Last week I blogged about "contagious ideas" as described in Dan Zarella's book, Zarella's Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas. Ideas that are passed along, i.e. retweeted, linked, emailed, forwarded, or liked are labeled contagious ideas by Zarella. Certainly, we all would like our marketing ideas to be contagious.
In my previous blog,"Are You Creating Contagious Ideas?", I shared some insights from Zarella's book regarding exposing people to your ideas and getting people to pay attention to your ideas. The third point that is highlighted in the book is motivating people to act on your ideas.
Why would people share your idea - what motivates them to act? Zarella states that, "Understanding why we spread ideas requires some psychosocial reverse engineering." We tend to think that people spread ideas because they want to "do good" and share. Zarella points out that academic research shows that every interaction between two people is "an exchange of value".
When sharing ideas, the exchange of value is the information itself. In social media, people share the ideas that they believe have the most value. They want to be perceived as "a valuable person to interact with." The most valuable knowledge is scarce knowledge. Think about your target audience and determine what information the group already has and what information they are eager for. What information on your local market do you have that is not easily gathered by your potential clients?
People are motivated to share information that involves safety. How many "urgent" emails do you get a month that is warning you about some terrible computer virus or urban legend? If your ideas share information that may save someone from paying too much for a home, or save them from harmful chemicals in a home, etc. the ideas are likely to be shared.
Another factor that determines whether an idea will be shared is the readability of the written idea. Zarella conducted studies that show an inverse correlation between the complexity of the writing and how many times the idea is shared. As the reading grade level rose from grade 2 to grade 15, the sharing dropped.
Making our ideas more contagious is not just "luck". Take time to research your audience and experiment to find what types of ideas are passed along. Determine the value of your information and be the agent who is known for sharing the most valuable ideas.
Best Agent Business has teams of virtual assistants who specifically work with social media for real estate agents. They can help you with "contagious ideas". Other services offered by Best Agent Business are database and lead assistance, listing and closing assistance, websites, and marketing. Schedule a free call with President, Steve Kantor, to discuss your specific needs.
Blog submitted by Beverly – Virtual Assistant, Best Agent Business
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