Psychology and Social Media

Psychology &
Social Media
Inés Peschiera (@eeness)
Producer, Core Industries (@coreindustries)

#SBNY10

Thursday, March 18, 2010

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

Core Industries
Bio 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 data

Daily visitors over the years

Quantcast data

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 Economist

Facebook Demographics

Quantcast data

MySpace demographics

Quantcast data

Twitter

Quantcast data

LinkedIn

Quantcast data

YouTube

Quantcast data

Learn from some great
thinkers

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

• Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientist
http://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
Buy
more eggplants, Drink more
wine, Recycle, Upcycle, Use
Volunteer
less, Do yoga, Go to Grad
school, Learn English, Learn
Spanish, Learn Chinese, Go
Donate
back to school, Live in
B ro o k l y n , Wa tc h A l i ce i n
Wonderland

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


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

BF Skinner, psychologist

Operant Conditioning:
Four Processes
Nature of Impact on
Stimulus Behavior

+ Reinforcement +

- Reinforcement -

+ Punishment +

- Punishment -

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

Reinforcement
BEHAVIOR CONSEQUENCE RESPONSE
+

-

Ice cream courtesy of Pink Sherbert Photography
Guitar orchestra courtesy of trp0

Punishment
BEHAVIOR CONSEQUENCE RESPONSE
+

-

Mischief courtesy of morberg Time out chair courtesy of pwbaker
Batman courtesy of Compulsive Collector

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


Positive 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 davidz

How does variable-ratio reinforcement
impact traffic?


Operant Conditioning:
Four Processes
Nature of Impact on
Stimulus Behavior

+ Reinforcement +
+

- Reinforcement -
-

+ Punishment +

- Punishment -

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

Satiation
effectiveness will be increased if
the individual's "appetite" for
that source is greater


Photo courtesy of Kerosene Photography Photo courtesy of r9M


Immediacy
how immediately a consequence
is felt determines the
effectiveness


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


Size
is 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


What campaigns/companies have
leveraged these four insights
successfully?


Haiti, 1/12/10 Photo Courtesy of Zoriah

Haiti
• 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 Mentality
a 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
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_cascade

Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, Ivo Welch, economists

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

NO ONE BUYS IT

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


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

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

Which matches first line?
76%
Conform

Solomon Asche, psychologist

Sleeper Effect
highly 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?
Satiation
Immediacy
Contingency
Size
Conformity
Herd 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?
Behavioral Drivers Social Context
• Satiation • Information Cascades
• Immediacy • Conformity

• Contingency • Herd Mentality
• Size • Sleeper Effect


Most jobs come
from
connections
from friends of
friends
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conform

http://www.businessweek.com

telescope : natural science :: internet : human behavior


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 Microsoft

Different networks are
critical to creativity


What does balance look
like?


ChatRoulette


Thanks!
Inés Peschiera
ines@core-industries.com
@eeness


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