Human Motivation & Your Brand
When thinking about developing client programs that rely on Social Media, a.k.a. direct consumer engagement, it helps us to consider the work of renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow. Whozzat?
“Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.” (Wikipedia)
What motivates us? At its most basic, of course we’re keen on breathing, eating, sex, safety. But when it comes to Social Media Marketing, naturally “Belonging” and “Esteem” rise to prominence.
In the Olden Days of Marketing (all of 2 years ago!?) it was relatively hard for a Big Brand to make its consumers feel esteemed.
You can’t make someone feel respected if you can’t hear their voice in the first place.
You can’t make someone feel as if they belong in your brand tribe if they can’t find one another.
You can’t make members of your brand tribe feel empowered if they don’t know when or if you are listening.
Now, you can. Now, you have little excuse not to do so.
What can you do to make your customers and prospects feel safe, included, respected, and empowered?
When you start thinking in these terms, you won’t start-off a marketing strategy meeting by asking, “What’s our Twitter strategy?”
Posted on: May 19, 2009 at 8:42 am By Todd Defren
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I would like to add one more thing : Human Motivation depends on what he gets. his need should be fulfilled.
Nice posting !
Indeed, there’s a failure to understand people when organizations use these one dimensional approaches. I love the focus on Mazlov and the human hierarchy.
Excellent questions to ask. It’s not always about why, but how. Social media platforms weren’t meant to be confusing or limiting, they were built to open up the lines of communication. More brands need to take advantage of that!
Motivation isn’t hard to come by if you stay inspired.
Why do I want to be a brand?
This is a great post. Engagement is such a key factor in social media marketing. Putting a face to the company forms a bond with the customer and the organization. With social media this important tactic can easily and quickly be implemented. I am learning fascinating information about these topics in my Strategic Social Media class at the U of Ore. and enjoy writing about them. Thanks for the great post.
I love this, especially the last sentence — if I have another client call me and say, let’s develop a Twitter strategy — without any other considerations made, I’m going to scream. This is great application of Maslow’s groovy-ness to SM
Maria Reyes-McDavis
Have you not heard, it’s not a Twitter Stratergy, it’s a “Twattergy” which – in British English – is considered rather rude.
http://pr-media-blog.co.uk/time-for-a-twitter-twattergy/