Use Neuroscience to Improve Your Social Media Content
It’s something I get asked time and time again. “Chloe, you’re a behavioral science expert, how can I use those principles in my social media to gain more likes, followers, and shares?”
While I can’t guarantee that you’ll get 10,000 followers over night, I can promise you that your followers will be more engaged, which will result in more organic reach for your social media posts.
Marketing and social media themselves are based on understanding your target audience’s preferences. As a business owner, marketer, or salesperson, you have to constantly follow up with your insights and data in order to alter your segments, targeting, and pricing so that you can stay top of mind.
Social media trends change so quickly that you have to constantly stay up to date. You have to learn continuously.
So it’s really important that the person responsible for making the content, e.g. the copy, free guides, lead magnets, giveaways, ads, website, videos, etc. understands these potential biases that might arise.
So what are these “biases”?
In behavioral science, biases are by definition “a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them, which affects the decisions and judgments that they make” (West, Toplak, & Stanovich, 2008). We all have them. Biases and judgements are things that have been engrained in our minds simply because we were taught, or we are stuck in our ways. Sometimes you might not even know that you have bias.
Some examples of some visual attention biases:
- Motion Bias — Movement draws attention to the object
2. Facial Bias — We as humans try to find the familiar. Therefore, we try to scan for faces whenever they’re present.
3.. Co-attention Bias- We follow the gaze of the person in the photo. It’s something, you’ve probably never even noticed before. Therefore, you can put a call to action or something important in the line of sight. Check the photo above for an example.
4. Central Bias — We usually explore the center of the photograph first, and then explore the sides.
5. Contrast bias — a consumer will be more attracted to the product that has a contrasting color.
6. Readability Bias — Text in a larger size will draw more attention, and will be more likely to read first when compared to small text.
Things to Try
- Use high contrasting colors so that it’s easier for people to read
- Be consistent in your fonts. Use one for headers, one for the paragraph.
- Use large font sizes when you want to draw more attention to a certain call to action. E.g. Sale! 50% off! or Email me!
Things to Avoid
- Avoid using too much small text. It’s harder for us to process & understand
- Avoid multiple or uncommon fonts, especially those that are more difficult to read.
- Vertical text is difficult for most people to read. In the Western world, we typically read from left to right. So it’s best to stick with horizontal text.
If you want to learn more about how you can improve your own social media, website, or UI with biosensors please download our free “Neuromarketing Secrets” guide to learn the science behind the biases.
Click to read the Secrets of Neuroscience by iMotions. You can contact me today at chloe@imotions.com to schedule a one-on-one consultation on how to gain more insights to improve your social media content.
West, R. F., Toplak, M. E., & Stanovich, K. E. (2008). Heuristics and biases as measures of critical thinking: Associations with cognitive ability and thinking dispositions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 4, 930–941.
Nielsen, J. (2020). Neuromarketing secrets. iMotions.
