The use of social stimuli in social media

Posted on March 12, 2009 by Tom

With social media, not only is your customer important, but also his friends or any other connection he may have.  The buzzword would be ‘evangelist’, it’s maybe a bit exagerated for this post, but it illustrates the importance of social stimuli between different connections.

Most companies know the effect of social stimuli, look at the success of My Starbucks Idea, Dell’s Ideastorm or the Nike+ community.  It should be quite easy to figure out how important the use of social stimuli is within communities.  Basic human behaviour is based on copying.  Either we want something someone else has or we don’t want it. 

We want what someone else has.  If you manage to turn a consumer into an advocate for your product/service, you’re basically using him to make his connections jealous.  Give early adopters the best service you can possibly give, ask them what they think, respond,… Just like the Nike+ community or the research example below, it should reinforce positive stimulated behaviour.

We don’t want  what someone else has.  This is a bit more difficult because there can be more reasons why we don’t want something.  Looking beyond the obvious (price, location, time,…), an important reason could be we don’t want to copy behaviour because we can’t identify.  Maybe marketing strategy reached the wrong person, maybe the product is suited for another target demographic,…  A desired ripple effect starts small and grows, so focussing on a small group and putting all your resources into that group could make it easier to give them the best service you can, resulting in a positive, stimulating behaviour.

With an experiment, McKenzie and Rushall tried to analyze the impact of social stimuli in a highly competitive surrounding.  A Canadian swimming team, the Shannon Height Sharks, had some difficulty with overall discipline.
Starting the experiment, they put up an attendancy list.  Every time a swimmer came to practice in time and for the full period, his name was tagged.  A very simple system that had great results.  Overall attendancy went up with 45%, lateness with 63% and leaving too early with 100%.  In a second part of the experiment, swimmers could either wait for their instructor to arrive or start working individually on a training.  They could tag themselves every time they finished a program individually.  27% more time was spent swimming.  Overall, the team went from the 6th place to the 2nd in the regional competition.

We all watch eachother, look at Facebookpictures, follow tweets or read blogposts.  The means to monitor eachother are already there, as a result companies can use social interactions to build meaningfull relationships with their customers and create an environment where copying behaviour is being stimulated by those interactions.  And it all starts with your very first customer.

You may want to read:

• The Stanford Prison Experiment or how expectations create reality
• Social media, in it for the long run
• Why we say we do, but don’t