04.07.2019

Psychology in Social Media – 4 Tips for a Successful Social Media Strategy

Social media managers should rely on a few key elements to communicate services visually, emotionally and individually to their customers, guests and followers. Use our four supporting measures for optimal social media planning for your company.

The role of the social media manager can get complicated. The next campaign should go online, but time is running out. Quickly research, design and start wording. Finally done – the campaign is ready. But why aren’t the interactions as high as hoped? Psychology plays a major role in this and is an important component for the dissemination of content in the social media. It is important to understand your target group exactly and to consider their needs and wishes. As a social media manager you should pay attention to some important psychological facts in order to create an optimal presentation on all social media channels.

1. The choice of colour makes you see red?

Probably you often notice for yourself how much colours influence our association. Not for nothing do you speak of “seeing red” when you are irritated, or do you find warm colours such as sunrise and sunset relaxing.

 

So you’re sometimes faced with the challenge of choosing simple colour choices for your corporate Facebook mail to influence your target audience?

 

It takes less than 2 minutes for a viewer to decide for or against a product. More precisely, it takes 90 seconds. The study “Impact of Color on Marketing” was able to explain this fact and the fact that 62 to 90 percent of the assessment is based on colors. The decisive factor, however, is not the colour alone, but the fact whether the colour matches the brand and the product. The personality of the brand should be underlined, whereby the colour decision should match the brand voice. You should also consider which message you want to convey and which specific colors the message can support. In addition to the associations with certain colors, the context is decisive. Possible color associations would be green for “go” & yellow for “happy”.

 

What exactly means which colour and what is associated with it, you can find out here in detail, inspired by specialist literature and opinions of colour psychologists.

2. Integrate “User Generated Content”

“Never buy from someone you don’t know,” a motto you often hear. Strangers trust you less than people who are known. This seems logical, but many companies are not aware of how much this statement can influence their own marketing.

 

The key hormone behind all the physical processes in our body is called oxytocin. It is also known as feel-good hormone or binding hormone and is released when we feel secure and part of something.

The experiment of an energy supplier showed that customers who observed the consumer behaviour of their neighbours reflected this in its basic features. This was independent of whether they had previously consumed more or less energy.

 

“People are more likely to change their mind or behaviour when they feel better from the result, and that often means being part of a larger group,” explains Ogilvy PR CEO Chris Graves.

 

And that’s exactly why you, as the person responsible for social affairs, should rely on User Generated Content (UGC). Already satisfied customers are the best way to show your new customers how well you and your company are doing. A study by the Olapic platform has taken this as its basic idea. According to their results, 76 percent of all consumers believe that the content the “average people” share is more authentic than simple brand advertising.

The key hormone in our body: oxytocin, the feel-good hormone. (Source: iStock.com /alvarez)

3. The majority of online users better understand visuals

Visual aids are indispensable if you want to generate awareness for your target group. No matter if video, photo or illustration – with visual components you manage to attract the readers’ attention and influence their decisions. This also applies to readers who actively search for or compare products.

It should be added that, according to a study by the Current Health Sciences Journal, 65 percent of the population are visual learners. The classification of the different learning styles was derived from the VAK model.

 

This model divides the learning styles into visual learners, auditory learners and kinaesthetic learners. Thus, visual elements are one of the most important components in marketing your product.

Source: EAP Foundation

4. Of positivism and emojis

When certain emotions are evoked, the probability of a message being passed on increases. This interpretation has been proven by the journal Psychological Science. When people are psychologically aroused by the exchange of information, the vegetative nervous system is activated, thus promoting social transmission. Almost everyone is now aware that emotional content has a far greater impact on the audience than others.

 

Now researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that the more positive a content, the more often it is shared. Also, appropriate humor and especially emojis help to increase the number of shares & links. Thus, the emotional contagiousness of people is an ideal way to build up a bond with your audience.

Another interesting point is that the study “emoticons and phrases: Status symbols in social media” showed that people who frequently use positive emojis on Twitter are generally more popular and influential. The resulting morality for your business: Integrate entertaining emojis into your content!

 

Here you will find a large selection of emojis for your content. Just Copy & Paste.

 

So you can see how you can play to get your target audience to the right place. These four tips will help you to decide more quickly on suitable social media strategies and will certainly bring added value to your company.

Source cover: iStock.com /Uruong

[plista]