The Psychology of Social Media

We've all heard the word, "Fifteen minutes of fame!" and the chance of achieving that has never been more prevalent than in this age of the internet, reality shows and social media. Even twenty-five years ago you had to be a young toddler falling deep into an abandoned well to attain the status of a national celebrity, but today all it requires is a well placed Twitter, misquoted Facebook post or exposure by way of a viral video. Following Osama Bin Laden's death, fingers were flying as posts and tweets were generated within microseconds of the headlines hitting the airwaves. One Tweet attributed a stay against wishing our enemy death to Martin Luther King, Jr. Through supersonic research and the search for the foundation of the ill stated quote, it absolutely was revealed the quote was either an error or a scam. Even the foundation and motivation of the misquote became a concern and the facts has not yet been discovered Picuki. Through it all, the underlying burning question for social media considerations taken to the forefront a far more interesting issue, the psychology of social media postings. What's it that motivates the flittering tweet in a person's mind or that scandalous Facebook post that has people wondering what's the story involving the lines? In working with social media, it's a really critical topic to think about, especially for businesses. Looking at the two types of social media avenues, personal and business, may offer a bit more perspective and remind us to develop guidelines when creating social media plans for business. The psychology of personal social media postings is as varied as the people typing on the keyboard and not easily interpretable as many individuals might not reveal their true emotions, feelings or personality through their social profiles. A current survey of college aged women found many reasons for daily posts had truly regarding real social events or hook-ups with a love interest. Women stated they intentionally posted where these were going, pictures of themselves looking incredible, or information regarding just how much fun these were having, knowing a man these were enthusiastic about will be seeing the post flying across the headlines feed. Twitter is far better when linked to Facebook and the constant stream of Tweets is unavoidable and sometimes downright annoying. Women in this college demographic also see the social media forum as that, social. Many posts and pictures are splattered throughout the internet with no care or concern for the future, although there are certain courses where professors may caution that after posted, you can be toasted in the future. One university student recently commented, "She'd better start saving her money to pay for Google to delete her existence when she began her career search." The situation with that is once public, the picture or comment may be copied and saved even when it's deleted sooner or later in time. And while the cross-dressing Halloween outfit might have been the hit of the kegger, it probably won't make a great political statement during an election should that be the direction taken after college. Over are the times of, "I didn't inhale," odds are there might be a You Tube video proving otherwise. One other dilemma present in social media is exactly the same concept we still see in email messaging, the circulation of false stories and viruses with the intent of causing harm and destruction. What motivates someone to intentionally dream up a terrible tale of cancer or death to cause people to click open the file and have their drive attacked? Could it be the fact victims are unseen so there's less sympathy or none at all? Or, is it the satisfaction of knowing they'd the single-handed power to ruin enough time and energy of masses of people? Or, are they only trying to find some fake sense of grabbing their fifteen minutes of fame anonymously knowing anything apart from halting the government systems won't likely make a law officer knocking on their door? Regardless of the motivating pathology, the certain thing is these malcontents can judge, measure and watch their destruction from the comfort of the bedroom knowing the discomfort they've imposed. Fortunately, the vast majority of users of social media for private fun aren't there for ill intent. From the perspective of a person who watches hundreds of Facebook posts, tweets, tumbles and stumbles, many users appear to have one general theme: to reach out and touch friends, to change lives in a life, to generally share a piece of themselves and to promote their beliefs and causes. Finding people have been once a significant part of the life years ago, rekindling relationships with friends and family, remaining in touch across miles and being virtual voyeurs with permission to do so and devoid of to feel creepy about any of it, are reasons in making connections. Satisfying that nosey neighbor craving to understand what other folks are doing can be to not be overlooked. After active users, there are many types of "friends" beginning with those that simply do not care about what their friends are posting, never liking or acknowledging the existence of anyone else, instead simply promoting their very own agenda. The quiet friends are the mere observers who never post, but learn about everyone, keeping their comments private and between close friends and family only. And the most curious partaker in social media could be the friend who never post and whose wall is power down, they rarely log in and have no idea changes to Facebook are increasingly being made constantly and have merely a vague notion of Twitter but know they don't want any part of it. They are the individuals who at a poor moment with time caved to peer pressure and created a Facebook page and have now probably forgotten the password in order to delete it. The personal drive of users appears to be for the most part, certainly one of validation of existence. To feel life is moving and happening when the fact may be sheer boredom has set in. To feel element of a world that is constantly evolving and growing. To feel that that which you believe, say or want makes a difference at the least to the hundreds of names found on their friend list. It allows a little bit of momentary narcissism and obtaining a little bit of attention on a grander scale than life without social media allows. It's an ego boost and a wholesome expansion of our world that brings knowledge and conversation. However, one misquote on a fabulous and controversial subject can throw you smack in the middle of a feeding frenzy of social media carnivores. So, caution should be studied when reposting or firing off a hateful or pointed post. But, the wonder of social media could be the likelihood of becoming the topic of a scandal is rare and still leaves us in a position to throw across the fifteen minutes of fame cliche. Unless, you are a corporation or business, then a game and the principles change. Pertaining to the psychology of business participation in social media, it's important to comprehend the factors that drive our personal utilization of social media can be used backwards in regards to promoting business. The personality of the user becomes insignificant as a voice for the company is the only real sound that should be heard. The prejudice, thoughts and beliefs of the person in charge of the tweets and posts, must be stifled and the language become politically correct at least if the advertisement is hitting the leading page of the neighborhood paper. Public profiles must certanly be in accordance with company policies and standards, following a formula or plan to promote and encourage business without offending and designed to achieve the goal of social media which will be business and income generation. The personalities of customers, followers and fans take over and become the target. The importance of the psychology of the readers of the content is what must certanly be of paramount consideration to create a highly effective marketing strategy and plan. One misplaced quote, one offending post or tacky tweet can have a snowball effect to the bottom-line. Caution and care must be studied when creating the personality of the company to be put on the internet forever. Leaving the fate of this kind of important representation should be studied seriously and not put into the hands of the cashier at the front desk mainly because she's the only one with a Facebook page. As you will see the psychology of social media is in charge of the existence of social media and gets the potential to destroy someone in the blink of a watch or promote fame at the speed of light. It's a significant consideration for many players, on all levels, to correctly utilize and protect yourself when in the playing field of the social media arena. It's a world that grows as fast as keystrokes may be laid down and share buttons clicked and the effects are far reaching with negative news flowing faster than uncontroversial tidbits. The only real comfort in knowing that will you make a personal misstep is, fifteen minutes is a relatively short amount of time by which to weather a storm and if the ill-placed Tweet result in a downfall of a company, it may always post the offending social media manager has been fired, retract the misquote, delete the upset followers and seek out new fans. Just don't forget to complete damage control and answer all of the negative comments certain to be floating around on the internet. Yes, that is another topic entirely.