The Psychology Of The "Like" Button And The Online Sales Cycle

The Psychology Of The “Like” Button And The Online Sales Cycle

Why do we click “LIKE” when we see something on Facebook? Is there some form of gratification we don’t realize we are wired for?

As marketers, this information is very important. Years ago, if you could write scripts and copy for an infomercial that compelled people to pick up the phone and dial the toll free line, the rest was up to the operator on the other end. Hours and hours were spent training operators how to interact with the people who called. Training was given on how to identify personality types and ‘speak their language’ so that the sales process could begin and ultimately close with a sale. But what can a business owner do online that even compares to this infomercial sales-cycle in a world where everyone carries around a smartphone and responds with “LIKE” all day long?

Recently Facebook released these stats:

Statistics

829 million daily active users on average in June 2014
654 million mobile daily active users on average in June 2014
1.32 billion monthly active users as of June 30, 2014
1.07 billion mobile monthly active users as of June 30, 2014

More people connect on Facebook than anywhere else in the world. Nations connected and interacting all day long are a dream to any brand. It’s a direct response marketing dream come true. To a ministry, it’s also a dream come true! Open air evangelism and discipleship has NOTHING on the world of social media!

The “LIKE” button is a form of agreement.

We click the button because we agree. We are wired to give our opinion, to raise our voice and say what we feel and think! Social media gave everyone a voice. There’s no longer the ‘big guys’ and the ‘little people’- it’s an equal playing field. The dopamine rises in our brain and makes us feel GOOD when we click LIKE. Medical studies reveal that the LIKE button obsession is a reward to the brain, and we click LIKE for a fix much LIKE an addict reaches for a fix. It makes us feel different when we click LIKE during the day. When we haven’t LIKED anything in a 24 hour period, we feel a let down. Social media has hard wired our brains to communicate differently in 2014. When we speak face to face with people, it’s not unusual to hear someone say, “LIKE! Where’s the like button for that!”

The LIKE button makes us feel like we belong to something and that there are others who are just LIKE us. There is gratification in clicking LIKE, as if we’ve done our part, given our vote and we ‘belong’ to the club of other LIKERS.

How can a marketer use this to their benefit in business?

It’s no secret to direct response marketers that the goal of any marketing campaign is to get a DIRECT response of some form. The law of reciprocity shows that if someone does something for us, we feel compelled to do something for them. So when a brand earns the LIKE of a prospect, by giving something that makes the customer feel good, the ‘buy in’ process starts to take place. This cycle of buy in is very unique to this generation and very different from the good ole days of viewership records set on television and listeners on radio. Data streams through to marketers in real time, so an advertising campaign can get input quickly, sometimes instantly. If LIKES, comments and shares don’t happen, we can tweak things. Edit the copy, change the price on the ad, and test a different photo.

The LIKE button dictates ROI- return on investment. It’s just the beginning of the sales process. Brands need to pay attention to that. We can’t just throw our products out there and expect to win the sale. We have to TAP INTO the LIKE cycle and earn the trust of our customers. The goal for any brand on social media is to get repeated likes on their pages, content and culture and then, post their product or service that is for sale 10-15% of the time. The psychology behind a LIKE button and how we respond to this tiny button has changed our world and brought global strangers into a connected neighborhood. Studies reveal that people feel a reward when they are able to LIKE our content as a brand. They want to BELONG!

The LIKE button isn’t just for brands! People feel rejected when a LIKE button isn’t clicked on their personal content. We frame our pictures, polish our faces, seek out the most funny, unique, most beautiful photos. We as a culture are OBSESSED with selfies and the selfie with the most LIKES wins! We share what we eat and we CRAVE LIKES on our pictures and posts more than we crave food. “Does someone LIKE what I posted today? How many LIKES did I get today?” are thoughts that run through our head. We gather together and exclaim, “Did you SEE how many LIKES I got on that?!” as a form of self worth and appraisal.

What can we learn as marketers in this obsessive LIKE world we live in?

The focus has shifted and our marketing campaigns have to connect right in the middle of the LIKE obsession. If we want to become a household name, or as a small business owner, the one that our customers turn to, we have to get right in there and create LIKABLE content, every single day, and do more than just sell.

I’ll be sharing more on how to do this at my CULTURE: 2014 virtual summit. Learn how to create better content, protect your content legally, find data that can show you how to create predictable profits with highly targeted followers. Learn simple strategies on how to connect with your customers on a social media page without using phone calls or email all day long to close a sale.

Let me show you how to master the psychology of the LIKE button and the obsessive LIKE culture.

With love,

Sandi Krakowski