Three Thought Patterns That Let Advertisers Influence You on Social Media
Advertising has a staggering impact on what we buy, what we do, and how we behave. Some ad-campaigns alone have managed to trigger international shifts in culture and consumption. One of the most famous examples is that of Gillette, some one-hundred years ago. At the time, the company decided to expand its product selection to include women’s razors — on the off-chance they would catch on — and introduced adverts for the new product. As a result, they produced consumer demand which now extends across most of the western world, along with a trend for women’s body hair removal which had not existed prior to Gillette’s ad-campaign.
The impact of Gillette’s marketing demonstrates just how much advertisers’ advances can influence our behavior, both individually and collectively. Now, with the ubiquity of social media, advertisers see new opportunities: indeed, worldwide budgets for social media advertising are predicted to have soon doubled from 2014 levels, and revenue from these efforts has more than doubled, according to Statista.com. Given that advertisers are constantly refining their social media engagement, it is increasingly important to ask ourselves: how (and and to what end) might advertisers be aiming to manipulate us on social media?
References
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About the Author
Hannah Potts
Hannah completed a conversion MSc in Psychology at Brunel University, having taken her undergraduate degree at Cambridge in English Literature. With several years’ experience working in business (finance and insurance), her particular interests lie in applying cognitive psychology to decision-making and its application in consumerism and the workplace.
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