Psychology Shows Why Social Media Often Fails

Everyone has something they want to change

Whether you want to convince customers to buy from you, transform an organization, or get more engagement on social, everyone has something they want to change. But… creating change isn’t always easy.

Pushing for change usually evokes a push back. When you tell someone to do something, they usually do the exact opposite. Think of what happens when you ask your kids to do the dishes, clean their bedrooms, or put their phone away at the dinner table. Chances are, they’ll ignore you completely, or at the very least, put up a fight about it.

However, creating change is possible. You just need to learn how to become a catalyst for the type of change you want to evoke in the world. Jonah Berger, Marketing Professor at The Wharton School, has discovered a better way to catalyze change and shares his findings with us on this eye-opening episode of Social Pros.

In This Episode:

• 03:39 – Why Jonah wrote his latest book, The Catalyst
• 06:47 – Why you need to understand the barriers that stop your audience, client, boss, etc. from changing their mind
• 08:44 – The psychological reason why humans are so resistant to change
• 14:02 – How the endowment effect impacts our willingness to get rid of something that’s ‘old’ and/or familiar to us
• 18:52 – How communications can actually increase opposition
• 21:37 – How to use the ‘Asking for Less’ strategy to change people’s minds
• 27:20 – How to overcome the uncertainty that leads people to hit the pause button
• 31:26 – How we can become more receptive to the right kind of change

Quotes From This Episode:

“People have an almost anti-persuasion radar – an innate system that recognizes when someone’s trying to persuade them.” – @j1berger

What's interesting about change is you're not just trying to tell people how good something is, you're trying to get them to get rid of something that's old. Share on X

“We have to figure out a way to make them feel less like we’re in control and make them feel like they’re more in control.” – @j1berger

Resources:

• Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce
• Find out more about the community at SocialMedia.org with a special form for Social Pros listeners
• Download Salesforce’s free e-book, 50 Social Media Best Practices
• Read Jonah’s new book, The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind
• Visit Jonah’s website to learn more about him and his books, resources, etc.