social strategy: tapping unconscious behavior
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As humans, we have the most complex social behavior of any living organism on earth. Our unconscious understanding of self preservation extends beyond ourselves, and physical survival requires the interdependence of a variety of groups for mutual aid and support. This includes coupling, friend and family systems, employment networks, neighborhoods, government agencies, and extends into social groups to support our common beliefs, goals and interests.
Our unconscious mind drives more of our daily behavior than we like to admit. We want to believe we are in complete control of all of our decisions, but science has been proving this untrue since 2008. John-Dylan Haynes and his team of researchers at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Lieipzig, Germany were able to predict participants decisions with brain scans about seven seconds before the subjects consciously made the decisions. (Nature of Neuroscience, April 13, 2008). Our brain essentially performs many processes to keep us from being overloaded by simple, routine tasks.
the evolution of social behavior
A fascinating thing happened with the introduction of the internet. Our world became both bigger and smaller, resulting in a rippling behavioral chaos, unleashing a subconscious need to counter it with order. The “overload” our brain is trying to protect us from is reaching a critical mass. We see this push and pull played out in small ways as we try to “unplug” at the dinner table. We also see it in grander scale as technology redefines how companies improve engagement with customers. Technology is simultaneously bringing together, and tearing part previously relied upon social schemas.
Humans have been forming social groups since our knuckles scrapped the ground 2.4 million years ago. But for about 99% of the 2.4 million years we’ve been on the planet, we’ve been relying social roles within established societal communities without the aid of technology. If we plotted a timeline, branding and marketing to sell to a technologically advanced society would barely made a visible dot. I loved the quote from Unconscious Branding by Douglas Van Braet; “Our modern skulls house stone age minds.”
tribal behavior on social channels
In tribes, various individuals, or groups of individuals, have taken on roles to ensure survival. “Rules of engagement” helped members adapt and led to acceptance. Those who didn’t follow the rules were shunned or (in serious cases) violently rejected. Engagement was based on the need to either avoid unpleasant or disastrous circumstances, or to gain rewards.
Now, thousands of years later, we still behave the way our brains were designed to, we are just manipulating different tools with our opposable thumbs. While our migrating ancestors communicated through cave drawings and smoke signals, we now use memes and the store docs in the cloud. We tweet out traffic accidents to commuters the way tribal leaders blew horns to alert their tribe of impending danger.
If you are trying to put together a social roadmap for your target audience, look beyond what your needs are, and think in terms of the unconscious behaviors of your target audience. Your tribe’s needs won’t change to fit the needs of your company. That’s not what social is about. The most successful brands effortlessly ‘adapt” to the environment of their target audience on any given social platform.
These are the questions you should be thinking about when you look at social strategy:
What role within the tribe is appropriate within your industry?
What platforms make sense for your role?
What content belongs there?
What tone of voice would be authentic for your role?
Take a step back and objectively look at your branded behavior on social. Are you adapting, or are you being quietly rejected by the tribe?