Thursday, 11 August 2016

What is the science of engagement?


How do things become relevant? Why is this important?

Relevancy defined: The condition of being relevant or connected with the matter at hand. Things that we find relevant we tend to be connected too. We notice more of the same cars on the road of which we buy or are looking to buy. When we are working on a project we notice things outside that project that apply to the project.

So why am I telling you this? Why is this relevant?

The purpose is to help you understand why people promote the way they do, and how the big chains have got it figured out. Why social media is a powerful tool, and how you can leverage all of this to your ventures.

There is no return on investment (ROI) on customer engagement. Turning a onetime customer into a life time customer sometimes, sorry, always cannot be measured. What can be controlled is the amount of effort and work you put into being seen while maintaining a respectable public image and providing excellent customer service.

We have advertisements not because they want you to go buy right after seeing the advertisement, well of course that would be a bonus for the company advertising. They do them because they want to embed into your subconscious mind that what they are selling is good and they want you to be familiarized with their products and services.

That’s it. Familiarity.

The more you see things the higher the chances of you buying whatever it is you see. If you have a product or service, the goal is to have it seen as many times over as possible.

People hear or see what you are offering over and over again they will feel a connection and be tempted to give it a try if they haven’t already.

At the gym I see the same people working out. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I go to the gym at the same time. After seeing Mike several times there, I recognized him again at the supermarket and I felt like I’ve known Mike really well even though prior to the supermarket I did not know his actual name or spoke more than 3 words to him.

The same goes for networking events, and how I met my co-founder of my philanthropy group. After seeing him several times we felt a strong connection and a motive to work on a project together.

If you haven’t yet seen Focus with Will Smith, it is a great Hollywood movie. It is great because it shows how powerful our subconscious is and how it can be manipulated with the right tools.

Now I am not here to tell you to go manipulate others to buy whatever it is your selling. What I am telling you is that there is more to being persuaded than what we perceive consciously.

Before I get into social media, the importance of engagement and being seen I want to pull up psychological studies to prove my point.

In Scientific American researchers have coined the term “reconsumption” theory. Based on the studies conducted by Cristel Russel and Sidney Levy professors from the university of America and university of Arizona they have reached a conclusion that people choose to do the same things because “the brain recognizes the reward it will receive”.

What I found fascinating is that people that did things over and over again “gained insight into themselves and their own growth, subconsciously using the do over as a measuring tool to identify how their life has changed”.

Can we control people’s behaviour?

Another tool for relevancy is the subliminal message that happens effectively below our awareness. I am not talking about listening to positive affirming tapes and hearing over and over again “I will have a six pack”. I am talking about the stimuli that happens in our surrounding but we actually are not acutely aware of it happening.

An example: a commercial playing in the background while you are talking to someone or

Image copyright by racetalkblog.com



No comments:

Post a Comment