Solomon Asch conducted an experiment in 1958 to study conformity of a person to the majority. Actors were instructed to give the wrong answers in a class answering questions on a quiz. Even though the correct answer is obvious, the majority of the students gave the same answers as the actors.
In your social media posts, you may want to have influencers and leaders in your industry help you in making what you want to offer more valuable than other alternatives. They have already made a name for themselves, have become credible and trust-worthy enough to have a great impact on what the people decide to invest their money with. Your connections in your niche will help you especially in this aspect since they also have their own following as well. Your post becomes an opportunity for more engagements in the future.
#4 Reciprocity
People feel obliged to give back what has been given to them, and this human behavior is something you can consider in improving your social media posts. Several studies have been conducted in relation to this principle, one of which is the study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology involving candy to increase tips to restaurant waiters. Tips increase by 3% when diners were given a candy upon delivering the check, and by 20% when the customer was looked in the eye, given a second candy while letting them know that the candy was especially for them.
In social media posts, you can maximize this principle in your interactions also with influencers and leaders in your industry. Make sure that they know you have gone the extra mile by featuring them and their work in your posts through the posting of a link directing to their source and quoting them. Reciprocity means a lot to people, and it may take several mentions and shares until you receive a positive response from them. It may be through acknowledgment of your communication, engagement in your post, or sharing of your own content they find interesting.
#5 Mere Exposure Theory
Another tip for improving your social media posts is the theory that the more people are exposed to something, the more it is liked. Robert Zajonic performed a research based on the mere-repeated-exposure paradigm wherein one is exposed repeatedly to a stimulus, and the researcher records the emerging preference of the individual on that stimulus. In this case, non-Chinese speaking or writing individuals were shown Chinese characters, some more than others. The results showed that the more often a character is seen, the better positive meaning it is given.
Exposing your brand and offering as often (but not at an annoying rate) to your audience is a way to improve your social media posts. You want to send them a message so reminding the audience can have a direct impact on them. With social media post schedulers available online, like JARVEE, you can strategically schedule your posts to make sure that your presence will be consistently felt. You can create unique content with each post, alter the presentation while maintaining the message, and/or repeat the post itself.
#6 Endowment Effect
In your next social media post, remember that people generally give high value to what they own, and would want more for what it is worth when it is being sold. Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler studied this effect on participants given mugs. This was regularly priced at $5.00, but was doubled the value when those given the mugs were made to sell the ones given to them. Apparently, there is an instantaneous substantial increase in the value of an object given to an individual upon it is given to them.
Increasing the ownership of your product and/or brand in your next social media post by encouraging them to give feedback on their experience and suggestions for improvement. Get them involved in engaging in your other social media platforms to share their experience with other consumers of your product/service. If you have groups, discussion boards, or forums, invite them in these as well. These interactions are a form of verification of their personal experience with your brand and product, therefore increasing your value and what they have availed from you.
#7 Buffer Effect of Social Support
Your brand availability and support is something you would want to resonate in improving your upcoming social media posts. Nucholls, Callell, and Kaplin investigated in 1972 complications in pregnant women. They found out that the percentage of complications of those with high-stress levels and high social support is about a third less than those with high-stress levels and low social support.
Those who have experienced your brand and what you have to offer are the ones who will directly be benefiting if you choose to adopt this tip to improve your social media posts. After-sales care is vital since they have invested their financial resource to what you have to offer. Letting them know consistently that you are within reach for any comments, concerns, or even suggestions will enable you to learn what to maintain and improve to serve your customers better. This also builds loyalty as you have helped them feel comfortable to interact with you as a brand.
Wrapping it up
These are 7 different psychology tips to improve your social media posts. Positive scripting will help your audience see clearly what they can gain from you. Feedback from your current customers will help you improve, and even attract potential customers.
Connect and establish good relationships with influencers and leaders in your industry to help improve your social media posts as well. They can send out the good word about you. They would also feel the need to reciprocate goodness or any act of good will you have extended to them.
Making your presence consistently felt in the social media world also produces a beneficial result when applied to your social media posts. Your brand would garner greater popularity and influence in the choices your customers and potential customers will make. As your consumers experience your product or service, increase their sense of ownership to increase the value they give to it and to your brand. After-sales care is also important, thus ensure your customers that you are concerned about them and their brand experience.
Morris Stepleton says
I’ve seen some great people talk about #1. ” don’t sell people what they need, sell what they WANT ” is what proves to be a great selling tactic. Although one can go pretty unethical with that. However, that is up for you to decide.
Ione Melian says
Talking about social proofs, I recall observing a youtube channel that used to have millions of views ( fake ) and used to show up on the trending pages of youtube. The content was that great at all and the only real views were in the thousands ( I concluded that by observing other videos and social profiles of theirs). However, they turned it up a notch in content and now even the REAL views they get are around in the millions.
Social proof really is key.
Adam says
Interesting example, thanks for sharing Ione.
Courtney says
Social proof in Reddit works wonders too, Redditors are very very likely to upvote a post if they see countless other upvotes on a post. Of course, the opposite can happen too.
Adam says
Yes, on Reddit it can go either way very fast, you need to be really careful with this one.
Julietta Westrup says
Thanks to #3, I now understand why influencer marketing is so powerful! And as beneficial as it can get, it can also lead to a disaster if someone negatively influences your product!
Noe Vanhorn says
Reciprocity is a core aspect of well-constructed sales funnels as well. This is why the start of your sales funnel or pipeline should be something free and the next step being something of even more value.
Adam says
Definitely, free ebooks are generally used a lot for this.
Margeret Savarino says
Mere Exposure therapy is why big brands produce daily content. Is it also why they run retargeting campaigns?
Adam says
That and to make sure they retain those clients.
Columbus Peluso says
This is a very well written article. I have a question though, #7 was a study done on pregnant women, does it really hold true for marketing in business?
Adam says
It should, yes, concepts are the same.
Romario Wong says
There is so much more happening on social networks behind the scene when it comes to psychology effects, even when we are not aware of it. Some content creators are aware of this and they use it in their advantage, however there are still a lot of them who are not aware of it.
Debbie says
There is so much more happening on social networks behind the scene when it comes to psychology effects, even when we are not aware of it. Some content creators are aware of this and they use it in their advantage, however there are still a lot of them who are not aware of it.
Vladimir says
Social proof is very important for each brand. You should invest some time in this and be patient about it. I will start paying off at one point and then it will bring you much more than what you would get for getting fake followers.
Margarita says
I love this psychology stuff, it goes into your mind 🙂 Great tips, great article. After reading this article we all can see what media are doing with our minds and what we can do to our niche,our potential audience.
Lauren says
Interesting stuff, thank you for sharing this with us. I agree with one of the comments here on the thread, these are great strategies that you can use to improve your social media posts, but some users can be unethical with it and this s something I personally wouldn’t take advantage of.
Dennis says
I have tried to grow my account very fast with fake followers and likes, but, as it wrote in this article, that’s not the strategy for the long run. My personal experience showed that going slow is going safely.
Ling Wu says
I liked the part of SOCIAL RECIPROCITY, this mind game is very efficient but it has some slightly different rules than in “real” life, but, still, we can use it for improving our social media position.
Mia says
It’s indeed very tempting to buy fake followers and engagement when you’re just starting. I did it on my account because I wanted to appear more influential, but I learned that doing that did more harm than good. In the end I had to let go of my account, and create a completely new account because I got constantly issues like shadowban, and felt like Instagram punished my account.
Elaina M says
Yes, that is true. It is better to organically grow your account, while the process may take a while, it’ll kick off eventually.