Business Strategies for Social MediaLeveraging Persuasive Architecture
Presented to Central CT Society for Information ManagementOctober, 2011
Michael Rawlins, User Experience Strategist
About me...Michael RawlinseBusiness Product Manager at Cigna
•Certified Usability Analyst since 2003•Certified User Experience Analyst (late 2012)•Early adopter of Social Networking•Instructor of:
•Usability Testing Methods •Interaction Design Techniques•Persuasive Design Techniques (PET)•Social Networking Strategy
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Why is social media compelling?
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Big Hardware Smaller Hardware Software People!
Social Media...
60’s - mid 70’s mid-70’s - 80’s 90’s Now
Shifting Technology Focus...
Facebook has reached 800 million active
users...
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
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Linkedin has over 100 million
profiles...
http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/03/22/linkedin-100-million/
Growth Statistics Since 2005
5Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-growth-of-social-media-2011/
Social media becoming routine...Becoming routine formany people
Communitiesare becoming mature and diverse in types ofsubscribers
More multi-channel designexpected
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YouTube
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-growth-of-social-media-2011/
What are people doing?
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Connecting with friends,family and work peers
Promoting businesses,causes and interests
Redefining how theycommunicate
Source: Pew Research
Social media roles...
9Source: Forrester Research
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Companies participating...
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-growth-of-social-media-2011/
Global reach & impact...
12Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-growth-of-social-media-2011/
The business drivers need to change!
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14Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-growth-of-social-media-2011/
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Form Factor
CognitiveInvolvement
PersuasiveDesign
Source: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-the-growth-of-social-media-2011/
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Persuasion theory...Life = making choices
More information = more difficult to choose
More choices available = more difficult to choose
People have developed semi-automatic reactions to help make choices
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Prefrontal Cortex @ logic (no!)
Controls reasoning and logic
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Amygdala @ emotions (yes!)
Semi-automatic reactions
Influencing people...Reciprocation
Commitment & Consistency
Social Proof
Authority
Liking
Scarcity19
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Social motivatorsRecognition
Belonging
Comparison
Facilitation
Peer Pressure
Cooperation
Competition
Social Control
Loss Aversion
Dissonance
Leveraging persuasion...Use reciprocity to give things away for free and people will return
People are inclined to return favors you have done for them
Chances are you’re already giving something away for free
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“Freemium” strategies...Free newsletters and RSS Feeds
Free tips
Free webinars/podcast
Free trial software
Goal: Ask users/visitors to promote your content in return for what they get
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The sub-conscious mind... When something is scarce, people automatically perceive it to be more valuable
Scarcity in time is extremely effective (example: limited access to content, previews, etc.)
Scarcity in amount is equally effective in gaining users/visitors attention
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Designing for trust... Authority figures can trigger behaviors... Establishing authority makes it easy for people to choose you, your product or service offering over the next distraction
Social Proof “People are like sheep!”. The more information we put in front of our users/visitors, the more they rely on other people’s choices to make their own
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Changing behaviors...Commitment/Consistency: the moment people decide on something, they start convincing themselves it’s the right choice
Goal: Leveraging all of these elements as part of a Persuasive Architecture enables smart companies to rationalize social media initiatives
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Create, Test, Adjust...
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http://designingsocialinterfaces.com/patterns/Main_Page
http://www.verifyapp.com
Piano stairs - TheFunTheory.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
Applied Persuasion...
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Key Points...
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This is the age of Person-to-Person-to-Person communication.
Provides a B-to-C and B-to-B framework.
Many social networks have an underlying design based on persuasive influence markers like reciprocity, likability and social proof.
Social networks are redefining how people gain answers to questions - and accessing news & information.
You’ll Need to Dig Deeper...Business strategies need to go beyond ‘parity plays’
Quantify successes by usability testing (leverage new applications in the cloud like Verifyapp.com)
ROI will come from data-mining and behavioral modeling
Treat persuasive architecture just like technical architecture (hire a Persuasion Architect or a User Experience Strategist)
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Thank you!
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