These past few months, the world has been split up into three kinds of people, and I’m not talking about Trump vs. Hillary supporters. I’m talking about those who were amped to share their personal opinions on Facebook, those who immediately deactivated their accounts on November 8th, 2016, and those who were flies on the wall during this epic time in our world.
According to recently released data from the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, your incessant posts on social media about political candidates and social issues are actually changing 1 in 5 minds.
Why? A myriad of reasons.
Social media has made it basically impossible for us to stop learning.
Before social media, you could turn off the news, turn off the radio, ignore your phone and be blind to what’s happening in the world around you. You had a good idea of what kinds of stories CNN would have on the 6 o'clock news. Now, Facebook is CNN, Twitter is The New York Times, LinkedIn is Forbes. We can get all the information we’ve ever wanted (and some we definitely didn’t want) all in one place. What’s the likelihood of you heading over to Facebook to see what your friends and family are up to vs. heading to CNN 15 times per day? Pretty darn high.
What I’m saying is, you don’t have to search on Google for “Trump vs. Hillary on health care” it’s already ingrained in your feed. It’s become part of your everyday life. If you love Facebook, you don’t really have a choice in the matter. We’re accidentally learning about politics, each candidate and the general viewpoints of those who matter.
It’s referral-based marketing.
People usually tend to trust brands their friends and families support, unless they are completely opposed to what they sell. Most people surround themselves with like-minded individuals, which means you can be influenced by their thoughts and feelings.
You want to belong to something.
Why do people love Facebook in the first place? Because they want to belong to a community. Users define who they are by joining groups, adding photos, sharing memes. As people, we begin to associate ourselves with people who portray traits that we want to have, or that we do have. Susie is awesome - she likes snowboarding, has a great job, loves animals...I want to be like Susie. Susie has strong, valid points about candidate X. I think I’m starting to understand candidate X.
Think of this regarding marketing - why don’t all brands do this? Share who they are, what they like, what they stand for? Why don’t they just act like Susie? The great brands do, and they win business, they earn brand advocates. Sharing political information from a brand standpoint though - isn’t always a good idea. Check out our blog on posting your personal opinions from a brand perspective.
We’re all a little bit gullible.
It’s OK; it happens to the best of us. So much marketing happens in your everyday life you aren’t even aware of. Sometimes that makes it good marketing; sometimes it means we don’t even know our opinions are being influenced. Even the most reputable news sites have been known to slide to one side of any argument.
Our decisions are influenced constantly by everything around us, even if we don’t want them to be.
So what does it really mean?
Facebook is influential. You can change minds that can change the world. You should feel empowered!
On a sidenote: From a marketing standpoint, Trump reminds me a lot of Billy Fucillo. His message is loud and unruly...but he is memorable, and he isn’t going out of business anytime soon. HUUUGGEEE.
Interested on how indluential your competitors are? Check out this 100% free report.
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