Ask an Expert: Clickbait, Dopamine Loops and Using Psychographics

We all know that social media is extremely important in the digital age, and at her keynote speech at Brandwatch’s Now You Know Conference, Nathalie Nahai unpacked what drives that—specifically the psychology that drives social media behavior.

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Why is social content so appealing?

During Nathalie’s talk, she explained different types of social content, and how it connects to the humans that absorb and share the content on their social platforms.

 

Using five distinct points, Nathalie provided the psychological reasoning behind social gold  like  gifs, slogans, and innocuous videos that have suddenly become viral sensations.

According to Nathalie, social content can:

1. Be a carrier for emotional contagion (Nathalie shared adorable gifs of a sleepy bunny and kitten)
2. Indicate the mood of the sharer (Nathalie recalled the sensation of Grumpy Cat)
3. Provoke curiosity (She shared the Killer Headline formula, which I’ll touch on later)
4. Act as social commentary (Nathalie shared an image of the Je Suis Charlie movement)
5. Create a shared cultural experience (Nathalie shared the story of a young flautist becoming a sensation from a shared Facebook event).

These reasons behind social content effectively capture why social content is so appealing to people.

Before diving deeper into the psychological factors that play into our interest and desire to  share content, let’s look a little closer at provoking curiosity in a social audience.

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How we get hooked

Nathalie explained that you can use psychological principles to get people to read, watch, and share just about anything, giving an example of a Clickhole video about a stick of butter with a grabby title.

As explained in her own words in a previous post here on the Brandwatch blog, here’s Nathalie’s formula for creating shareable, clickable headlines:

Number and Trigger Word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise = KILLER HEADLINE

Using this formula, you can take something simple—frying an egg—and make it exceedingly more appealing to people: “13 Unbelievable Ways You Can Fry a Small Egg with a Sock.”

13 Unbelievable

+ Small

+ Egg

+ Fry a Small Egg with a Sock

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13 Unbelievable Ways You Can Fry a Small Egg With a Sock

Nathalie explained that these kinds of headlines are more appealing on digital platforms, and inspire users not only to click into the headlines themselves, but also continue their exposure by sharing them on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.