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The Psychology of Social Media: How Your Staffing Firm Can Use Dopamine To Its Advantage

Psychology of Social Media
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You don’t have to be a neuroscientist to understand how the human brain reacts to stimuli. Experiencing good things make us happy and we want to seek them out again and again; the opposite is true for bad things. Below are ways to use ‘likes’ to your staffing firm’s advantage by making potential clients and candidates invested in what you have to say across your social media platforms.

The dopamine goldmine

Dopamine is a chemical that is released into our brains when we anticipate and complete a physical activity, like finishing a long run or giving a presentation to your team that gets a positive response. The dopamine reward chemical is released to make you feel happy and compensated; and more likely to want to repeat that task.

The way dopamine is released, with regard to social media, is much more basic (and sedentary). It happens with a simple ‘like.’ Dopamine is released at the anticipation of getting that like; for example, your brain begins to release the chemical when it sees your phone screen light up after you just posted a picture on Facebook. If the notification on your screen is a positive comment, you feel good about posting that picture and you’ll post pictures again.

How can your staffing firm run with this?

Content doesn’t even have to be original to garner this response from your brain’s chemicals. Anything you read, approve of, and then re-share, becomes a subject you’re invested in; and becomes “your own.” For example, if your agency hires office personnel, post an article by the Mayo Clinic about the importance standing up throughout the day, or a funny Buzzfeed post about office gripes.

Share a good mix of original and borrowed content that is engaging, inspires conversation, or evokes an instant like … posting pictures of puppies is like shooting fish in a barrel as far as dopamine is concerned, but it’s not a good idea to post them every day.

The more your content is liked and shared, the better your chances are for it to be seen in feeds and or picked up by social media influencers or other publications.

Likes aren’t only for Facebook

Every social media platform has a way to ‘like’ and share content. Facebook and LinkedIn have ‘like’ buttons to click on, while Twitter has an open heart that gets filled in when it’s clicked. Be sure to share across all of these platforms to get more mileage out of your content.

The next steps:

  1. Create ‘likeable’ content by figuring out what your readers find interesting.
  2. Borrow likeable content for another shot of dopamine. Even though you didn’t write it yourself, that content is now tied to you and if it’s liked, you’re rewarded.
  3. Encourage your employees and friends to share your likeable content across several social media platforms. Not only does getting a ‘like’ after posting great content release dopamine but when it’s shared and liked again, the reward chemical will be released twice.

We all want to feel rewarded. For those of us who spend eight hours a day in front of a computer screen, social media is an easy way to reap those rewards. Get into the habit of sharing content every day and you will not only get a boost in good feelings, you may receive more inquiries from potential clients and candidates that will grow your business.

For more ways to create content that is ‘likeable,’ contact the marketing experts at Haley Marketing Group.

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