RBM: Weapons of Influence - Vincent Ma

We live in a very complex world where we are bombarded by thousands of messages welcomed and unwelcomed from friends family strangers and companies To borrow one of my colleagues often used terms 39we are experiencing the world in a state of constant partial attention39 This concept of 39alwayson39 world of constant stimulation reminded me of a great book I recently read titled Influence Science and Practice by Robert CialdiniUsing psychology theory scientific testing and real world examples Cialdini outlines six 39weapons of influence39 that can be used to persuade others into action These six principles include reciprocation commitment ampamp consistency social proof liking authority and scarcity He argues that these principles work because of the way humans use mental shortcuts to make sense of the world The influence principles essentially take advantage of these shortcuts we rely on to deal with the world around us At the end of the book he makes an interesting note about how the rapid pace of technology is creating a greater need for us to use brainwavesaving shortcuts Something I think it is very pertinent in this new media ageAs a digital marketer I couldnamp8217t help by try to apply lessons learned from these influence principles to some of the challenges in designing effective advertising experiences Weamp8217ll cover 3 of these influence principles in the post and the rest in subsequent postsamp183 Social Proof One important means that people use to decide what to believe or how to act is to look at what other people are believing or doing in a given situation This concept of social proof is one reason why integrating social media into your overall digital strategy is so powerful As Bing and Google continue to integrate social data as relevance cues and personalize search results based on your network the importance of coordinating your SEO and social media efforts around content creation and syndication will be even more critical Creating great content for your blog or your YouTube channel must be accompanied by optimizing that content to be discovered on the search engines Conversely building out a SEO strategy without the great linking benefits of a great influencer outreach campaign will make link building an uphill battle In addition if your business is tied to a physical locations consider implementing a strong local search strategy It is important to pay attention to ratings and reviews of local focused sites like yelp citysearch and Google maps The ratings can be a very powerful tool if managed correctlyamp183 Liking This rule simply says that people prefer to say yes to individuals they know and like I think this leads to one of the biggest opportunities for brands today Brands that embrace social media as a way of doing business and just as a channel now have great tools to give the brand a voice and to ultimately humanize the brand One dimension of liking is similarity This similarity can be based on opinions background personality traits and verbal style Customer research based on a robust social media monitoring program will provide great insights into what your audience is passionate about and how they talk about it which will in turn inform your content and communication strategyamp183 Scarcity Based on both economics and psychology this principle works for two reasons First when people assign more value to opportunities when they are less available Second as Cialdini says 39things become less accessible we lose freedom39 According to psychological reactance theory we respond to the loss of freedoms by wanting to have them more than before39 Putting this principle into practice weamp8217ve worked with ad networks that offer ad units that can be programmed with countdown clocks and are integrated into our clientamp8217s inventory system to dynamically create messages similar to 39hurry only 10 left39 that have shown to be very effectiveIf you have the time I suggest you pick up a copy and give it a quick read before we cover the remaining weapons of influence in the next post Youamp8217ll quickly start noticing these influence principles playing out in your day to day routine and will be more aware of your own predispositions and shortcutsVincent Ma is The Product Guy at RBM He is an experienced product manager with a proven track record of developing processes and applications that drive value for companies of all sizes He can be reached at vmaredbricksmediacomRead all Vincent39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at The BrickwireCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility 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