People are herd animals and it is often the case that the herd just stands around and waits for someone to give the direction. You can influence such a large group of people in 2 different ways.
When it comes to manipulating people, two methods are common:
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- You present the crowd with a person we know is popular – usually a prominent person. So this person already has a certain authority.
- You pay the celebrity to do something. Soon the others will follow him/her. You get a group of people to do something, then the others will do it.
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Manipulation by role models and celebrities
I still remember the first season of Germanies next Topmodel with Heidi Klum. That was 2007, I think. Good Heidi had a really hard pony cut for this show.
A few days later more and more women with the same horrible pony hair cut were walking around on the street. Even my colleagues, women over 30 – with years of professional experience – were there immediately. So no teenagers without their own opinion. If they had been shown this hairstyle a month before, they would never have had it cut. If you asked them why they had it done now, none of them would say: “Well, I do it because Heidi does.” Nobody will admit that, one always finds a rational reason to explain it: “I won’t be manipulated after all”…. But it still works well and will always work.
Manipulation by the mass of people
The other way is to get a group of people to do something. If this basic amount is big enough, then the others will do it, because everyone else does it. That’s why so many influencers buy Instagram Likes, for example. Every post they publish is immediately flooded with a mass of likes. Of course the others see that too and then they also start to liken, because they want to be part of it and don’t want to miss a trend.
Getting more Likes on Instagram also has a purely technical advantage. Channels with many likes and many fans are also more easily driven in the channel suggestions by the algorithm. You see suggestions again and again: “You could also like this channel.” The more successful you are, the more likely it is to profit from these suggestions.
That means in the end:
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- Of course, it can take some time before you become a celebrity. That can’t be controlled.
- Try to get as many Likes as possible. Encourage your fans to explicitly liken your posts.
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By the way, a trend is currently establishing itself in the social media. Today’s youth is registered on Facebook, but they don’t use the channel very much anymore. Many people just look in to make sure they don’t miss any events. But communication with friends is via snapchat, and friends’ lives are being tracked more and more on Instagram. If this continues, it’s safe to assume that Facebook could have significant problems in 10 years’ time. Because now generations grow back who hardly use the portal any more.