The advent of the digital age has made it easier for people to communicate and release any content they wish for others to see, listen to, or read. Thanks to the emergence of numerous social media platforms, individuals across different sectors have improved their ability to convey messages and speak their truths. Marketing expert Abdallah Hawshar has seen this firsthand.
From the get-go, one should keep in mind that understanding their audience or market is the key to any kind of success on social media. Studies have shown that the best way to do this is to learn some of the basic principles of psychology.
Here are seven social media psychology lessons by Abdallah Hawshar that would help anyone provide better content, increase engagement, and understand where their customers or clients are coming from.
- People share content, hoping that it will resonate with others.
The New York Times conducted an extensive study and found five key reasons why people share content online—to improve the lives of others, to define themselves, to grow and nourish relationships, to achieve self-fulfillment, and to get the word out about causes they believe in. The aforementioned motivations show that people’s main reason for sharing content is to establish relationships with others and not to know more about a particular brand.
When it comes to sharing articles, videos, and photos on social media, avoid including any content that most individuals cannot relate to.
- People tend to trust their peers.
Ogilvy PR CEO Chris Graves hosted a webinar in which he discussed the ways marketers can earn the trust of their customers. “People are more likely to change their mind or behaviors when the result makes them feel better about themselves, and oftentimes that means being part of a larger group,” he explained.
He described an experiment conducted by a power company that found that customers who were shown their neighbors’ consumption habits wanted to mirror those.
In another study, the visual content platform Olapic found that 76 percent of consumers believe the content that ordinary people share is more honest than advertising from brands.
- Most people are visual learners.
A study from the Current Health Sciences Journal points to the widely shared stat that 65% percent of the general population are visual learners.
Having a visual aid is essential when it comes to engaging with an audience and having them remember your content. Integrating a visual component such as a video, photo, or any illustration is effective in reaching out to people who are on the lookout for comparing products and learning more about potential purchases.
- Color plays a significant role in establishing a brand.
“People make up their minds within 90 seconds of their initial interactions with either people or products. About 62 to 90 percent of the assessment is based on colors alone,” a study called Impact of Color on Marketing revealed.
The study also explained that it is important to use colors that express one’s brand’s personality rather than trying to take advantage of stereotypical color associations.
- Feel-good or lighthearted content gets shared more often.
Although all emotion-inducing content was found to have a bigger impact on the audience, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that the more positive the content, the more it was shared.
When sharing content, people should try incorporating more positive elements. This would help their brand, product, or service in leaving a good impression on the audience.
- A customer’s personal experience helps in giving greater value to a product.
The Endowment Effect is a cognitive bias that points to people assigning a greater value to something if they have some type of ownership over it. As a social marketer or brand owner, this can be applied by creating authentic content that highlights someone using and finding value in a certain product. Through this representation, it would be easier to establish that same value for other potential consumers.
- Customer service is everything.
The concept of reciprocity is crucial in social marketing. Doing something nice for others would prompt the latter to do something nice in return. Giving away freebies can help any business owner build trust with their audience.
