Since the beginning of the third millennium to date, we have often been talking about the “Internet addiction disorder”, as well as about the “Likes” syndrome and even about social media as modern substitutes of traditional drugs.
Well, there is some truth in all this. Our attention (and our time) is actually increasingly absorbed by a growing number of applications belonging to the Internet environment: e-mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and so on… By now, in short, we are all PC: perpetually connected.
The phantom vibration syndrome
This heavy “absorption” obviously works also on our psyche. Almost everyone, for example, suffers from the so-called “phantom vibration syndrome“, identified by one of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s studies.
Please calm down, it is not a serious disease, but it actually affects nine out of 10, all recognizable by the phrase: «Excuse me, my phone vibrates – oh no, it doesn’t, I got it wrong» (and the reason why this happens – which, put this way, sounds a bit unsettling – is that smartphones and tablets have become a sort of extension of our hands and, therefore, the somatosensory cortex of our brain takes them as “phantom limbs”).
Social media is a drug
The result of this perennial connection would thus be a kind of addiction, comparable to the one developed with the assumption of a real drug.
No, it is not an exaggeration – this is at least what some researchers at Harvard say, who have discovered how our brain releases dopamine when we receive a “Like” to one of our posts or when we share a content that excites us.
Dopamine, in fact, is a natural chemical produced by our brain during the gratifying situations, giving us a feeling of great well-being that affects us and stimulates us to continuously look for that same satisfying situation.
Dopamine, in other words, acts exactly like a drug: the more “Likes” and exciting shares we collect, the better we feel and the more we wish for other “Likes” and shares setting dopamine free as a sort of reward.
The importance of a “dopamine-oriented” content strategy
Beyond the social and moral implications of this mechanism (this sort of reward should not be confused with happiness; on the contrary, it is a false illusion leading us to believe we have reached a goal that makes us happy, but it actually lasts so little as to never leaving us really satisfied), it is important to understand a key point in terms of digital communication and brand engagement: an effective social media relationship with our stakeholders can’t do without a “dopamine-oriented” content strategy able to take advantage of this circumstance.
To sum up: on one hand collecting “Likes” lets our body release a small burst of dopamine (and this introduces the “vanity metrics” that often lead companies into confusion and that we will address in one of the upcoming #impressions), but on the other also the sharing of an exciting and appreciable content makes our brain dispense an emotional reward. Here it is, then, the reason why corporate social media communication must be based on a content marketing strategy geared to generating positive emotions in our target audience (or in our leads, if you prefer).
Just call them emotions
A content marketing able to put into a single post information, values, fun and engagement with the brand is the goal that every company should aim to when communicating online. It must secure to itself that those who display one of its contents get immediately identified with that brand and are driven to share the post, so to earn the “chemical reward” that comes from the pleasant experience of sharing an exciting content.
The key, therefore, of modern digital communication lies in the word “emotion”. Which also explains why this term has become more and more frequent, sort of a blockbuster, from social media emoticons to the most renowned commercials.
And the audience become promoter
In doing so, a communication lying close to the audience expectations will make them multiply the message. Users’ passions, values, beliefs and goals have to be supported by corporate posts so that users themselves get to be proud of that brand and are induced to share its content, thus becoming its ambassadors, promoters and – when it comes to a person followed by a very large number of people – even influencers.