Click It with Feeling

Click It with Feeling
Driving Traffic Through Emotional Responses
DAVE SNYDER
RAUBI MARIE PERILLI
LIZZIE SEEHOUSE
JAIME SPECTOR
Copypress is THE Content Lifecycle Company
Illustrations by:
www.copypress.com
Click It with Feeling
Driving Traffic Through Emotional
Responses
Written by:
Dave Snyder
Lizzie Seedhouse,
Raubi Marie Perilli,
Jaime Spector
Table of Contents
Chapter 5: Amazement & Vigilance...................................... 25
Amazement..............................................................................................................25
Vigilance....................................................................................................................28
Introduction
The Concept Behind Plutchik’s Wheel..................................... i
Create Emotionally Provoking Content
Chapter 1: What’s It All About & Why Does It Matter?.......... 3
And My Point Is?....................................................................................................... 3
Most People’s Problem........................................................................................... 4
Why Should You Care?............................................................................................ 5
Coming Full Circle on the Wheel of Emotions.............................................30
Put an Emotional Spin on a Boring Topic
Chapter 6: Topics that Take Readers for a Ride................... 35
The Roller Coaster Wheel of Emotions...........................................................35
Emotional Appeal Isn’t Always Obvious.........................................................36
The Best Emotional Appeal Isn’t Always Obvious......................................36
Are You Ready for the Ride?................................................................................37
The Psychology Behind It All................................................................................ 6
Chapter 7: Ecstasy & Grief..................................................... 39
What Does This Mean For Writers & Publishers?........................................... 6
Ecstasy........................................................................................................................39
A Few Words of Advice........................................................................................... 6
Grief.............................................................................................................................41
The Balance................................................................................................................ 7
Chapter 8: Admiration & Loathing....................................... 45
Chapter 2: Grief & Ecstasy....................................................... 9
Admiration................................................................................................................45
Grief............................................................................................................................... 9
Loathing.....................................................................................................................48
Ecstasy........................................................................................................................11
Chapter 9: Terror & Rage....................................................... 51
Grief vs. Ecstasy.......................................................................................................12
Rage............................................................................................................................51
Chapter 3: Admiration & Loathing....................................... 13
Terror...........................................................................................................................53
Admiration................................................................................................................13
Chapter 10: Vigilance & Amazement.................................... 57
Loathing.....................................................................................................................15
Vigilance....................................................................................................................57
Chapter 4: Terror & Rage....................................................... 19
Amazement..............................................................................................................59
Terror...........................................................................................................................19
Final Thoughts on Emotional Content............................................................62
Rage............................................................................................................................21
Recognize the Emotional Trends of Social
Sharing
Chapter 11: Introduction & Key Players............................... 65
The Root of Social Sharing .................................................................................65
Key Players ...............................................................................................................66
Concluding Thoughts...........................................................................................69
Chapter 12: Grief & Ecstasy................................................... 71
Grief.............................................................................................................................71
Ecstasy........................................................................................................................73
Chapter 13: Admiration & Loathing..................................... 75
Admiration................................................................................................................75
Loathing.....................................................................................................................77
Chapter 14: Rage & Terror..................................................... 79
Rage............................................................................................................................79
Terror...........................................................................................................................81
Chapter 15: Vigilance & Amazement.................................... 83
Vigilance....................................................................................................................83
Amazement..............................................................................................................86
Introduction
Dave Snyder
The Concept Behind Plutchik’s Wheel
they occur as combinations, mixtures, or compounds of
the primary emotions.
The concept for this book actually began late in 2009 when
I began looking at the psychology behind why someone
would want to naturally give someone else on the Internet a
citation, or link, to their website. At that time I wrote a post on
SearchEngineJournal.com entitled “The Psychology Behind
Link Giving.” During my research for the piece I was introduced
to the work of a psychologist named Robert Plutchik. His
work on emotional response outlines all behavior, but for me
really explained the core concept behind the idea why certain
content goes viral online and other content goes unseen.
7.Primary emotions are hypothetical constructs or idealized
states whose properties and characteristics can only be
inferred from various kinds of evidence.
Robert Plutchik, a psychologist and professor of psychology,
focused his work on the topic of emotions. His theory
of emotion is arguably the most influential approach to
emotional responses used in psychology.
This theory has ten postulates:
1.The concept of emotion is applicable to all evolutionary
levels and applies to all animals including humans.
2.Emotions have an evolutionary history and have evolved
various forms of expression in different species.
3.Emotions served an adaptive role in helping organisms
deal with key survival issues posed by the environment.
4.Despite different forms of expression of emotions in
different species, there are certain common elements, or
prototype patterns, that can be identified.
5.There is a small number of basic, primary, or prototype
emotions.
6.All other emotions are mixed or derivative states; that is,
i
8.Primary emotions can be conceptualized in terms of pairs
of polar opposites.
9.All emotions vary in their degree of similarity to one
another.
10. Each emotion can exist in varying degrees of intensity or
levels of arousal.
In 1980, Plutchik created both a 3D cone and 2D wheel model
for how emotions were related. This has become known as
Plutchik’s wheel of emotions, and it graces the cover of this
book. In the wheel, he suggested 8 primary bipolar emotions:
joy versus sadness; anger versus fear; trust versus disgust; and
surprise versus anticipation. Additionally, his circumplex model
makes connections between the idea of an emotion circle and
a color wheel. Like colors, primary emotions can be expressed
at different intensities and can mix with one another to form
different emotions.
Plutchik’s wheel has become a cornerstone of our training at
CopyPress. Regardless of what area of the Content Lifecycle
you are working within, the emotional response to a user is
really something that must stay squarely in mind, because
at the end of the day any reaction is more easily attained if
focused on emotion.
This concept is further clarified through the concept of
Emotional Self-Regulation, which is defined as:
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“being able to properly regulate one’s emotions. It is a complex
process that involves the initiating, inhibiting, or modulating the
following aspects of functioning”
The concept is based on being able to understand each of the
following:
•
Internal feeling states (i.e. the subjective experience of
emotion),
•
Emotion-related cognitions (i.e. thought reactions to a
situation),
•
Emotion-related physiological processes (i.e. heart rate,
hormonal, or other physiological reactions)
•
Emotion-related behavior (i.e. actions or facial expressions
related to emotion).
With Plutchik’s wheel we see the why, and with the concept of
Emotional Self-Regulation we have the how. Thoughts beget
feelings, and feelings initiate actions.
The marketer’s focus is in two places:
Initiation
Point
Result
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Thoughts
1. Initiation Point – For this particular conversation, this is
content.
2. Result – This can be a number of things, but the most basic
concept is traffic.
In many ways, people online have been utilizing this model for
years. The classic direct marketing, and the online sales letter
approach is based on this type of psychology. However, people
have only used this approach to focus on the result of a sale
to date, driving traffic from wherever they could get it. We are
using emotion to drive the traffic itself, and this fact coupled
with a strong conversion strategy will yield results that are
tough to dismiss.
These training concepts within CopyPress led to three series on
our blog by three different members of our staff. Each focuses
on how to use emotions in different ways and for obtaining
different results. As you work through this book, take note of
how you could approach your content strategy with regard
to these basic psychological concepts. To date there is not
a vertical we have worked in where we couldn’t apply these
concepts to increase traffic and sales.
Feelings
Actions
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Create Emotionally
Provoking Content
Lizzie Seedhouse
Chapter 1: What’s It All About & Why Does It
Matter?
On an average day WordPress.com users produce about
500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments. At the same
time over 325 million people view more than 2.5 billion
WordPress pages each month. For just one publishing
platform, that’s an awful lot of content being created and
digested.
And My Point Is?
My point is that I believe absolutely everyone has something
to share with the world. Thanks to the World Wide Web there
is a free flow of sharing, and expression of thoughts, and
emotions with words written in content, art and images
manifested, and the comments and feedback we leave. The
beauty of it is that we can share practically anything; may it
be something twisted, dark, and controversial, or it could be
something off the beaten path such as “the life and times of
Esmerelda the Iguana” (someone out there desperately wants
YOU to know more about her life).
Regardless of what is being posted and shared, the bigger
picture behind expressing ourselves online is that we not only
want our voice to be heard, but we want it to be heard by
many. Did you ever hear the story about the guy who didn’t
want to be listened to? No? Point proven. The hard-hitting
truth is that very few of us are able to share our point of view
and information and be heard by the masses.
Most People’s Problem
Most publishers fall short on having their voice heard for the
following reasons:
• You have never been interesting enough to ever have an
audience
• Your content is low quality and not written with the end
user experience in mind
• Your content is good quality, but it doesn’t really provoke
your audience to take action
Now the first one, I can’t really help you with. If you choose to
blog, and write or share information on a subject that you are
the only one interested in reading, then so be it. You can give
yourself a pat on the back for hitting a niche, but don’t expect
to be overrun with traffic, or receive comments on your blog
complimenting you on how great you and your content are.
Now let me throw a little disclaimer in here: this is not to say
that you cannot, or should not write about the most boring
subject in the world and really enjoy it. I implore all writers to
write about what they are truly interested in. At the same time,
don’t get your hopes up that your content is going to take off
like Kony 2012.
For the second bullet point problem: if your content is low
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quality because you’re not blessed with the gift of penmanship
or you’re producing content with only SEO in mind then you’re
really missing the entire point. Gone are the days of keyword
stuffing, white text – white background tricks, and focusing
on one main keyword. Today, content that’s not written for the
reader, is and will be as much use as a chocolate teapot.
If your content is good quality but it doesn’t provoke your
audience to take action, then I’d like to introduce you to Dr.
Plutchik and his Wheel of Emotions:
The Psychology Behind It All
Actions, thoughts and feelings will not occur unless there is
a stimulus to provoke an action, thought or feeling. When
presented with various stimuli (content, images etc.), it affects
our thoughts in one way or another, our thoughts then turn
into a feeling, and since we are emotion-based creatures, our
feelings tend to dictate how we react.
Robert Plutchik was a chap who created the concept of a
wheel of emotions showing the 8 basic emotions. In the center
of the wheel you will see fear, anger, surprise, etc. These occur
at different levels of intensity for each of us, and you can see
that the most intense emotions are located in the center core
of the emotion wheel, and as you stray from the center, those
core emotions become less intensified.
Why Should You Care?
Ultimately, as we are pushed closer to the center of the wheel
emotionally, the more likely we will be provoked to take action.
For example, how often do you directly react to something
that makes you feel bored? Yeah, you might whine and
moan about it a little, but after that we typically go in pursuit
of something else that will bring forth a different, deeper
emotion.
This also applies to the content you publish on your website. If
a reader finds your content boring, then they simply move on.
Yet if your content is disgusting or even evokes the emotion
of loathing, the chances are your audience is going to want to
let everyone else know about it: a provoked action based on a
strong emotion.
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What Does This Mean For Writers & Publishers?
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, if you are looking to
actively engage your audience, get content shared, and maybe
one day “go viral”, it’s important to create content with the
purpose of generating emotions towards the center of the
wheel. The closer to the center of the wheel, the greater of a
reaction you will provoke.
A Few Words of Advice
Controversy can do wonders for SEO, traffic, links, and
notoriety; but what about your reputation? Do you really want
to be known as that writer, that publisher, or that person who
tells dead baby jokes? The argument that “all publicity is good
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publicity,” is far from watertight. In all likelihood an overly
controversial approach may harm your brand, reputation, and
relationships.
So before you go in ‘keyboards blazing’ and start posting
controversial content and ideas that are sure to raise the
eyebrows of your audience, STOP and remember that human
emotions can be highly volatile. Although getting under your
reader’s skin and “picking a fight” might seem like a quick and
easy way to provoke stronger actions, you must consider the
consequences of such behavior.
The Balance
Finding the right balance and level of emotion to evoke and
the level of controversy around a subject is a bit of an art
form. Choosing the wrong emotion to pursue can taint your
brand voice and too little of the appropriate emotions in your
content is no more engaging than filler content or fluff. There’s
no rulebook or guide to which emotions to pursue – strategy
needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
The key to any successful content strategy is to know your
audience and hone in on their wants and needs. Discover what
makes them tick and then push their buttons to provoke the
actions that you want.
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Chapter 2: Grief & Ecstasy
I’ve introduced the concept of emotionally provoking content
and the theory that if you want your audience to take action,
then you have to produce emotional content that falls towards
the center of the wheel of emotions. Now I’ll explore the
emotions even further. First, we’ll focus on GRIEF vs. ECSTASY.
Grief
A natural reaction to any loss
Grief is a very personal emotion. It can be the loss of a
possession, a person, or even a human right, and it can
also manifest and be expressed in many different ways. The
individuality of grief poses a challenge when it comes to
content and pushing the emotional buttons of your audience.
The even bigger hurdle to this challenge is provoking a large
number of people with this emotion. I came to this conclusion
after researching the stages of grief and scouring the web
looking for content that would make me feel grief. But all I
could find was content that made me sad.
I feel confident that I am in touch with my emotions. I balled
my eyes out when I watched “The Notebook”, and the Family
Guy episode when Brian left home was pretty heartwrenching
too. But why did none of the content online that was clearly
really sad have the same effect on me?
Then I had an epiphany. Everything that has ever made me
grieve in real life was not only a real life event, it was personal
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and ‘hit close to home’. Although nothing I found online made
me grieve, a lot of content did make me sad, which led to my
next thought:
Maybe content that makes many people feel grief cannot be
manufactured.
Now if I am wrong, please interject. At the very least
generating this emotion is far more complex than anyone
expects. To strengthen my point, take the death of Steve Jobs
or Whitney Houston. Both Jobs and Houston had thousands
of mourners hitting their social profiles and expressing their
grief. In these cases grief was not manufactured, these people
actually died! Should you gun down a bunch of people? NO,
that will not be necessary.
So What Should I Do If I Can’t Create This Emotion?
Although we may not be able to tap into the emotion of grief
at its most intense degree as easily as I would have hoped,
there is always the lower degree of grief: sadness. An emotion
that is most certainly attainable, and also close enough to the
center of the emotional wheel to still provoke readers to take
action. If sadness is not your cup of tea, then you can take the
grief of others and outright exploit it. Here is a couple of ways
you can go about it:
1.Create controversy by talking negatively, falsely or by
mocking the subject
2.Pay your respects and celebrate the subject
The first option has short-term value. It’s no doubt an attention
grabber, but long term you are going to ruin your credibility.
Dane Cook tried making a joke about the 2012 Aurora
Shootings and it didn’t go very well.
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However, Option #2 has a lot more value and won’t upset the
people you are trying to target. A successful example of this
strategy came from The New York Daily News who created a
Whitney Houston remembrance board on Pinterest. Similarly,
others took advantage of Houston’s death by celebrating her
life and achievements via Whitney Houston infographics.
On a brighter note, let’s move on to the emotion of ecstasy.
happy, what they enjoy to read about, and what makes them
tick. If you’re tech blogger then you might want to give a sneak
preview on the latest video game and include an opportunity
to win it within your content. If you have a blog for hard-core
animal lovers, then maybe you’d have success writing about
heroic animal stories or by generating your own cat memes.
Grief vs. Ecstasy
Ecstasy
A feeling of great happiness
From the manufactured memes that friends share, to the real
life underdog stories in news articles that make you ‘feel good’
about life and raise your spirits, I continuously find content
online that makes me feel extremely happy. Beyond me, there
is an entire market of people deliberately seeking ways to find
happiness online.
Almost everyone enjoys the feelings of ecstasy and happiness
more than they do grief. That’s just sheer human nature that
cannot be disputed. On that premise, I think that ecstasy
is not only a much easier emotion to evoke and easier to
fathom, it is also easier to provoke an action using this
emotion within content. This is not to say that you cannot or
should not attempt to hone in on the emotions of grief and
sadness, because I think you should. As humans we do not
solely feel one or two emotions just because they are more
favorable than the rest and I think that it’s important that your
content reflects that notion as well, and takes advantage of
unfavorable emotions.
Give the People What They Want
People want to be happy. Unless your main audience and
target market are sadists, it is safe to say that they do not want
to be hit with sad story after sad story. Take the emergence of
domains such as http://www.meyouhealth.com. On this site
you can take daily challenges to enhance your mood. Such
a site is a testament to the ever increasing demand to feel
happier.
As a writer it is your job to know what will make your audience
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Chapter 3: Admiration & Loathing
I decided to take a different approach to these two emotions;
instead of being wrapped-up in my feelings and emotions, I
decided to branch out and find examples of content already on
the web that provoked readers into action. So here it goes…
should we try to shape or change who our audience admires.
Just like when dealing with the emotion of Grief, we cannot
force our audience to feel admiration in a particular direction
without propaganda, because it is too personal of an emotion.
Although, we may not always understand why and who our
readers admire, we must of course accept it and use it to our
advantage.
Capitalizing
Admiration
Respect and warm approval.
We all have someone or something in our past or present that
we respect, are impressed by or look up to – that’s admiration.
The beauty of this emotion is that it’s completely free flowing
and non-discriminate; anyone can be admired. Take Obama
admiring Romney for how seriously he takes his faith, for
example. These two political figures are ‘sworn enemies’
praying for each other’s demise and ready to pounce on
any whiff of a scandal. Yet, there’s still a place for admiration.
Even comic book characters are admired; not only because
they have awesome special powers that help fight crime (for
some that may be a big part of it) but also because they have
qualities that we respect and what they stand for.
Now you might think that admiring Spiderman (crime fighting
youngster that spends his evening swinging from lamp
posts) might be a bit ridiculous. But did you feel that way
when you were 8 years old? Ultimately, what our audiences
admire might be absurd to us, but clearly it isn’t to them. It
doesn’t always matter what you think; we don’t decide, nor
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It’s simple enough to look at your audience and pinpoint who
and what they admire. If they love technology, it might be
Matt Cutts. If they’re into sports, you could pick any of the gold
medal Olympians from London 2012. Or if they so happen
to be into body-art and piercings, they might admire Elaine
Davidson – world’s most pierced woman. Regardless of what
they are into, it is important to take it and run with it. Giving
you the biggest bang for your buck would be conducting
an interview with the individual, but of course not all of us
are very important journalists with access to celebrities and
VIPs. So the next best thing you could do is take the admired
person/concept/thing and make it (or them) the focus of
your content. You can approach this in a few different ways:
from writing about The Top 10 Reasons Batman is better than
Superman, to creating your own Pinterest board about the
people whom your audience admires.
Both of these content ideas allow for community sharing
and discussion on the topic, but as usual your strategies will
strongly depend on your audience and their needs.
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Loathing
A feeling of intense dislike or disgust
Sometimes this feeling is so intense that it provokes a physical
action (have you ever seen something that made you literally
sick to your stomach?), as well as an emotional reaction. Take
the “2 Girls 1 Cup” video for example: if you haven’t seen it or
don’t know the premise behind it, you can go and do your
own research - at your own risk. But the bottom line is that this
web content was found to be extremely disgusting by many
of viewers. However despite the mass-disgust, the video went
instantly viral and within the first 6 months the website had 32
million visits after its launch in August of 2007.
How did it get so popular?
What added to this content’s virality was the Internet
phenomenon of tricking a friend or family member into
watching it and then recording their reactions to the video.
There are ample videos out there, my particular favorite is the
one with Grandma Marlene watching the video for the first
time. As disgusted as Grandma Marlene was, she stuck with
it – like a trooper – and kept watching. I expect that she, like
most others did not want to miss anything equally or more
disgusting in the video. Thank you curiosity!
The Domino Effect
On more of a “micro” level of disgusting content, I came across
this response to a Facebook status, which was then posted on
Reddit:
Here is an instance of two actions stemming from intense
disgust. On one hand there is the Mayor of Troy, MI who
Human curiosity fuelled the fire for this particular video’s views.
Author Sidrah Zaheer explained the nature of human curiosity:
“It is curiosity in man’s nature which drives him to understand
different phenomena in life. The curiosity about one’s self and the
environment leads a person to investigate and with the help of his
findings draw adequate inferences.”
If you have just Googled “2 girls 1 cup” because you didn’t
know enough about it, then you’ve just proved my point. Back
in 2007, people heard about how disgusting this video was
and just had to see it from themselves. Once viewed, they felt
emotionally provoked to share their thoughts and feelings
regarding the video online in forums & comment sections
everywhere.
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seems disgusted with the ruling that the state of New York
has allowed same-sex marriages. She then felt provoked to
update her Facebook status that reflected her feelings on
the subject. On the other hand there is another party who
was disgusted with the Mayor’s reaction and felt provoked
to share her Facebook status on Reddit. This chain of social
reaction continued on Reddit with 390 comments, 3,007 up
votes and 1,929 down votes. This Reddit situation exemplifies
how content that hits on an emotion closer to the center of
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Plutchik’s wheel will indeed provoke people into action.
In For A Penny, In For A Pound
A bit like the dead baby jokes in the beginning of this series,
disgusting your audiences is an All or Nothing decision. If
you do want to be known for disgusting your audience with
content, then you will need to go “all in” to make an impact.
Just remember that when you do, your reputation will precede
you and you may take yourself and your brand past the point
of no return.
When it comes to admiration, there is a lot more flexibility in
what you can do. However, if you are planning on hitting this
emotion with your content, I would definitely suggest overglamourizing the subject of admiration. If you merely start to
downplay or emphasize your audience’s “hero”, then expect to
have a disgruntled set of readers who will quickly lose interest
in what you have to say.
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Chapter 4: Terror & Rage
Now we’ve moved on to discuss emotions Terror and Rage.
So be forewarned, you might experience anger and/or fear
whilst reading this chapter.
Terror
A state of intense fear.
11.5 million People in the US suffer from some sort of phobia,
ranging from Arachnophobia (fear of spiders) to Xenophobia
(a fear of foreigners – really?!). From the outside looking in, the
spectrum of fear runs from the perfectly rational to the totally
irrational. Most of us can understand the rationale behind
Aichmophobia (fear of needles), however we probably all have
a tough time wrapping our heads around Anthrophobia (the
fear of flowers). And it’s easy for us to make fun of this and say,
“oh watch out for begonia, he’s an evil SOB.”
However when you are the one suffering from the phobia of
flowers, it all seems quite reasonable as it probably stems from
a significant event in their life, or perhaps they just have a
severe allergy to pollen that could kill them or something; who
really knows?
What scares you? Nuclear war, large things, small things,
registered mail?
Beyond making fun of fears (which, by the way hits a
completely different emotion than the one that we’re talking
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about), a content creator can look to capitalize on Terror in a
couple of ways:
1. Push their personal phobia buttons
Playing on people’s vanity is an easy one, so let’s start there.
Some pregnant women are concerned about their body and
appearance post-birth. There’s a fear that they might not get
their figure back and when they’ve had a child or two, three, or
four and so on, there is a lot of buzz around post-natal fitness
and celebrities who have done well losing their baby weight.
An effective content idea to capitalize on this fear could be
to find images and write a piece of content along the lines of
“Celebrities Who Never Shed Their Baby Weight.” Take “Twilight”
actress, Bryce Dallas Howard:
Is that enough to scare all of you post-natal women out there
into boot camp?
2. For the lack of a better phrase, create “all around scary”
content.
Beyond hitting personal phobias of your target audience, you
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can go broader and create content that is considered “scary” to
the masses. There are just some fears that are common to all of
us to a certain degree: death, ghosts, and the undead are just a
few. A great example of this type of approach is scary movies.
Murderous psychopaths, zombies, and possessed children
usually play a part in scary movies for a reason.
I don’t think anyone has ever made a movie on scary flowers;
and before you say it, “Little Shop of Horrors” does not count as
a scary movie – there’s too much singing and frolicking for it to
be remotely scary.
As a content creator you might be a bit baffled where to go
from here, because you don’t have the resources to make a
scary movie, and that’s fine; scary content doesn’t take a great
deal of effort. If you don’t have the skill to create this type of
content, you can always scrape it from the web and feature
it just like RegretfulMorning.com with their, “15 Scary GIFs
that will keep you awake at night.” Check out #2, it’s a creepy
favorite.
Rage
A violent and uncontrolled anger.
Just like the emotion Grief, it’s not an emotion that people
actively seek out; I can guarantee that there are not many
members of your audience that can’t wait to read you next
article that’s going to p!$$ them off. So if that is your content
strategy, then you may want to reconsider that moving
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forward. Now that’s not to say that you can’t upset your
audience, make them angry or put them into a blind rage. On
the contrary, Rage is an emotion that leads to a strong, quick
and very purposeful reaction as it is locked in with the Fight in
the Fight or Flight Response.
So, my audience doesn’t want to be p!$$€Đ off, but will it pay
off if I do so?
Yes and yes. The trick here is not to directly do something to
upset your audience. For example, if your audience is sensitive
to animal rights and feels animals should not be used for
cosmetic testing or as food then YOU SHOULD NOT develop
content about how much you love your new found hobby of
fox hunting. Instead take a piece of content that glamorizes fox
hunting and let your audience know how upset you are about
it. Not only will the audience see that you are on their side, but
it will also enable a situation for others to react and share both
your and their voice.
Should I be worried if someone goes postal?
A little bit. Look at the world today; anyone can sue anyone
for the most ridiculous things. I’d be lying to you if I said that
you can create any kind of content you want without getting
into some hot water. If you put something online that strongly
influences your audience to take an extreme action (not
limited to, but including suicide, violent acts or child birth
pacts) then society will be looking to point the finger. Yet who
can prove that The Beatles’ song, “Helter Skelter” is responsible
for the Manson family murders?
Get Mad & Get Scared?
Both of these emotions will be fun to play with as a content
creator as they both have the range to provoke very extreme
and strong reactions. Content built around Rage -if used
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properly- is really going to give your audience the opportunity
to agree with you, vent, and spread your message. Terror
content can either freak people out to where you can get them
to do what you want them to (such as buy those diet pills to
help them lose that baby weight), or alternatively share it with
other people that they want to scare. Keep an eye out for terror
content around Halloween, and for Rage content leading up to
the 2012 Presidential Election.
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Chapter 5: Amazement & Vigilance
We’ve just about felt it all: from the pain of grief and the joy
of ecstasy, to a fit of rage and the essence of loathing. I’ve put
you through the wringer of emotions and there’s just two more
emotions left in this emotionally provoking content section.
Hold onto your hats for Amazement and Vigilance.
Amazement
A state of extreme surprise or wonder; astonishment
This emotion stems from being exposed to stimuli that are
out of the ordinary. Since it’s relatively new or out of the norm,
we find the stimulus to be quite intriguing, surprising, and
typically pretty awesome and impressive.
what most people find amazing is actually easier to pinpoint
than I first expected. My initial thought was that we’re all so
jaded with content on the web and over exposed to so many
different weird and wonderful things online that how can we
as content creators keep amazing our audience? You have to
show them something new and the possibilities are infinite.
Double Rainbow?
As insane and ridiculous as I think the Double Rainbow video
is, I have to admit that it has amazement factors on a couple
of different levels. The double rainbow guy Paul Vasquez is
not only ecstatic over the sight of a double rainbow, he’s also
pretty damn amazed by it too. Furthermore, how amazed were
you by Vasquez’s reaction? 35,293,391 views and147,000+
comments don’t lie – I’m going to hedge my bets and say that
one or two of you out there were amazed as well.
Here are the stats:
As you can see in the last 34 months or so this video has
averaged over one million views a month.
So ok, not everyone finds big fancy cameras or moustaches
simply AMAZING. Looking out through a broader scope at
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Vigilance
Alertness is the state of paying close and continuous attention.
Does this mean I have to get high and then go out into the
mountains with a camera?
What you do in your spare time is your own business. However,
you probably don’t have to go to that extreme just to get some
attention and social love from your audience. Showing your
audience something new, impressive, or interesting can be
simple even if you aren’t creative. Putting a new spin on an old
idea can be a great place to start when you don’t have a ton
of ideas. Now I don’t mean taking a previously written article
like “29 ways to induce labor” and writing your own article
on “28 ways to induce labor” (if that’s what you’re thinking,
then please consider hanging up your writing pen and pad
now). Instead, consider morphing it into something like, “Your
Labor Inducing Weapons of Choice: Eggplants, Pineapples
or Dancing?” If you do have a gift of creativity or have a
particularly unique talent, then you’re a step ahead of the
game and can get down to brainstorming on how to use those
resources and put your ideas into unique content production.
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Getting someone’s attention online is relatively easy if you
have a killer clickable title in your arsenal – keeping their
attention is a whole other ball game. You have to walk the walk
and talk the talk; meaning that if you are going to have an
awesome and interesting article title then you have to back it
up with equally awesome content. Too often in advertising we
fall for the get rich quick pitches, and the, “don’t miss out – a
terrific offer is waiting for you!” claims, and too often we are
disappointed by what we end up reading. Don’t expect your
readers to feel any less disappointed. Once you have a great
title at hand, getting the content that keeps your audience’s
attention can be generated in a few different ways:
Content Trailblazing
Be the first to publish the latest, most exciting news:
If no one has read it or seen it before, then you’re off to a
good start. Posting breaking news stories or having the latest
scoop on a celebrity will definitely get people’s attention
and have your audience checking back regularly for more
information. Remember this online content can be in any form
such as comics, infographics, videos, or good old fashioned
written copy. I understand that we all can’t be the BBC or TMZ,
however there are ways to secure such content if you really
want to roll up your sleeves and try:
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• Cunning journalism – get out there and do some research!
• Stalking celebrities online or at their home – just don’t get
arrested.
You can report on the same recent and interesting news story,
but add your own spin just like The Onion:
• Content exchanges with other bloggers and writers – you
have to speculate to accumulate.
Once you’ve got a reader hooked, you have to keep the ball
rolling with similar types of content and consistent posting.
Live Content
Streaming videos live is certainly one way you can get your
audience to “tune in.” Obviously, we’re not going to have the
rights to the Olympics or anything, but there are other DIY
methods to creating your own live and unique content. If your
audience is into YOU (or at least you think they are) because
you’re so hot/awesome/funny/troubled, then you wouldn’t be
the first to have a live video feed in your home, just like the TV
series, Big Brother.
If you have something educational and informational to say to
your audience on a regular basis because you’re so smart and
interesting, then live podcasts and live webinars are also great
places to start. They key with these two, just like everything
else is that you have to offer value to the audience and not just
blurt out commonly known information that anyone can find
on Wikipedia.
If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them.
So you can’t stalk a celebrity because you live in the middle of
nowhere and celebrities rarely visit, or maybe you don’t think
you’re so hot/awesome/funny/troubled and don’t fancy doing
the whole DIY live content approach. Well thankfully all hope is
not lost – you can always just rip off everyone else’s ideas.
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Poor Mrs. Armstrong.
Another way to jump on someone else’s content band wagon
is to take content that is already going viral and do your own
spin off of it. The first example that comes to mind is the “Shit
Girls Say” video series. Within a week of the first video’s release,
several bloggers responded to the viral web series with their
own perspective such as, “Shit Drunk Girls Say”, and many
other variations.
Coming Full Circle on the Wheel of Emotions
I’ve discovered many different things about content, emotions,
and pushing people’s buttons whilst writing this series on
provoking content. One of the biggest notions that I have
found to be completely consistent is that you really have to
know your audience and gauge their emotional reaction to the
content you are publishing. Part of this is knowing what your
audience wants and expects from you as a creator of content.
This can take a little bit of digging and research to really lock
down what they are into, but it really is important. Sometimes
shortcuts are taken in content creation for two reasons:
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1.We think we know what our audience wants, so if it’s not
broken, don’t fix it.
2.We are selfish and we will do whatever suits us best. My
audience can like it or lump it.
Making assumptions and doing whatever you want is your
prerogative. However, if that’s your approach, then I would
advise caution because repeated publication of undesirable
content will be a quick turnoff for your audience. Of course,
you’re probably going to do whatever you want because that’s
what you do. In which case, I’ll stop typing now…
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Put an Emotional Spin on
a Boring Topic
Raubi Marie Perilli
Chapter 6: Topics that Take Readers for a Ride
I’ve been fascinated with the concept of subconscious social
sharing and have looked at why people repost online content.
I‘ve narrowed it down to two main reasons why people share
content:
1.The content is valuable
2.The content is emotionally appealing
But rather than discuss just the concept, I’m going to elaborate
on the element most likely to engage users – cracking them
up, pissing them off, scaring the crap out of them, and every
exaggerated emotion in between.
This series is about emotions; emotions that make readers red
in the face. Emotions that push readers to the point of loss of
emotional control. Emotions that push the reader right toward
that social share button.
The Roller Coaster Wheel of Emotions
emotionally-driven ride that readers will feel, and probably not
expect.
Emotional Appeal Isn’t Always Obvious
Some topics are associated with an obvious emotional appeal.
Sure if you are writing about universal health care – you can
probably make some people pretty angry. If you are creating
content about sexy beaches – you can pretty easily make some
people happy. If you are reporting on flesh-eating bacteria–
you can probably scare someone out of their mind.
Each of those topics is attached to an obvious emotion. You
don’t need to spin sexy beaches to make it exciting, and all you
have to do is say, “flesh-eating bacteria” to freak someone out.
It’s pretty easy to notice and write about the emotional appeal
of those topics. But what about topics that are not naturally,
emotionally exciting? How can you make an audience excited
about bankruptcy, database management, or mortgage
refinancing? That takes some skill. (But we’ll get back to that.)
The Best Emotional Appeal Isn’t Always Obvious
By now you have seen Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions once or
twice. Lizzie Seedhouse and Jaime Spector are also using the
Wheel of Emotion as the base of their series about provoking
content and emotional appeals of social sites.
So we already know it’s pretty easy to make people mad about
national health care. But sometimes things that are easy, are
often problematic as well.
If you haven’t noticed by now, this wheel is pretty important
to us content creators, and there are a lot of ways to use this
seemingly simple information to develop ideas, create content,
and insight action in readers.
It’s likely that if you think it’s easy to write about a topic, about
a hundred other people will also think it’s easy to write about
the same topic from the same perspective. Sexy beaches are
fun, and that’s why there are hundreds of articles about them.
In this series, I’m going to tear apart Plutchik’s Wheel of
Emotions and put it back together as a roller coaster. I’ll
show you how to take any topic and transform it into an
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One of the strategies of writing quality content is finding a notso-obvious emotional appeal for a topic. If you can take a topic,
ignore the obvious emotional appeal, and find another way to
connect the topic to an equally strong emotion – you are on
your way to creating something new and special that readers
want.
So how can you take sexy beaches and make it scary? How can
you make flesh-eating bacteria look amazing? And how can
you make national health care incite laughter?
That also takes some skill.
Are You Ready for the Ride?
If this article has freaked you out. If you are now worried that
you won’t be able to find an emotionally exciting way to talk
about home loans. If you are now worried that all of your
good ideas about scary flesh-eating bacteria are actually
pretty bland. Good. I’ve made you at least a little conscious
of your content’s shortcomings and effectively hit on your
apprehension emotion (that may also be attributed to all of
the talk about flesh-eating bacteria).
But don’t fret too much. In this Emotionally Appealing Content
series, I’ll take topics with obvious emotional appeal and
topics with no emotional appeal and show you how to build
them into a roller coaster of emotion that takes readers for an
unusually exciting ride.
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Chapter 7: Ecstasy & Grief
This section is about using an emotional connection to make
readers care about a topic that is ordinary, overdone or just
plain boring. For each chapter, I’ll feature two opposing
feelings from Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion and show how to
make three boring topics more engaging by incorporating the
given emotional appeals.
In this chapter, I’m tackling the major high and low of the roller
coaster of emotion —Ecstasy and Grief.
Ecstasy
Somewhere between optimism and love, we have the ability to
drift from serenity to true ecstasy. And what most often brings
us happiness is something really, sometimes even stupidly,
funny.
If you can create content that makes people laugh out loud,
you can almost guarantee that the person busting a gut is
going to socially share the content. Why? Because what’s the
fun in laughing at something all alone?
It’s not always easy to make someone laugh, but if you can at
least develop an interesting or unusual spin to a boring topic,
you can expect to attract readers that normally wouldn’t care
about a lame industry (like accounting).
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Tips for writing to incite ecstasy:
1.Be a part of the joke – Writing about dorky accountants?
Write from the dorky accountant’s perspective. Everyone
loves to see people make fun of themselves.
2.Be specific – Don’t give generalities. The more specific you
can be, the funnier you can be. So don’t say accounts are
dorky because “They Don’t Have Social Skills.” Say, your
accountant is dorky because, “The Last Time You Were
in His Office, The Only Eye Contact You Had Was with a
Framed Photo of Hans Solo”.
3.Be topical and relevant – Connect to a mainstream
trend or pop culture reference to unite your content to
something people are already interested in. Even more, if
you can connect to something that is topical and already
funny, you will have an even better chance at making the
reader laugh.
4.Create silly comparisons – Make a boring topic more
interesting by comparing it to other things the readers
already know about. By making the topic more relatable,
you are more likely to connect to the reader’s funny bone.
Examples of spinning boring topics toward ecstasy:
Accounting
• The # Reasons Your Accounting Degree Makes You Better
than the Rest of the Population… at Math
• # Actors Who Played Painfully Awkward Accountants
• The # Signs Your Accountant Was a Nerd In High School
• TAKE IT UP A NOTCH: The # Signs Your Accountant Is
Probably Still a Virgin
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Cloud Computing
• # Things You Wish You Lost in the Cloud
• # Cloud Computing Tech Terms That Sound like Complete,
Utter Gibberish
• Does Cloud Computing Have the Potential to Turn Us Into
Lazy Slobs?
Home Insurance
• # of the Weirdest Things Ever Insured
• # Television Houses with Home Insurance Rates the
Characters Could Never Afford
• Strong Hurricanes With Wimpy Names
• TAKE IT UP A NOTCH: # Hurricanes With Old Ladies’ Names
That Would Have Knocked Down Your House
Remember, everyone can experience and respond to the
ultimate high of ecstasy.
Grief
Disapproval and remorse; sounds bleak. But if you can move a
reader from pensiveness to sadness to grief – you are pushing
the audience that much closer to the social share button.
It’s not always fun to write about something dark and
depressing, but grief is a major way to pull on the heartstrings
of your audience. Misery loves company, so odds are, if you can
create something pretty disturbingly sad, people are going to
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make sure that they aren’t the only one crying over the bad
news.
Tips for writing to incite grief:
1.Connect with the audience – Make audience feel like
they are part of the grief by mentioning things that the
audience most cares about. Family, friends, job, security,
and pets are just a few things most connected to a reader’s
sob strings.
2.Play off of fears and insecurities – Use what you know
about your audience to identify their fears and insecurities.
By showing potential destruction caused by the result of
those fears and insecurities, you can make the reader care.
3.Show loss – Show something going away or being forever
lost. At the root of most sadness is losing or not gaining
something.
4.Don’t be afraid to be dark – Don’t hold back if you are
trying to use grief to motivate your readers. Intense words
and grim details create an impression that will likely
resonate with readers.
Examples of spinning boring topics toward grief:
Accounting
• Is Accounting Really the Most Depressing Job in the
World?
• What Almost Everyone Hates Their Accountant
• 7 Ways Your Accountant Can Cost You Your Bank Account,
House and Freedom
• TAKE IT UP A NOTCH: # Deaths Caused by Accounting
Miscalculations
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Cloud Computing
• # Jobs That Cloud Computing Knocked Out of the Market
• # Cloud Computing Mistakes that Will Put Successful
Companies Out of Business
• # Ways Cloud Computing Is Going to Make Your Children’s
Life Better… Or Extremely Worse
Home Insurance
• # Natural Disasters That Left More Than a Million People
Homeless
• The Top # Things That Families Almost Always Lose In a Fire
and Can’t Ever Get Back
• The Real Cost of Insurance: # People Who Lost Everything
By Failing to Renew
And, remember everyone can experience and respond to the
ultimate low of grief.
Before you start a crying fest from your content – either by
pushing the reader to tears from uncontrollable laughter or
utter heartbreak, first really assess your audience and decide
what is the best way to reach them.
Not all audiences respond to ecstasy, and not all readers want
to cry. Make sure you know your audience before you go
pushing their buttons to get them to press the social share
button.
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Chapter 8: Admiration & Loathing
We are moving through Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion and
discussing how using emotional triggers can make readers
care about a boring topic. So far we have covered Ecstasy and
Grief and looked at both sides of Happiness and Sadness.
Now we are moving on to Admiration and Loathing and how
people respond to Love and Hate.
There is a thin line between love and hate, so before you
attempt to make your readers passionate or scorning, make
sure you know the reader well. A misreading of your audience
could swing them in the complete opposite direction of your
targeted emotional appeal… but that could also be a good
thing. As long as they’re feeling something, you’re doing your
job.
Admiration
People connect to what they accept and trust. They love what
they admire. Most admiration is rooted in positivity and/or
passion. People enjoy sharing positivity; Tim Tebow is loved/
popular because he stands for positivity and passion. Think
about how many inspirational quotes you see on Facebook
and Pinterest.
People also enjoy sharing their passions. Because people
often personally identify with their passions, they frequently
share content that connects them to the things that they feel
define them. If you can get people to admire your content, by
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connecting to positivity or passion, you will be much more
likely to have your content shared by the reader.
Tips for writing to incite admiration:
• Be an Un-secret Admirer – Call out a group or person that
has made a positive impact in the world. Readers enjoy
content about people they admire. And as added bonus,
if the featured person learns of your post, they will likely
share it to their followers and spread the word about the
given admiration.
• Be Inspirational – As we know, people love inspirational
quotes. But what do they love even more? Inspirational
stories or anecdotes that show those mantras in action.
• Be Charitable – Donating time, money and resources
is always admirable. Whether you are being charitable
yourself (by giving away something) or featuring others,
who have been charitable, people will respond.
• Make the Reader Look Good – Most people want to be
perceived as innately good, so if you can craft a title that
makes the reader sound like they are supporting a good
cause or participating in a positive movement, they
will probably share it just because it looks like a good
reflection of their character.
Make sure that you deliver what you promise in the headline.
Hook the readers with a title that tugs at their heartstrings.
Then make it impossible for them not to share the content by
incorporating strong emotional elements in the content.
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Examples of spinning boring topics toward Admiration:
Accounting
• # Accountants Who Helped Change the World… for the
Better
• How to Use Your Accounting Skills To Help Your
Community
• How Oprah’s Accountant Saves Her Millions and Helps Her
Rule the World
Cloud Computing
• # Things The World Wants to Save in the Cloud
• # Things You Can Send to the Cloud and Give Back to the
Community
Home Insurance
• # Insurance Companies That Were There When People
Really Needed Them
• How to Help Insure a Home Built by Habitat for Humanity
• The # Most Charitable Home Insurance Companies of All
Time
People love Tim
Tebow because he
stands for positivity
and passion.
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Loathing
Just as people respond strongly to admiration and love, they
respond similarly to things that make them fume.
As ugly and unfortunate as hate sounds, it is actually a very
powerful tool because most people absolutely love to hate.
Ragging, mocking and insulting are popular pastimes. And
because it’s no fun to poke fun alone, you can expect that if
you write something that causes a hateful rise in a reader, they
will want their friends to join in the tar and feathering.
Tips for writing to incite loathing:
1.Ruin Something People Enjoy – Finding something that is
viewed as sacred and expose its shortcomings. People love
to hate on a “fall from grace”. (Ever heard of Tiger Woods?)
2.Get on Their Nerves – Make people annoyed. Poke at pet
peeves. Use highly debatable, or even sensitive, topics to
agitate your audience.
3.Make Their Skin Crawl – Disgust your audience with
something they think is unimaginably gross. People
respond disturbing topics like spiders, McDonald’s food
calorie counts, or horrific true crime stories.
4.Don’t Be Afraid – Pushing people toward hate can be scary.
But if you are going to attempt to make someone fill with
disgust, you need to comment and be prepared to back up
your boldness.
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Examples of spinning boring topics toward Loathing:
Accounting
• # of the Worst Accounting Fraud Schemes of the 21st
Century
• # Signs Your Accountant is Screwing You
• Accounting Mistakes that Republicans/Democrats Don’t
Want You to Know
Cloud Computing
• The # Worst Times Your Computer Can Brake and Lose All
of Your Data
Remember, admiration and loathing, love and hate, are
strong emotions often connected to very sensitive parts of
personalities and perspectives. Use them. But use them with
caution, and know your audience.
If you have a pessimistic audience who is disinterested in
positive reinforcement, don’t even try to get them to admire
your posts… unless your content is swayed toward loving to
hate something (which sometimes works too).
And if you have an extremely optimistic audience who recycles
and enjoys cheering for the underdog, then pour on the
positivity and get them to love you by sharing all things right
with the world.
• # Of the Worst Things You Can Find in Your Partner’s Cloud
Home Insurance
• # Insurance Companies That Weren’t There When People
Needed Them
Just make sure you know your audience well, because even
a football player can insight a complete love fest or a fit of
hateful scorn.
• # Insurance Companies That Are Basically Stealing Your
Money
• Charitable Celebrities Who Committed Insurance Fraud
Build out your idea so that
readers grow more disdainful
as they read by developing
concepts that incite a visceral
reaction.
Many People hate Tim Tebow
because he gets on their
nerves and is fun to mock.
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Chapter 9: Terror & Rage
So now that we’ve covered Ecstasy & Grief and Loathing &
Admiration from Plutchick’s Wheel of Emotion and we’ve
looked at how each emotion can be used in content to create
reactions with readers. Now let’s up the intensity as we cover
Rage and Terror.
Rage
To understand how people move from annoyance to anger to
full blown rage – think about how you feel when you are in a
hurry and a slow moving, rickety car creeps into the fast lane
and goes ten under the speed limit.
If you can create content that accelerates emotion in readers as
fast as no acceleration in the fast lane, you have social sharing
gold. People love to share their rage. Why?
Most of the time when someone is getting red in the face, the
only way they can find relief is by sharing their tantrum with
someone else. So push the buttons of your readers to get
them to push their social sharing buttons.
Many of the tips for causing Rage are similar to writing for
Loathing because when we really hate something, it usually
pisses us off too.
Tips for writing to incite Rage:
are shining a negative light on a positive person, place or
thing, or literally sharing the news of something going
away, find something people love and rip it apart.
2.Prove someone wrong – Call out a mistake made by an
audience or group. Be sure you are right or at least have a
strong angle that backs up your statement. You will likely
get shares because the audience or group will want to give
their opposing version of the story.
3.Complicate things – People resist change. Give them
a reason to believe that their normal routines or
philosophies are wrong and/or will need to be changed
drastically.
4.Give solid reasons to be mad – Don’t just provide a broad
perspective. Litter the entire piece of content with solid
examples and anecdotes on why the story should make
the reader mad.
Examples of spinning boring topics toward Rage:
Accounting
• # Accounting Tips Your Boss Never Told You, But Should
Have Because It Costs You X Hours of Extra Work
• # Changes in the Tax Code that Are Going to Make You
Miserable
Cloud Computing
• Is Cloud Computing Just Another Way to Say Headache?
• # Ways the Wrong Cloud Computing System Will Lose Your
Most Prized Photographs
1.Tear down or take away something people enjoy – People
hate to see something they love fall apart. Whether you
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Tips for writing to incite Terror:
Home Insurance
• # Things Your Home Insurance Company Probably Told You
That Are Absolute Lies
• Families Who Found Themselves on the Street Thanks to
[Evil Insurance Company Name]
Remember, when people are so mad that they don’t know
what to do with themselves, they typically will do at least one
thing – tell their friends.
Terror
If you want some examples about how well fear works as a
motivator, just watch some mainstream news stations. News
that incites apprehension stirs up emotions, but news that
incites terror stirs up high ratings.
The same is true for online content. People watch Nancy Grace
because she taps into her target demographics’ main fears
(being kidnapped, being kidnapped, yea well, mostly being
kidnapped).
If you can use Nancy’s tactic of understanding your audience
and playing off of their fears, then you can get them to share
content, because if they are scared about something, they will
want their loved ones to be aware of the scary secret too.
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1.Play off of fears and insecurities – We mentioned doing
this for inciting Grief, and the same goes for terror. If you
already know that your audience is afraid of something,
you can inflate it to really scare the sh*t out of them.
2.Be outlandish, but truthful – If you are going to use the
shock factor in your terrorizing content, make sure that
you back up the hype. Bold statements without the
support to back it up will lose you an audience faster than
boring content.
3.Put the reader in a bleak situation – By putting a first
person perspective on a scary situation readers will feel
more attached to a story, therefore more likely to identify
with and share the post.
4.Be topical – If the news is already spreading fear about a
certain subject, ride the wave and build off of the fear by
spinning it to your topic.
Examples of spinning boring topics toward Terror:
Accounting
• # Accounting Mistakes That Will Definitely Make Your Boss
Fire You
• # Ways a Bad Accountant Can Make Your Homeless
Cloud Computing
• Cloud Computing Could Put # Americans Out of Jobs
• Can Cloud Computing Share Your Deepest Secrets with the
World?
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Home Insurance
• Katrina Costs Residents X and Only Costs Insurance
Companies X
• # Household Errors That Could Burn Down the House
Remember to know your audience; what is terrifying to one
audience may be something completely mundane to another
audience. (This chart could really scare women in their late
30’s.)
beach resort, don’t send over a piece on the 14 Most Gruesome
Shark Attacks.
These examples are pretty obvious, but always make sure to
really think about out the ideas that seem great on the surface
buy may hold some underlying negative attention.
Tackling Rage and Terror is a risky subject. We always stress
the importance of knowing your audience before you dive
into inciting any sort of exaggerated emotion; that’s true here
too, but in this case you also really need to think about the
intended direction of that emotion.
Make sure that you are directing Rage and Terror toward
something that you don’t mind shining in an unbecoming
light. If you are trying to get people to come to your blog
about Hollywood Dogs, don’t write about 7 Movies with the
Worst Conditions for Their Animal Star. And if your client is a
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Chapter 10: Vigilance & Amazement
This is it. We have arrived at the fifth and final chapter of the
section. You should know by now that the best way to get
an audience to act is to get them emotionally involved in
whatever it is that you are saying.
So far we have provided multiple lists of tips, strategies and
examples of how to create content that emotionally attaches
to a reader.
Now, in the final chapter of this section, we’ll take on the
final two emotions from Plutchik’s wheel – vigilance and
amazement. And there is an obvious direction to go when
talking about vigilance and amazement. And it’s the Batman.
Vigilance
The story of Batman is a prime example of how people will
act (sometimes with incredible force and audacity) when
provoked with an issue that they feel strongly about.
When Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed by a city thug, young
Bruce didn’t just get interested in the city’s planned efforts for
removing the street crime. He didn’t sit around and anticipate
the eventual removal of the city’s criminals. He donned a crazy,
black bat suit and went out to fight the crime himself.
reason to act, they will respond not because they want to, but
because they can’t imagine it any other way. That’s good news
when you are trying to get your audience to spread the word
about your content.
Tips for writing to incite vigilance:
1.Find a Cause and Fight for the Future – Find a cause that
connects with something specific within your industry and
then give your readers a way to fight for that cause. If you
can’t find a specific organization or cause, fighting for the
well being of future generations will always work.
2.Tell a Story – People connect to true stories. Offering
examples of real people in real situations will likely draw
your reader deeper into your content and create more
compassion for the content’s purpose.
3.Put the Reader in Another World –Create a world that the
reader can see, feel and deeply care about to get them to
act. Make sure the world is pretty terrible if you are trying
to get them to change it. Make sure it’s pretty great if you
are trying to get them to build it.
4.Make Them Feel Like They CAN and WILL Make a
Difference – People respond to results; if you can offer a
potential end result that could happen with the help of
your audience, you will be much more likely to get readers
involved.
Examples of spinning boring topics toward Vigilance:
Accounting
• # Ways to Make Sure the Next Generation Doesn’t Suck at
Math
If you can create content that speaks to readers and gives them
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• The Most Inspiring Scholarships for Accountants and #
Ways You Can Fund the Future
If you can incite, “oohing” and “ahhing” from your audience, you
will most certainly incite a social share from them as well.
Cloud Computing
• Things to Save in the Cloud for Future Generations
• How the World Will Change With Clouds In Third World
Countries
Home Insurance
• # Things You Should Tell Your Kids About Home Insurance,
Before It’s Too Late
• How To Help Flood Victims Get Back Afloat
Encouraging your audience to act by connecting them to a
cause or issue is a great way to get them to care about your
industry and message.
Amazement
Batman seems like the perfect embodiment of both of these
emotions. But for amazement, we won’t use the star character
for our comparison; we look at the man behind the movie.
Christopher Nolan, the writer of the Dark Knight trilogy, helped
the trilogy make over a billion dollars by writing a story that
provided his audience with distraction from the everyday,
surprises around every corner and most importantly, sheer
amazement in nearly every scene.
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Tips for writing to incite amazement:
1.Push the Limits – Find something outlandish that someone
else did and push it even further. The best idea are often
something that reaches a boundary and then crosses it.
2.Don’t Be Afraid to Be Weird – People are amused by things
that are unique, strange or just plain weird. Don’t be
afraid to show something off-the-wall. People like to see
something that they haven’t seen before.
3.Back Up the Facts – Just one wild fact will intrigue an
audience. Scan stats and studies for springing findings. All
you need is one shocking fact in a headline to catch major
attention.
4.Make Sure It Hasn’t Been Done – Being amazing is easy, so
anytime an idea pops into your head that feels too good
to be true – it just might be. Make sure to search for your
brilliant idea before writing and don’t get frustrated if you
find that the idea has been done. Continue to spin the idea
until you come up with something fresh, and new.
Examples of spinning boring topics toward Amazement:
Accounting
• [Large Number of Money] Lost By Accounting Mistakes
Across the Globe
• # Accountants with Muscles Bigger Than Arnold
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Cloud Computing
• # Things You Never Knew Could Happen in the Cloud
• The Amount of Information in the Cloud Could Fill [Large
Number] Libraries
Home Insurance
Final Thoughts on Emotional Content
So now you know that by putting an emotional spin on a topic,
you are far more likely to connect with your audience. But a
few major things to remember when creating emotionallydriven content:
• Know your audience
• Eight Homes Aboard
• Take risks
• How Much Does It Cost to Live Like a King?
• Analyze past content to see what works (and what doesn’t)
• # of the Weirdest Things Ever Insured
• Ride the emotional roller coaster (don’t stick with one
emotional appeal week after week)
Search social sites to see what others are sharing to get an idea
of the strange and crazy ideas that amaze people to the point
that they have to read and share as well.
So the Batman Dark Knight trilogy is proof that people will
fight for something they believe in, as well as savor in the
extraordinary. But remember, not every audience is the same.
The Dark Knight had mass appeal, but your industry may not.
Make sure to know your audience before making these moves.
You may never be as good as Christopher Nolan at pulling your
audience into sheer amazement, but with the right tactics, you
can wow your audience with interest by continuing to show
them ideas they have never seen or thought of.
• Don’t give up
Creativity isn’t easy. So don’t fret if you have a difficult topic
and struggle with finding a unique and an emotionally driven
way to spin it. Give yourself a break, walk away from the
computer, and find inspiration all around you. Good ideas are
behind every corner – you just need to know how to look for
them.
By looking a topic from an emotional angle, you will open up
a world of new ideas and perspectives, and find a vast new
playing field for creating ideas for content that readers love
and love to share.
And while you may not get your audience to go out and fight
crime, by showing them something that they can and will feel
passionate about, you will get them to at the very least, spread
the word about your message.
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Recognize the Emotional
Trends of Social Sharing
Jaime Spector
Chapter 11: Introduction & Key Players
Sharing content is without a doubt the lifeblood of the
Internet. From the early days of dial-up newsgroup servers and
guestbook pages, to today’s behemoth social media platforms,
the web has always offered a level of deep interaction and
expression that has revolutionized the way we communicate
with one another. With more companies investing in new
social media platforms the barrier of entry to join in on the
online conversation has never been lower.
The Forrester Research Company defines the social culture
surrounding the Internet as the “groundswell”. The groundswell
concept is the phenomenon where people take charge of their
online interactions – sharing ideas, entertainment, information,
reviews, opinions, and experiences in order to shape and
influence those who come in contact with it. The groundswell
affects every industry, and marketers are always looking for
new ways to tap into its power.
The Root of Social Sharing
Marketing companies love to box people into convenient little
categories when strategizing their social media game plan.
It’s easy to assume that those who are vocal about charitable
causes could be labeled “altruists”, or people who post about
cool clothes and music could be called “hipsters”, but I believe
that the trends surrounding social sharing run deeper than
superficial demographics. Let’s run down what we know about
what motivates people to share content online:
• It’s entertaining
• It can define a desired lifestyle
• It can help to build relationships
• It’s a conversation starter
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• It can spread the word of a cause or campaign effort
At the core of these motivators is the emotional state of the
person updating his or her status. As previously mentioned,
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions is an apt example for covering
the full spectrum of emotional reactions.
When the human brain reacts to stimuli, it will elicit a
psychological response of one or more of the emotions
displayed on the wheel. Minor reactions such as boredom,
apprehension, and interest remain on the outside of the
wheel. If the stimuli elicits a stronger emotional appeal, it
will spark a reaction that falls somewhere deeper toward the
middle of the wheel. This reactionary relationship can happen
either instantaneously or build upon previous conceptions of
associated stimuli.
Using this model as the basis for how people react and share
online content, we can get a better idea of how emotions
affect Internet culture.
Key Players
In order to understand how emotions can elicit online trends,
we first must take a look at some of the most popular social
networking platforms available today. Since each network has
its own unique way of distributing information, one platform
may lend itself more to certain types of emotional trends than
another.
1. Facebook
Facebook is the current leading social media platform. With a
base of 500 million registered users, it is the easiest and most
prevalent at instantly eliciting emotional responses. Because
Facebook integrates with just about every form of media, it
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lends itself to a variety of emotions. Content can be passed
around and encourage immediate emotional stimuli from
what is being shared along with the conversation it starts.
This status update perfectly encapsulates the flexibility of
emotional sharing trends. On one hand, many teenage users
take linkbait content at face value and “Like” things that they
can immediately identify with. This status appeals to the
“acceptance” emotion on the wheel. However, many users may
be turned off by its frivolous nature and react with annoyance,
or even anger. From there a conversation starts up, which
builds on the relationship that was sparked from the initial
reaction.
2. Twitter
Twitter takes a more immediate approach to social sharing,
and as a result I’ve found content to be much more
observational in nature. Twitter users can only gain more
followers if they produce meaningful and original content
(with the exception of already established celebrities/brands).
A linkbait status or meme image might not translate as well on
this platform.
Because Twitter allows me to cultivate a feed of personalized
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people which I’ve elected to follow, I’ve found my emotional
reactions tend to fall closer towards the center of the wheel.
I’ve seen my relationships move from slight “interest” to deep
anticipation from my favorite twitter accounts.
3. Reddit
Reddit is a growing social community platform that builds
on the emotional relationships stemmed from shared user
content. The site prides itself on making the content the star
rather than the user. Profile pages are very minimal which adds
a layer of anonymity among its community. This allows for
content to be more experimental and more hard-edged than
on other social platforms.
I’ve always viewed Reddit as sort of a “social laboratory” for
creating and redefining Internet culture. Memes, jokes, and
breaking news are often originated here before making their
way to Facebook or Twitter.
Reddit allows users to pursue thousands of niche communities,
everything from politics, to religion, to dog gifs. This gives
users a deeper emotional connection to the content they view
because they are actively pursuing it rather than just seeing it
show up on a feed somewhere.
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Concluding Thoughts
Social media is constantly changing. Social sharing can tap
into our emotions and challenge our core values. The way we
engage with online content can vary drastically depending
on which channel of distribution we choose to consume it.
Whether its on a superficial level or hits us deep within the
core center of the emotion wheel, social sharing will continue
to leave its impact on us for as long as the Internet exists.
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Chapter 12: Grief & Ecstasy
Earlier I wrote about the concept of how emotions elicit online
trends and serve as the key-motivating factor for all interaction
on social media platforms. I presented the argument that the
varying methods of distribution of social feeds across the key
players could drastically change how we feel and share certain
types of content. In keeping with our theme of Plutchik’s
Wheel of Emotions, I will select two of the wheel’s core
emotions in a series that explores how social sharing makes
us feel. This week covers arguably the most important set of
emotions: Ecstasy and Grief.
Grief
Grief is one of the most difficult emotional states to overcome.
As stated previously, grief results from the natural reaction
from loss. Whether it’s a loved one, prized possession or natural
ability, the loss of something cherished can often leave a
person devastated, unable to cope with normal day-to-day
activities.
Because grief is such a personal and sensitive emotion, many
people wouldn’t associate it with social networking. After
all, social sharing is generally meant to be entertaining or
informative. When you think of Facebook, you think of happy
photos of your friends and family enjoying a day at the beach
or a fun night out. Every now and then, the news of a death
might pop up on your feed, breaking the happy-go-lucky
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façade of Facebook with a crushing does of reality. These aren’t
just words and faces on a computer; they are real people with
whom you share real relationships.
Social Media and Death
According to PCPro, approximately 1.5 million Facebook users
(and similarly, Twitter users) die each year. It is the harsh reality
that comes from a user base reaching over half a billion people
worldwide.
Facebook addresses these tragedies with their Memorial Pages.
Accounts of the deceased are transferred over to a private
page. Close friends and relatives are encouraged to share their
stories and tributes. Twitter’s policy is more discrete. It gives
the next of kin full access of the account, and the option of
deleting it or archiving it.
Psychologists agree that Facebook’s “memorializing” of the
deceased can in fact help ease the grieving process. It opens a
line of immediate communication for someone in mourning.
Reading condolences and reminiscing happy memories is an
important part of coping with death, and seeing it all on one
page can help keep that person’s spirit alive.
Although social media is a good outlet for close friends and
family to connect over the loss of a loved one, it is important
to remember that the initial breaking of the news should still
be handled with caution. Overall Facebook is probably the
best social media venue to curate comments and condolences.
Other social media venues have more anonymity and can lead
to the risk of potentially hurtful or exploitative interactions
from other users.
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Ecstasy
Ecstasy is an extreme feeling of happiness, stemming from
the lower-ranking emotions of serenity and joy. It is the
culmination of both self-fulfillment and pleasure that induces
a smile or laugh. For hundreds of years humans have been
seeking new ways to elicit happiness. Whether we find
happiness through music, dance, jokes, religion, art, etc., it’s
something that we all seek.
The rise of the Internet and social media has amplified this
never-ending quest for happiness. It has given the user total
control over what content he or she desires with almost
no limits to how it’s consumed. Entire music catalogues,
thousands of hours of premium TV and movie content, millions
of conversations and interactions surrounding the show
or movie you just watched, cute animal pictures, political
satire, pornography – it’s all readily available for your own
entertainment. All of these things are available to make you
happier.
than when you’ve received positive attention for something
you’ve shared. The social sharing “ego boost” is a staple of
online interactions and an important part of understanding
emotion in social media.
The Effects of Those Around You
Another thing that affects happiness is the company you keep.
This is especially true for your social networks. According to
the guardian, an individual’s happiness can be determined by
the happiness of those connected in his or her online network.
Another study also suggests that those with less online
connections (Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc.) are more
likely to post negative comments in their feed than those with
larger networks.
While there’s something to be said about keeping a tightknit community of Facebook friends, those that don’t take
advantage of growing their networks might miss out exciting
new connections and opportunities for happiness. Platforms
like Twitter, Instagram and Reddit especially encourage
strangers to interact and open themselves up to new ideas and
perspectives. Being adventurous and taking part in the online
conversation might be just what you need to achieve ecstasy.
We Crave Reinforcement
In addition to the pure pleasure we gain from the content we
consume, we also enjoy the self-fulfillment of sharing with
others. Giving can often be just as good as receiving, and a
new form of pleasure is received via others’ reactions. Humans
love positive reinforcement.
Virtually all social media platforms are built with this appeal
to emotions in mind. It feels good when you receive a flood of
likes on a photo you’ve shared, or Reddit Karma for something
clever you thought up at work. Almost nothing feels better
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Chapter 13: Admiration & Loathing
Last time we took a look at how people express and share
internal happiness and sadness online. The key takeaways
from these emotions are that they are inherently personal,
and that they tend to vary across the micro-individual levels.
Our next pair of emotions applies to the external levels, or
more specifically, communities. As we continue on through
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, we move away from ecstasy and
grief and focus on today’s topic – Admiration and Loathing.
Admiration
Admiration by definition is the act of looking on or
contemplating with pleasure. It is the feeling of being adored,
or accepted by those who you’ve worked hard to build a
lasting relationship. Genuine trust and admiration does not
often come easy. It takes dedication, integrity and most of
all communication. Couples who do not communicate get
divorced, politicians who do not empathize with the public
get criticized, and brands that are out of touch with their
consumers lose shareholders. This logic also applies to those
who wish to earn the trust of an audience online; admiration
is something that must be earned and cannot be taken for
granted.
media is probably the best means of building these types of
relationships. It is an immediate line of communication for an
artist, company, or writer to promote content and engage an
audience.
Doing the Crowd-Work
Great stand-up comedians know that one of the best ways
to win over an audience is to interact and make the audience
part of the show. People get a kick when they see a performer
improvising and working out of his or her comfort zone in
order to empathize and laugh along with the people. This
is known as “crowd-work”, and it’s an often-overlooked yet
important step for a comic to build a psychological layer of
trust with the audience.
The same technique applies to social sharing. The most
admired people online are those who not only put out quality,
consistent content, but also know their niche inside and out.
These people know which buttons to push and which types of
communication work, and which types don’t work on all of the
various social media platforms.
For instance, comedian and writer Rob Delaney was able to
tweak his tone and style of jokes to fit within the confines of
140 characters.
Unlike happiness, admiration is built upon the foundation
of those in your social network. No one needs to tell you to
be happy, but trust and acceptance can only be achieved
through building and cultivating external relationships. Social
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A few years and over 587,000 followers later, Delaney’s status
has risen from a relatively unknown comic to being voted
Comedy Central’s funniest person on Twitter. All of this is
because of his interaction with his followers and audiences
online, and because of his relaxed method of humor.
Loathing
Loathing stems from the emotions of boredom and disgust,
and is the polar opposite of admiration. In other words, it
is the extreme dislike of someone or something. Loathing
should not be confused with rage (which we’ll cover at another
time). Unlike rage, people would rather avoid something they
dislike than waste time hating it. This is something to keep in
mind if you wish to use controversy as a means for gaining
social shares. People who dislike something without anger
or annoyance will have no reason to interact or keep it in the
context of their minds.
existence. Minor criticisms aside, I probably won’t ever share
or make comments about it online (this article being the
exception), I just don’t think about it, and I’m fine with that.
The point is, take everything in stride. If you are confident
enough in the product you’re delivering, then you can bet
that there is an audience out there for it. The Internet is a vast
network and millions of different people are consuming and
sharing content every day. By understanding your niche and
keeping an open dialogue with your target audience, you can
begin to build the foundations for what people like and share
online. Find your voice, and forget what the masses think. You
can’t please everybody, nor should you try.
Taste is Everything
At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal taste. It
would be a disservice to try to cater to every niche on every
platform. Not everyone is going to enjoy the same things.
For example, I do not enjoy “torture-porn” style horror films.
Movies like Human Centipede have gained sort a cult-success
due to being so shockingly graphic. After learning about its
content, I was so disgusted that I’ve managed to avoid it like
the plague. However, it does not make me angry that the film
exists. I understand the appeal and have chosen to ignore its
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Chapter 14: Rage & Terror
Last time I wrote about the importance of building trust
and catering to your online social niches as they apply to
admiration and loathing. The important things the remember
is that you cannot appeal to everyone, and that spreading
yourself too thin will only serve to alienate those who admire
you the most. The next two emotions on the wheel appeal to
the passionate and thrill-seeking nature of social sharing. In
today’s topic, we continue our series of examining trends in
social sharing through the lens of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions
and tackle Rage and Terror.
Rage
Rage is the culmination of annoyance and anger. When
sparked, it can often lead to violent bursts of wrath, leaving
a chaotic trail of destruction in its furious wake. At its most
intense levels, rage has been known to inflict damage on
others – both physically and psychologically. When a person
experiences a “fit of rage” he or she often acts solely out of
aggression, ignoring all rationale and composure.
Of course, rage is the most extreme iteration, stemming from
the milder forms of anger. These can take many forms. From
snarky, passive-aggressive sarcasm to bullying and namecalling, there are many shades to aggression.
Why is the Internet so Angry?
Even if you’re just a casual Web user, chances are you’ve
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witnessed your share of “Internet rage”. I’m certainly no
exception. Not a day goes by where I don’t see someone
arguing over this week’s political/social scandals on Facebook
or witnessed some form of horrible ignorance spewed out into
the comments section of a blog post or YouTube video. The
question is why? Why do people so often spread their hateful
rage and vitriol across the spectrum of social media platforms?
What is it about the Internet and social sharing trends that
get people riled up and ready to shout their grievances to the
world like some sort of next generation Howard Beale?
The Anonymity Factor
There are many psychological and social things to consider
when examining anger expressed online. The first and
biggest factor is the conceived notion of anonymity, and
the lack of accountability. Comment sections on blogs and
other community-based sites often require very little form
of identification or moderation of their content. Essentially
this allows anyone, anywhere to post anything they please
without any form of liability. Because there is often no filter,
many people can be as rude or hateful as they like with no real
punishment or consequence. It’s the perfect breeding ground
for bullies, racists, cynics and haters alike.
In addition to anonymity, aggressors are often hundreds, if
not thousands of miles away from each other. Things like body
language, subtext, tone of voice and the forced immediate
reactions that you get via face-to-face encounters are lost and
replaced with carefully thought-out quips and hyperboles.
According to The Scientific American, it’s easier for a person
to be mean and nasty in writing than in speech, which only
serves to escalate the situation.
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The Sharebait Factor
The social trend of linkbait or sharebait articles and other
content is often designed to ruffle your feathers. It’s no secret
that controversy sells, and many bloggers write their copy or
headlines with social shares in mind. There is nothing wrong
with sparking a heated debate; the problem is that so many
of these types of content are often meant to be inherently
divisive. Facebook macros that convey religious, political or
social animosity are bound to lead to some sort of backlash. A
good rule of thumb is to always be aware of who your friends
are and be ready to back up your arguments with some sort of
intelligent thought before sharing something controversial.
Terror
Just like how rage is the product of annoyance and anger,
terror stems from both the emotions of apprehension and fear.
It is the intense feeling of being afraid and the accompanying
anxieties that come with it. Whether it’s public speaking,
death, spiders, the dentist, heights, etc. everyone is afraid of
something. It is one of the natural vulnerabilities that make us
human.
There is an odd relationship between social media and fear.
Almost all of the major platforms are purposely designed to
be open, friendly environments that upon first glance do not
seem threatening. Why should you fear Facebook? All of your
friends are there and having a blast. Twitter is wonderful, just
look at that adorable bird! It’s when you dig deeper into the
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psychological tolls of social media that apprehension starts to
kick in.
All of the social fears and anxieties that come with sociological
interactions carry over into social media. According to a
survey conducted at Napier University, it was revealed that
Facebook actually correlates with increased stress and anxiety.
Participants responded that they felt guilt and other neuroses
when they weren’t logged in and checking in on their statuses.
Fear Can Be Fun
If there’s anything that we
can learn from the hundreds
of horror films, books, and
TV shows that are produced
every year, it’s that people
love to be scared. The
Internet is no different. Every
day people are sharing weird images, creepy stories and videos
that are designed to give you thrills and chills. Communities
like r/NoSleep and other “creepypastas” are known for
spreading scary myths, legends, and stories not unlike the
ones you used to hear sitting around the campfire. One of the
Internet’s favorite scary stories is about the Slenderman – a tall,
faceless humanoid creature who wears a suit and a tie and is
known for stalking children and making its victims go insane.
The meme has inspired parodies, a YouTube series, a computer
game, and even a movie in the works.
At the end of the day, there is plenty to fear or hate out there
on the Internet. It’s important to have a sense of balance to
what you do online in order to decrease anxiety for yourself
and others.
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Chapter 15: Vigilance & Amazement
This is it folks, the end of the line. If you’ve made it this far,
then you already know that a few of us here at CopyPress
have been examining the relationships that emotions have
on online social content using Plutchik’s Wheel as the basis of
our arguments. We’ve discussed how anonymity and anxieties
associated with social media can often incite rage and/or terror
for online users. While certainly the Internet can be a scary
place, it can also invigorate you or fill you with wonder. We’ll
conclude this section on emotional social sharing trends by
digging into the last two remaining emotions on the wheel –
Vigilance and Amazement.
millions of blog posts, tweets, YouTube videos, podcasts being
made every day, it can be difficult to keep track of what’s going
on. That’s why the most vigilant online users take advantage of
various tools and resources to stay ahead of the curve.
Tools of the Trade
Unlike other emotions on the wheel, online users who exhibit
vigilance are what you might call “power users”. They have
moved beyond simple interest and anticipation of fresh
content and are instead honed into where to get their next
information or media fix. In order to make the most of their
time, these advanced users are using powerful tools that bring
the content to them. Forget bookmarking your favorite sites,
that’s bush league. Here are just some of the tools of the trade:
• Google Alerts – vigilant users keep tabs on their favorite
topics of interest by flagging key search terms that
bloggers might use.
Vigilance
Vigilance can be defined as a state of keen alertness, ever
watchful for activity of any particular interest. Whether your
interests were rooted in suspicious, curiosity or excitement –
being vigilant will lead to new insight. In politics, vigilance is
an expected trait of our elected democratic leaders. People
demand an administration that is consistently aware of what’s
happening both globally and in their own backyard. On the
flipside, it is in the people’s best interest to stay vigilant so
that the powers that be stay loyal to those that they swore to
represent. I believe it was the famous American abolitionist
Wendell Phillips who said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.”
In the context of social sharing, vigilance is only earned by
those who take active measures to seek information. With
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• Twitter Search – there’s no better way for a user to find
out exactly what’s going on in the moment than Twitter
search. For instance, I knew exactly when Osama Bin Laden
was assassinated and could read people’s reactions a good
five minutes before the blogosphere picked it up.
• RSS Feeds – informed users keep up-to-date on all of the
latest trends, updates and industry news through RSS
feeds. With the prevalence of mobile technology, RSS
keeps people on the pulse of the Internet at all times.
• Reddit – Probably the most entertaining resource, Reddit
combines all of the best interactions of message boards
and front-page news and spits it out into an easy-to-read,
user-friendly format. Its content database is so massive
and all-encompassing that you could consider it the WalMart of online forums.
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Fanboys
Vigilance is a key attribute for the most dedicated of your
audience. They are often the most passionate of a brand,
and for some brands they will foam at the mouth for any
new nugget of information your PR team and community
managers decide to toss to them. You might have heard
the term “fanboy” tossed around on a blog somewhere… in
essence, it describes the most active and engaged chunk of
your audience, and they can be a powerful tool when used
properly. Not convinced? Just check out Mac Rumors and see
for yourself: the fanboys in their natural habitat.
Internet Watchdogs
Of course, vigilant users online also care about important
issues that affect more than whether or not they qualify for the
latest iPhone upgrade.
Take the infamous SOPA incident that had the Internet up in
arms and ready to declare war on state policy-makers. I’m sure
you’re probably sick of reading about this so I’ll keep it brief.
SOPA (Stop Internet Piracy Act) was a strategically written bill
bankrolled by the RIAA and other corporate interest groups
that would allow them the final say whether a piece of content
posted online is considered “copyright infringement” or not
with little to no due process. Not surprisingly, the bloggers and
Internet conglomerates rallied together to kill the bill, raising
awareness to stop similarly written bills from being passed in
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the future. This is a great example of how online vigilance can
translate into a real-world action.
Amazement
The term “amazing” is funny because it’s so commonly used,
often in hyperbole. Comedian Louis CK has a great bit about
how people love to immediately reach for the top-shelf
when describing things. He argues that if you call a basket of
chicken wings “amazing”, then how would you describe Jesus
descending from the sky and impregnating you with a new
living lord? You’ve already limited yourself verbally to a s**t life!
Ok, I’ll stop now before I completely butcher his joke.
The point being that people like to throw around words like,
“amazing” so often and for the most mundane things that
we can forget what the term actually means. The dictionary
defines amazement as, “a state of extreme surprise or wonder.”
On the emotions wheel, amazement is the culmination of
distraction and surprise. When you are truly amazed, all of
your pre-conceived notions or judgments about something
go out the window. For that brief moment, you’re completely
speechless and might even be unable to fully process what’s
happening.
Tough Crowd
Since true amazement is a rare thing, it can be tough to
capture that emotion through social sharing. More often than
not, social media usually serves as an amusing distraction,
falling further away from the center of the emotion wheel.
How many times have you heard that the Internet is making
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media and entertainment more disposable? I can certainly
relate with that point. When I’m listening to music, looking
through pictures on tumblr and checking my Twitter all at the
same time, I’m never fully appreciating or connecting with any
platform. This doesn’t mean that I’m never surprised or even
amazed by online content; it’s just more difficult for something
truly profound to break through the clutter.
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