The Pre-crime Department: Social Media

June 13, 2013

I found this very interesting article which argues that social media engagement is not itself a strategy but a tactic - and that institutions should focus on the long term with social media.

The article gives the example of the Dutch Bank ABN AMRO, which used social media as a digital CRM platform to maintain customer satisfaction. What peaked my interest was the firm's use of "pre-customer support" - truly being able to anticipate what customers need before the need has fully developed. This idea reminded me of the hit 2002 summer blockbuster Minority Report where a fictions enforcement agency arrested individuals before a crime was committed. in the movie, the Precrime department was able to predict individuals intentions and arrest individuals for future crimes. This is a very interesting idea that can be applied to social media.

No, not arresting people for a future crime based on a tweet. In the article's example, there was a special embedded section in customer management department that would scour social networks to find customer's having problems in order to provide them with trustworthy and accurate financial solutions. This idea of "pre-customer support" is extremely powerful in that you can address developing problems before they ever arise. In practice, individuals need not be customer's of ABN AMRO or have even mentioned the financial institutions they use - a powerful tool to poach customers. I think this would lead to a stronger conversion rate and higher retention rate of customers.

50 Tweets = Ability to Scientifically Predict Personality and Buying Behavior.

June 6, 2013

I will be saying this till I'm blue in the face - linguistics is a great tool to impact marketing, branding and segmentation. What you say - more specifically how you say it, describes a lot about your own personality. This article I found suggests that just by capturing 50 tweets companies can analyze and predict what products or services you are more likely to buy.

But how? Let me describe a little bit of the science behind tweet psychology.

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us

By James W. Pennebaker

"The quick foxed jumped over the mean lazy brown dog."

Ok. Now, you ready? This is going to be very, very, very hard. Pay attention. Please keep reading this sentence a bit, maybe this word "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" - I just need you to get further down this paragraph so you can't see the first sentence. GOOD - Don't look up! Now, how many non-verb/subject/adv/adj words were in the sentence about the fox from above. If you said 3, you're a super-freak - No, JK, you are normal however the point of this exercise is to demonstrate the transient nature of pronouns (and all other words that aren't verbs, adjs, advs or nouns for that matter). Your brain is programmed to strip away this non-essential information like meat from a bone. Pronouns and all of these filler words (because, that, we, up, therefore, she, besides, however) are parsed out of normal conversation and forgotten. Your brain remembers the: Who, What, Where, When and Why - the meat.

When in doubt, follow the crazy people

Pronouns and Nouns/Verbs/Adj/etc are filed in two completely different sections of the brain. One way to prove this is to study the effects of brain damage and speech. There are actually two different types of studied medical injuries that are a result of brain damage in two separate parts of the brain - the two injuries would speak thusly:

“You know, that stuff where those things move up and down and even though things come out”

— Patient Bud Abbott

“Mary knows keyboard keys help people print documents”

— Patient Lou Costello

You'll notice that Bud Abbot has a hard time using anything but "filler words" (pronouns, prepositions) while Lou Costello can't seem to find one single filler word - he only uses proper names and verbs. This is because Bud Abbot has received damage to the Nouns/Verbs/Adj/etc processing center of his brain while Lou Costello has received damage to his filler "social words" processing center.

Twitter pronouns are key to marketing

So, now we agree that filler words, compared to nouns and verbs, are contained in different boxes in the mind? Would it surprise you to hear that pronouns and fillers are kept in the very front, youngest part of the brain - the "social" box? (which makes sense as they are social referents). Nope? Moving right along, how you use these social referents tells us a lot about how you live in a social world. For example, do you use the "I" pronoun more than the "we" pronoun? DID YOU KNOW - men use the pronoun "I" slightly more often then women, while women use the pronouns "You /He/She" slightly more often than men.

So users that tweet "s/he" more often and use causal words (because, cause, on account of) are more likely to be rational, logical, social thinkers - who would obviously gravitate to a certain kind of product or experience. Now the game is over. BAM, once the company has you profiled they can market to you more effectively.

Research has already shown that these traits link to buying behaviour. Agreeable people prefer Pepsi to Coke and if you link your product messages to excitement and adventure, it will appeal to the extroverts.

All well and good, but how can brands find out the psychological profiles of their potential customers? After all, no-one is going to go through a long personality test to give marketers the information they need to harass them.

The answer is via social media, specifically Twitter. IBM’s research has used software to analyse three months data from 90m Twitter users, matching the words people use against their values and needs. It took just 50 tweets to get a reasonable match for their personality and a very good fit from 200.

Science Of Persuasion - Social Media Strategy

June 4, 2013

Now, please imagine the power to convince your followers with a single tweet - to be in control of user's perceptions with a single status update. Why would want this ability - because social media in its nature is a persuasive technology, having a firm grip on customer's behaviors and desires.

science-of-persuasion-for-lawyers-courtroom-jury-consultants.jpg

In his YouTube video Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor of Persuasion in Arizona, outlines 6 universals that guide human behavior and most influence action.

"You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours"

Reciprocity. Studies show that human beings have an innate need to "return a favor". In one study, post cards were mailed out across the US to random addresses and strangers. Around 80% actually got around to sending return post cards back to the "reply to" address. In social media, the reciprocity tendency means that engagement starts with yourself and that you need to listen more than you create buzz. Want to have followers and hype? You need to engage with individuals without agenda to build up that need for them reciprocate. Example: On LinkedIn - do you want to build up amazing endorsements for all those skills you've listed on your profile? (which is an amazing social tool to keep users dialed in to the site). Start endorsing others and the majority will come around and thank you with an endorsement back. However the gift must be either sincere, personalized or unexpected - or else you will seem to have the agenda and the jig is up.

"You Always Want What you Can't Have"

Scarcity. This is one is pretty universal - it can explain the law of supply and demand. The less there is of a thing, the more value that thing has - the more people want it. This one seems to against everything social media stands for - as social media is literally a "democratization of media" and access for all. Ironically, scarcity is hard to find. Environments of scarcity can be created - through online competitions, limited releases, release links that shut down after a designated time or amount of clicks and even websites that market themselves as member's only clubs like guilt.com or jackthreads.com .

"Follow Me, I Know What I'm Doing"

Authority . People respond positively to authority and tend to find such figures very persuasive - I'm sure we've all heard of Milgram's Experiment. Therefore it is important that inidividuals develop some type of online proficiency or niche expertise. Boiled down to the tweet level, it is important to embrace traditional displays of power or authority. In other words, how you say something matters. When you tweet to persuade - be bold, be confident and make big choices - give them something decisive and a lot more than you expect will fall in line.

"If that is what I did last time, then..."

Consistency. This effect manifests itself by an individual's desire to stay consistent in their actions and outward behavior. If you ask someone for a penny and compliment them on "how generous they are", that person will be more likely to give you a 10$ bill the next time around. This means that every little favor matters and that you should consider using many of these 6 rules together to become highly convincing online. Start out asking as little as possible from your active users, but as you build up a rapport and expected behavior the relationship can blossom.

"Virtual CRM - Sincerity is Key"

Linking . If you are easy to like as a person, than odds are you are more likely to be persuasive. It goes without saying that the same is true online because whet boils right down it is never accounts that interact but individual people - no matter how large the entity. When handling others the universal rule applies - you have to cooperate with others and pay them compliments - treat them how you would like to be treated. It's amazing how simple this rule is, but that makes it all the more forgettable.

"If They're Doing it, I Should Do it"

Consensus . This is the oldest social phenomena in the book - the snow-ball effect. However I think it is important to distinguish this from viral phenomena. Most people share viral posts/videos/photos for the novelty of the engagement piece but also to be first to make the kill. People enjoy being the first in their social circle to share a viral post, the same way people enjoy having higher Klout scores (the two are connected FYI). Regardless, this consensus tendency has been somewhat deadened online, as online is demonstration of a use's unique identity. The use of consensus to build persuasive content must be used in very specific ways so as not to step on anyone's virtual toes.

+ Magical Words of Persuasion

Because
Now
Please
Thank You
Imagine...
"A Person's Name"
Control Words - In Charge, In Control, Its Up to You.

For more visit our blog at www.insideinfluence.com Animation describing the Universal Principles of Persuasion based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University. Dr. Robert Cialdini & Steve Martin are co-authors (together with Dr. Noah Goldstein) of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week International Bestseller Yes!