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Conformity: The Influence of Social Media?

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There I was sitting at my desk, back straight, shoulders slightly forward, rubbing my beard with my hand, and contemplating what I would write about when it dawned on me! “Write about conformity aka Social Proof as it relates to Social Media,” I said to myself. Then I questioned whether or not YouTube had a video that would help demonstrate the power of groups to influence behavior. After a few minutes of searching, I discovered the following video to illustrate the topic of this post. Go ahead and click on the play button now, please.

Welcome back! Are we so easily influenced nowadays? I’ll answered that in another post with a more recent video. Right now, I want to quickly answer the question I posed in the title of my post.

Yes!  Yes, we have conformed to the influence of social media! However, the reasons that we have conformed are that we are fulfilling our basic human needs of 1) connecting with others 2) a sense of accomplishment from having influential and large numbers of connections, and 3) a feeling of uniqueness because of the diverseness of people with whom we are are connected.

Think about it.  Millions of people are utilizing social networking sites right now to communicate with family, friends, customers, and clients in an effort to sustain and improve that connection. Fifteen years ago, I don’t think this behavior was as prevalent as it is now. Why? Although America Online (AOL), Compuserve, and others were thriving back then, they were charging members a monthly fee to use similar functions that, today, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin offer for free. Therefore, why wouldn’t we give in to the attraction of instantly connecting with people around the globe?

These top three social networking sites induce reciprocation with the force of water exploding out of a fire hydrant into the mouth of a thirsty man by offering us the ability to meet some of our basic human needs. In spite of that reality, please avoid neglecting the most intimate relationships you have in order to spend more time connecting with others on social networking sites. Why did I make that appeal? The reason is quite frequently, I hear Tony Robbins’ voice in my head saying something like, “People want to experience love, but they often settle for connection.”

You’re probably asking, “Why would someone do that?” A loving relationship, while incredibly rewarding, can also be extremely painful. That’s why some people will settle for casual and friendly relationships. Even worse are the people who would rather love, and connect with, their pets than real people. Don’t get me wrong I love Samson, our Jack Russell Terrier but the most phenomenal experiences of my life have come from my loving relationships with my wife, children, family, and friends. I am reminded of a phrase that dates back to the seventeenth century, which reads, “No man (or woman) is an island.” Stated differently, no man (or woman) is meant to be alone. I have definitely conformed to that influence. Will you?

With your success in mind,

Ron

Relevant Sources:
Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., (1984) Influence: The New Psychology of Modern Persuasion
Tony Robbins, (1991) Personal Power II, The Driving Force: The Six Human Needs

Seven Top Immediate Influence Posts

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Eventually any blog will have posts that are very popular for a number of reasons.  This blog isn’t an exception.  Over the weekend, I reviewed Google Analytics and the list you see below quickly emerged.  Enjoy!

7.  Strategic Influence Objecting Number Two Example:

It is almost 2009! You’ve probably been thinking about what goals you want to achieve in the new year, have you not? In the days and weeks ahead, you will have many decisions to make about what actions to take to bring about the realization of your goals.

Click to Read More

6.  Ten Honest Things About Me You Don’t Want to Know:

On Monday, January 12th, I was tagged by MultiMedia Producer, Angel McClinton to reveal ten honest things about myself.  Unlike the incredibly talented Angel McClinton, I haven’t included a video presentation with my ten things.  Before I get started, you might want to click on Angel’s name to see her video and forget all about reading my ten things.  Just kidding.  Kinda!

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5.  What Stops People From Achieving What They Want:

Happy New Year!!!

2008 is behind us now and a new year has begun! By now, you’re off to a great start on achieving the goals you’ve set for 2009. However, you have probably run into some opposition. Typically, opposition shows itself in two ways – but I’m only going to write about one in this post. Ready?

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4.  One Big Web 2.0 Influence Mistake That Will Ruin Your Reputation:

On Friday, January 9th I tweeted a statistic Tony Robbins revealed while being interviewed by one of Success Magazine’s writers.  The statistic is related to the number of people who won’t follow through on the resolutions aka goals they set on New Year’s Day.  Tony said, “98% of the people who set resolutions will give up within six weeks.”

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3.  How to Deeply Influence Yourself and Others:

James Van Fleet once said, “Always think in terms of what the other person wants.”

During my nearly 10 years of marriage, I’ve discovered that one of the keys to a successful relationship is thinking in terms of what my wife wants.  For instance, there are times when my wife wants to watch a romantic movie when I’d prefer to watch an action movie.  You might be saying,”Great!  Let her watch her romantic movie and you go watch an action movie on another television.”  Good idea, my rational thinking friend.  However, if I were to act on that type of thinking my wife wouldn’t get what she really wanted it from the experience.  Connectedness. Guess what?  I want to feel that too.

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2.  50 Most Powerful and Influential Men in Social Media:

Last week, as you probably know, I published a list of the 50 Most Powerful & Influential Women in Social Media. It caused quite a stir on the internet. In fact, this blog was visited by over 2,000 unique visitors the day the list was published. I truly appreciate each of you who visited that day and the following days.

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1.  50 Most Powerful and Influential Women in Social Media:

In every industry there are a few people who are inarguably outstanding at what they do. In addition to that, they are typically charismatic, energetic, and creative. In an effort to find some of these people I asked my twitter friends to nominate people who they thought were some of the most powerful and influential women in Social Media. It was no surprise that they quickly and enthusiastically responded with the list of ladies below.

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With your success in mind,

Ron Hudson

Strategic Influence Objective Number Two Example

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It is almost 2009! You’ve probably been thinking about what goals you want to achieve in the new year, have you not? In the days and weeks ahead, you will have many decisions to make about what actions to take to bring about the realization of your goals.

The most important decisions will involve your ability to think strategically before acting tactically. Indulge me for a moment and read this excerpt from my previous post titled, “Three Strategic Influence Objectives,” to garner a better understanding of my thoughts regarding thinking strategically before acting tactically:
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Influence and Persuasion: Why You Buy What You Buy

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In a time of economic uncertainty, people tend to tighten their purse strings, only purchasing what’s needed. What’s great about that is most people in our society don’t buy what they need, they buy what they want. Don’t believe me? That’s fine. May I ask you a question?

How many people do you know who drive expensive, luxurious SUVs such as the Cadillac Escalade ($50,000)? I humbly submit to you that they didn’t “need” that expensive of an automobile, they wanted it. They wanted the feelings of luxury, power, accomplishment, and uniqueness that come from driving such a wonderfully made vehicle. However, I also submit to you that they give themselves the permission to feel that way after buying that automobile, when in actuality they could’ve decided to feel those emotions without the price tag.

What that means is, we have been conditioned by advertisers to believe that in order to feel a certain way, we have to buy their clients’ clothes, cars, and jewelry. Is there anything wrong with that? You’ll have to answer that question. I simply wanted to shed some light on the fact that you can feel anyway you want, when you want, and without drugs. lol

Am I suggesting that you stop buying what you want, and only buy what you need? Absolutely not! However, I am advising you to decide to feel good now, whether you have what you want or not. It’s your choice. Isn’t it?

With your success in mind,

Ron

P.S. If you want to learn the influence and persuasion strategies of sales superstars, social media marketing pros, negotiation experts, and copywriting geniuses, invest time to look into my new, upcoming Free Guest Event.

Strategic Influence Objective Number One Explained

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On Thursday, November 20th, I posted an article to this blog titled Three Strategic Influence Objectives. In this post, I will briefly explain what you should do to achieve the #1 Strategic Influence Objective which is…

Focus on being deepest in peoples’ hearts, instead of only being top of mind

The fact is, actually accomplishing this objective is more about who you are, than what you do. Quite frankly, I could stop right there and end this post. Couldn’t I?

I mean, you’ve come across people online and offline who have touched your heart, haven’t you? I certainly have. I’m curious. Have you noticed any commonalities? Here’s what my personal experience and research has uncovered:
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Three Strategic Influence Objectives

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Monday night, David Bullock, the sales and advertising optimizer, joined me on my BlogTalkRadio show Immediate Influence. You’ll be interested in knowing that David is also a brilliant marketing and business development consultant. The topic of my conversation with David? Tripling your customer base!

You might want to listen to that show, now, before reading the rest of this post. It’s easy! See the BlogTalkRadio image over there in the far right column? Just click the player.

You might be asking, “Is it necessary for me listen to the show before reading this post?” No, it’s not… though I highly suggest it because we discussed some key actions for you to take in order to thrive in this economy.

One key action to take in any economy is to think strategically before using a particular Social Media and/or Social Networking tool (i.e, twitter, Friendfeed, tumblr, facebook, LinkedIn) to accomplish certain marketing objectives (e.g. attract targeted traffic, generate qualified leads, and convert leads to buyers).

Make sense?

Let’s back up a moment and take a look at how to think strategically.  After all, it’s what we’re suppose to do before using any Social Media/Social Networking tool or any other marketing channel.  Simply put, thinking strategically requires you to clarify what you or your company must represent in the minds of your target audience in order to accomplish your objectives.  For example, if you want to generate tons of qualified leads from twitter, long-term, you will need to build relationships, gain trust, be liked, be popular, and become a trusted advisor and recognized expert.  Get the picture?

Feel like you’re back in high school?  It’s okay if you do.  Rest assured, you aren’t alone!

Pssst, don’t tell anyone this.  I feel the same way sometimes.

Moving on.

As you consider what you or your company must represent in the minds of your customer, I’d like to know something.  Did you notice that these strategies are what powerful and influential people have in common?  If you want to enjoy long-term success in the age of Social Media and Social Networking, it would be a good idea to master influence.

With that in mind, instead of only contemplating marketing, I humbly request that you also ponder these three Strategic Influence Objectives (SIO) to attain more fulfilling and satisfying results with your marketing efforts.

  • SIO #1 Focus on being deepest in peoples’ hearts, instead of only being top of mind.
  • SIO #2 Focus on compelling people to tell others about you without even having to request it.
  • SIO #3 Focus on solidifying yourself as a powerful resource of exclusive information which ultimately leads to deepening your customers/clients/prospects belief that you are the expert of choice.

With your success in mind,

Ron

P.S. If you want to uncover ways to increase your profits and revenues with minimal effort and no risk, I’m offering a $500 Strategic Business Growth Analysis for $99. I guarantee you’ll discover ways to increase your profits and sales or the analysis is free!

Why am I making you this offer?

I have some unexpected time on my hands next week and unfortunately my bills don’t stop needing to be paid, so I decided to make you this “irresisitible offer.”

One more thing. This is important! In order to qualify for the insane low price of the analysis, you must retweet this post.  It’s easy!  Use the green retweet button at the beginning of this post to the right of the first paragraph.

That way, you spread the word about this post and this offer to your sphere of influence – because I’m only going to conduct the analysis for you at such a low price, if a minimum of 10 companies sign up. Fair enough?

Click –> Yes, count me in! to sign up now.  Talk soon and thank you very much!

-

One Web 2.0 Influence Mistake People Make that Hurts Their Credibility

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As you might imagine, I’m continually monitoring how companies, organizations, and people are using subconscious tools of influence in Web 2.0. As a result of that focus, I’ve noticed effective and ineffective uses of subconscious influence by each of these groups. However, I’m only going to reveal how the third group, individual people, are wrongly implementing subconscious influence tactics. In this post, you will read about one mistake they make when attempting to use subconscious influence in their Web 2.0 marketing strategy.

Ready?
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