Psychology and Social Media

transcript

Psychology & Social Media

Inés Peschiera (@eeness)

Producer, Core Industries (@coreindustries)

#SBNY10

Thursday, March 18, 2010

MeBio I am a producer at Core Industries with a crippling weakness for music, science and social innovation.

Core IndustriesBio core industries creates interactive experiences for organizations that do no harm. let's grow.

Location Brooklyn, NY

Recent work

We’re going to cover:

• Social Media 101

• Behavioral Drivers

• Social Phenomena

• The Big Picture

Social Media 101

Monthly visitors over the years

Quantcast dataThursday, March 18, 2010

Daily visitors over the years

Top 10 Social Networks

Facebook 350 Million Us. Growing Int’l

Qzone (QQ) 200 Million China

MySpace 130 Million Trends lower income

Windows Live 120 Million Blogging (MSN Spaces)

Habbo 117 Million International

Orkut 100 Million Google, Brazil & India

Friendster 90 Million Asia

hi5 80 Million India, Thailand, Cent Am.

Twitter 75 Million US & International

Tagged 70 Million

Wikipedia, The EconomistThursday, March 18, 2010

Facebook Demographics

MySpace demographics

Twitter

YouTube

Learn from some great thinkers

• danah boyd, Microsoft Social Media Researcherhttp://www.danah.org/

• Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientisthttp://danzarrella.com/

In order to know know how society works, you need to be a part of it.

- danah boyd

Behavioral Drivers

The goal of marketing initiatives are ultimately to change the behavior of an audience.

Use less plastic, Read more books, Eat raw, Eat organic, Eat more eggplants, Drink more wine, Recycle, Upcycle, Use less, Do yoga, Go to Grad school, Learn English, Learn Spanish, Learn Chinese, Go b a c k t o s c h o o l , L i ve i n Brooklyn, Watch Alice in Wonderland

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Understanding the most effective drivers of behavior will make you a better marketer

Operant Conditioningthe use of consequences to modify the occurrence and type of behavior

BF Skinner, psychologistThursday, March 18, 2010

Operant Conditioning:Four Processes

Nature of Stimulus

Impact on Behavior

+ Reinforcement

- Reinforcement

+ Punishment

- Punishment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

BEHAVIOR CONSEQUENCE RESPONSE

Reinforcement

Ice cream courtesy of Pink Sherbert Photography

Guitar orchestra courtesy of trp0

BEHAVIOR CONSEQUENCE RESPONSE

Punishment

Time out chair courtesy of pwbaker

Batman courtesy of Compulsive Collector

Mischief courtesy of morberg

QWhich has been shown to be the most effective method of driving behavior?

APositive Reinforcement

• For faster results, immediate positive reinforcement works best

• For long term success, variable- ratio positive reinforcement works best

Variable Ratio Positive Reinforcement

Photo Courtesy of davidzThursday, March 18, 2010

How does variable-ratio reinforcement impact traffic?

Operant Conditioning:Four Processes

Nature of Stimulus

Impact on Behavior

+ Reinforcement

- Reinforcement

+ Punishment

- Punishment

+ Reinforcement

- Reinforcement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

1Satiationeffectiveness will be increased if the individual's "appetite" for that source is greater

Photo courtesy of r9M Photo courtesy of Kerosene Photography

2Immediacyhow immediately a consequence is felt determines the effectiveness

3Contingencyif a consequence does not reliably, or consistently follow the target response, its effectiveness upon the response is reduced

4Sizeis the effort worth the size or amount of the consequence?

Takeaways

• 1. Audience. Know what it expects/wants.

• 2. Context. Provide them with useful information at the right time, in the right tone

• 3. Trust. Make sure you make the impact known

• 4. Make it worf it. Cost-benefit on your side

QWhat campaigns/companies have leveraged these four insights successfully?

Haiti, 1/12/10Photo Courtesy of Zoriah

• Text campaign raised $8 million in one day

• Up to 10,000 texts per second

But why?

1. Satiation: audience was aching to do something

2. Immediacy: the NEXT day!

3. Contingency: donation delivered immediately

4. Size: texting takes a few seconds. everyone has a phone.

Social Phenomena

Herd Mentalitya fear-based reaction to peer pressure which makes individuals act in order to avoid feeling “left behind” from the group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_mentality

Information cascade

occurs when people observe the actions of others and then make the same choice that the others have made

Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, Ivo Welch, economists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_cascade

259 Interviews later, scientists find that farmers trusted their friends’ and neighbors’ opinions over the word of a salesman

Great Depression. Scientist introduce new drought-resistant seed for corn. But,

NO ONE BUYS IT

Photo Courtesy of The Library of Congress

Information cascades lead to consensus within a group without most of them understanding the issue

Climate Change:Few people really understand the science

Photo Courtesy of JoshuaDavisPhotography.com

Information cascades also happen online and are driven by simple infographics that denote user interest

Which ones are better?

Attention:

To all you entrepreneurs who do your own thing. YOU are the ones who can overturn bad cascades.

SOCIETY NEEDS YOU.

Conformityprocess by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are influenced by other people

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity

Which matches first line?

Solomon Asche, psychologist

76%Conform

Sleeper Effecthighly persuasive message, paired with a discounting cue, causes an individual to be more persuaded by the message over time

How could this site be better?Variable reinforcement?SatiationImmediacyContingencySizeConformityHerd Mentality

Takeaways

• As social animals, we behave in reliable, consistent ways.

• Use this to your advantage in marketing

• Work to build a kick ass herd mentality

• Build positive information cascades

• Introduce good reasons to conform (maybe use some sleeper effect via social media to achieve that)

The Big Picture

Remember all these?

• Satiation

• Immediacy

• Contingency

• Size

• Information Cascades

• Conformity

• Herd Mentality

• Sleeper Effect

Social ContextBehavioral Drivers

Most jobs come from connections from friends of friends

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity

http://www.businessweek.com

human behaviortelescope : natural science :: internet :

The extent to which marketing initiatives (applications, sites, etc.) focus on the end user is the extent to which it will succeed

“Marketing will transition from being based on data, to being conceptually inseparable from it.”

-- Josh Jones-Dillworth

Rising Issues

• Homophily: people connect to people like themselves. Tech reinforces social divides.

• Stimulation: people consume content that stimulates their mind and senses. We are becoming obese with junk stimuli.

-- danah boyd

danah boyd, researcher at MicrosoftThursday, March 18, 2010

Different networks are critical to creativity

What does balance look like?

ChatRoulette

Thanks!

Inés Peschiera

ines@core-industries.com

@eeness

Psychology and Social Media

Business