Social and New Mediaand Persuasion

Social media is pervasive

• Facebook has over 1.15 billion users

• Twitter has over 550 million registered users

• Google+ has reached 359 million monthly active users

Mass interpersonal persuasion

• “Facebo0k brings together the power of interpersonal persuasion with the reach of mass media.” B.J. Fogg

Beyoncé examplesocial media and music sales

• Beyoncé is a social media phenomenon

• She has 13.8 million Twitter followers, 8 million Instagram followers, and 53 million Facebook fans.

• On December 13th, 2013 (in time for Christmas shoppers) she “dropped” her latest album, it was launched directly on iTunes.

• It sold 828,773 copies in 3 days. It was the fastest selling album worldwide.

Social Media and Marketing

• Online

• Pop-ups, banners

• Webtracking

• Cookies

• Search history

• Purchase history

• Sentiment analysis: tweets

• Big Data

• Mobile marketing

• Call history

• Location history

• Proximity marketing

• App based marketing

• In-game marketing

• Big Brother (government agencies)

Social Media and Politics

• Social media figure heavily in political campaigns

• Election 2012: Obama leveraged social media far better than Romney

• Obama spent 10 times more on social media than Romney; $47 vs. $4.7 million

• Obama’s Facebook page received twice as many likes as Romney’s

• Obama logged 20 times more retweets than Romney

Slacktivism or Hashtag Activism

Can mouse clicks change the world?• Change.org

• Charges of tokenism, self-promotion

• Liking a post, sharing a link, retweeting a tweet, forwarding an email, signing an online petition requires little effort or involvement

• “Moral balancing” effect: Performing one good deed demotivates donors and volunteers

• Well-suited for geographically diverse individuals.

Traditional activism doesn’t always require much effort either• Signing a petition

• Yellow bracelets, pink ribbons

• 2013 study by Georgetown’s Center for Social Impact Communication

• Engaging with causes via social media prompted them to donate money (68 percent)

• donate personal items or food (52 percent)

• attend or participate in an event (43 percent)

• and even volunteer (53 percent)

Hacktivism• Should transparency trump privacy?

• Are there some secrets that governments should have a right to keep?

• Edward Snowden

• Free speech hero or traitor and Russian stooge?

• He leaked factual information about mass surveillance by government agencies directed at U.S. citizens

• Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

• Champion of a free press or reckless egomaniac?

• Online forum for publishing secret or classified material

• Example: dossiers on treatment of captives held at Guantanamo Bay.

Hacktivism

• Chelsea (Bradley) Manning: convicted under the espionage act for releasing classified documents

• Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

• Champion of a free press or reckless egomaniac?

• Online forum for publishing secret or classified material

• Example: dossiers on treatment of captives held at Guantanamo Bay.

The Digital Future of Persuasion

• Persuasion technology

• Nike +

• Prius and Leaf dashboard displays

• Fitbit and fitness apps

• IMoveYou

• Smart products—GlowCaps