What draws us to social media to the point of “addiction”?
Or is it all in our minds? And yet it’s quite real and we can take advantage of it by representing our brand or business well. All thanks to two chemicals our brain produces: dopamine and oxytocin.
Dopamine
Scientists used to think that dopamine was a pleasure chemical in the brain, but now we know that what it really creates is desire. Dopamine makes us seek, desire and crave. It is stimulated by the unexpected, by small clues and information as well as by reward cues – almost the exact conditions that prevail on social media. The pull of dopamine is so strong that studies have shown that it is harder for people to resist posting something on social media than it is to resist cigarettes and alcohol.
Oxytocin
Then there is oxytocin, which is sometimes referred to as “the love hormone” because it is released when you kiss or hug someone …or… when you “browse” social media.
With just 10 minutes of social media use, oxytocin levels can increase by up to 13% – a rate that for some people is equivalent to the feeling of happiness they felt on their wedding day! And there are many good things that come along with oxytocin – reduced stress levels, feelings of love, trust, empathy, generosity – all the things that we have been proven to develop and feel through social media.
As a result, social media users have proven to be more receptive to the information they receive through social media than the average internet user. The typical Facebook user, compared to other internet users, is 43% more likely to believe that most people are worthy of their trust because of the socialisation they develop on SocialMedia. This also has an impact on company profiles in social media as it is much easier for a Facebook user to search, get to know, ask and solve their consumer questions in order to finally buy the product we offer them.
So between dopamine and oxytocin, social networking not only comes with lots of great feelings, but it’s almost impossible to stop asking for more and more.
This is where social media experts are given the space to properly interpret all of the above and use it to the benefit of your business. Based on this, they can create content that follows trends, posts that appeal to authority and emotion, presenting people, ideas and products in such a way that they are captured in the minds of the consumer user.
Why do we post?(On a personal and professional level)
It’s to tell our news or because we like to talk about ourselves.
People spend about 30-40% of all their dialogues talking about themselves. But on the internet, this figure rises to about 80% through social media posts. The difference is huge!
Why?
Face-to-face conversation is more difficult even emotionally – we don’t have time to think about what to say, we have to read the facial cues and body language of the person we are facing. In contrast, online, we have time to construct and refine our thoughts and reality. This is what psychologists call self-presentation: you position yourself the way you really want to see yourself. The feeling we get from self-presentation is so intense that viewing your ideal profile on Facebook has been shown to increase your self-esteem.
What’s also interesting for marketing professionals is that the most obvious way we tend to work on self-presentation is through things – buying products that declare who we are or who we want to appear to be.
What’s also interesting for marketing professionals is that the most obvious way we tend to work on self-presentation is through things – buying products that declare who we are or who we want to appear to be.
Things – and by extension, brands – are a huge part of who we are.
There does not need to be more to a product for it to be considered necessary by the consumer. Ask yourself a simple question, did you really need the last sneaker, bag or accessory you bought? Probably not.
On the other hand, companies even today do not waste time on “proper” self-presentation. As a result, we see business profiles on Social Media with content that is uninteresting – monotonous or even dormant, created only because their competition has a presence. This leads more to brand discrediting than brand promotion.
But how can a brand build the right “self-presentation” and gain ground in the market? How can it become credible in the eyes of the user and of course become more profitable?
The answer is with a tailored Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing strategy and borrowing online marketer Neil Patel’s definition:
The term “social media marketing” describes the process of creating content, which is tailored to the style of each medium, in order to achieve engagement and distribution of this content (sharing).
Increasing user interaction is the result of a social media marketing strategy. To be successful, content creation must be in line with the style of each medium. Facebook users, for example, seem to prefer content in video format. But this may not be the case for users of Twitter or any other medium. The secret to creating effective content on social media is to be well aware of the requirements of each medium. Surely you have heard of content that went viral, that is, that “spread” from user to user. For this to happen the posts – content you create must offer some value to your audience and attract them.
What does an effective social media strategy consist of?
- Planning targeted actions according to the challenges your business faces and the goals you have set.
- Research and analysis of the audience, the potential customers, to whom you will target your actions.
- Research of competition on social media.
- Definition of important metrics.
- Creation and adaptation of post content – advertisements depending on the style of each social media platform in which you are present.
- Interaction and interaction with the audience.
- Monitor the performance of your social media marketing strategy and continuously reshape your actions for optimal results.
- Choosing a reliable partner
At Astrolabs you will find a specialized team that will develop and implement step by step the Digital Marketing strategy, part of which is the Social Media Marketing strategy.
Tell us about the industry in which you operate and what you want to achieve through the promotion of your business in social media and we will propose solutions that suit your needs.
