So Everyone Has Become A Social Media Expert Have They?

It’s funny, but I’ve recently noticed a disturbing trend when attending conferences or even dinner parties that more and more people are claiming to be social media experts.

This is an interesting statement for most people, because when I dive deeper into what they mean, there is a belief that social media expertise is simply using Facebook, Snapchat or whichever platform they happen to prefer using personally. 

What they really mean is ‘hey, I use social platforms;’ and my friends is not really news. Almost two billion people around the world use them. Does that make two billion people social media ‘experts’ and more importantly, what does that even mean?

Time and again ‘social media’ has come to mean distributing any marketing collateral that works above the line on social platforms, with no refinement and no consideration of whether that format and style is appropriate. Because many of the major platforms are now advertising channels, marketers are getting away with sloppy, poor creative thinking because media agencies simply boost poor ideas and poor quality posts with media dollars. This my friends, is not ‘social media expertise’. Nor is managing the social media communities that you’ve paid huge sums of money to acquire with interns or poorly trained people that really don’t have any idea of brand, brand voice or even the purpose of why the communities exist.

Oddly enough, there is a science behind what makes successful social strategies and underneath the kittens, the cute animals and the catchy tunes and dances you will find some pretty smart thinking.

The Science of Sharing

There is a specific behavioural psychology behind social media that’s more than just pulling on the heart strings. In fact, by appealing to a specific part of the human brain, you have a better chance of creating a wildly popular campaign. Enter the TPJ, or Temporal Parietal Junction; the part of the brain that is activated when someone considers whether or not to share something.

The TPJ is located on both sides of the brain, just behind the ears. Its job is to effectively connect us with the beliefs and thoughts of others. It is a ruling force behind empathy. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles wanted to find out why we pass some information on, or share it, while leaving hundreds of other images and posts alone. What they discovered was that what really matters isn’t how visually appealing an image or idea is to the viewer, but how the viewer perceives others might enjoy the image or idea.  In other words, social media sharing has a lot to do with intuition and understanding.

True social literally puts PEOPLE as the medium of the experience and the message; a way of communication that is extremely powerful to us as humans.

We want to be tribal, we want to show we are good global citizens, we want to ‘belong’. You just need to glance at the things I see popping up in my news feeds time and again (I live in Dubai where the summer has kicked in with a vengeance, and are now seeing temperatures of up to 50 C).

Check out what people have been sharing with me on Instagram and Facebook just this week!

Social Proof

Being the first is pioneering; it’s brave and even inspirational to some, but most of us never want to take that leap of faith and be the first to like something. It’s too risky. We see this reluctance to change behavior time and time again, and one of my favourite examples of this is when Marriott Hotels were trying to persuade hotel guests to take up their ‘save water ‘ CSR initiative by only washing sheets and towels when essential. For six months they had real problems getting their guests to change their behavior. Despite the polite requests on their bedside table or in the bathroom, guests simply didn’t want to.

It was only when some bright spark decided to use social proof mechanics in the information collateral by the sink that guest behavior changed, and it changed overnight. What was the magic message the hotel used?

“75% of our guests prefer to save water and not wash sheets and towels every day, if you are one of them please leave your towels on the rail otherwise leave as per usual on the floor for collection.”

If our tribe is doing something we are much more inclined to follow suit. The same principle follows for social strategic communications. We are more likely to share images or content if they were shared by someone we know and trust. Holler/Leo Burnett’s famous campaign #LikeAGirl is a fantastic testament to that behavior. Although the topic was a sensitive one because the campaign was shared by other women to other women, some with daughters, some without, every single woman could relate to the core message. This is why Always #LikeAGirl campaign has garnered over 57 million views. All it took was individuals sharing the video with those that trusted them — indicating that, despite the title, it was a video worth watching — and social proof was well underway. 

Science of Attraction

Attraction to motion was programmed into humans over thousands of years. In our species’ sub-Saharan days in Africa, we were always on the lookout for predators or our next meal.

Today we don’t have to dodge danger or track down our next meal, but motion is still a powerful way to capture attention. There are a few ways you can take advantage of that in your social media ads, and this is why Facebook invested so heavily in their video capability. We LOVE moving pictures. Just look at how powerful Instagram became when it leveraged video content, and the way that Snapchat understood and tapped into this innate human desire. GIFs and videos tap directly into your brain in a way that pulls your attention to them.

Google+, Tumblr and Twitter all allow you to use GIFs in ads. I suggest taking the time to create animated GIFs for your most important ads in order to pull the user’s attention to you. This is particularly important if you’re trying to communicate to millennials. They are all natives on these platforms because they provide them with instantly accessible content, which is easy to digest and more importantly easy to share. 

Dad Was Right

When I was a little girl, my father always said that women that left a little bit to the imagination were instantly more appealing than those that did not. Although Kim Kardashian contradicts this statement, the science behind his statement is solid and still appeals to most people. Our brains love solving mysteries or puzzles.

That is why hype, buzz and mystery around a certain consumer tech brand’s new products are so powerful. We want to discover, uncover and play. A puzzle actually increases the chance of you capturing and holding the viewer’s attention.

So mystery equals impact. It’s a little known but very powerful trick we use.

And finally – PEOPLE

It might sound obvious but effective social strategies need to really focus on people. Time and again I neglect to see brands including the people that they are trying to engage with in their communications. How are we expected to care about a brand that only wants a one way monologue, delivers little value and never seems to care about what we care about or listen to our point of view or thoughts?

There’s no doubt that the ability to capture and hold attention is a prized skill for marketers. Marketers who understand how the brain works can effectively use that hardwiring to capture attention. What’s clear to me is that it requires far more than just participating on the platforms themselves. It takes genuine knowledge and a deep understanding of human behavior and how the brain works to be a smart social media expert.

What do you think? Do you agree? What is your experience about how social is becoming a much misunderstood commodity?