This document discusses how behavioral psychology can inform community management practices. It explains that actions are more powerful than thoughts or feelings in influencing behavior change. Some key insights from psychology that are relevant for community management include: (1) forcing small actions can help align people's thoughts and feelings, (2) focusing on motivational and ease factors like collectivism, framing, and eliminating complexity can spur behavior change, (3) modern tools allow communities to involve millions of people in small actions. The document advocates applying these behavioral insights through tactics that motivate community members and make desired actions easy.
5. So I wrote myself a snappy title just before my holiday…
How to apply behavioural psychology insights to the practices of community
management and wider community marketing programmes. This presents a
simple version of established psychological understanding and works it into
tactics and techniques that can make community management practices much
more effective.
7. Behaviour is a way of thinking about the people you manage every day
8. And this thinking about behaviour is relevant not matter how big or small the action you’re asking
9. Freud’s approach to psycho-analysis taught us a lot
“Why do you
think you feel
that?”
I want to
change
Our underlying subconscious leads to our outer behaviour
10. And that theory directly informed 20th Century communication thinking
Then it must influence these
ACTIONS
ACTIONS
FEELINGS
FEELINGS
If you influence these
Start here
THOUGHTS
THOUGHTS
Our underlying subconscious leads to our outer behaviour
12. Psychological theory has moved on since Don Draper was around
“Behaviour change is achieved through action, more than thoughts or
feelings” Meta-Study, 2010
13. A key concept to understand in this is Festinger’s cognitive dissonance
The reason why people think
that they keep smoking to stay
slim.
14. Which gives us a major insight: action is better at changing your mind
ACTIONS
ACTIONS
Force an action and people will align their FEELINGS
FEELINGS
thoughts and feelings to that action
THOUGHTS
THOUGHTS
15. Some people have known this for a long time
“If you want to make a friend, let
someone do you a favor”
16. Modern psychological practice has adopted this
Much more focus on actions, small goals, active treatment
I want to How to focus on
change breathing and other
physical activities
How to practise
in smaller
groups
How to alter your
cognitions
27. Queues down the street in the rain for a logo tattoo – extreme collectivism
Collectivism
Eliminate
Complexity
28. Olympic volunteers were brilliant due to collectivism
Collectivism
“their firm belief that they were part of something bigger transmitted
itself to visitors from home and abroad and to the rest of the city.
Coe said they represented "the best of British””
The Guardian
29. The collectivism was especially evident during rehearsals for the opening ceremony
Ownership Collectivism
“the main reason I did this, was the sense of empowerment that the
organisers had placed upon my… shoulders”
attendee
30. Gaga’s little monsters as collectivism and framing
“They are the kings. They are the queens. They write the history of
the kingdom, while I am something of a devoted Jester.”
Gaga, on her fans
31. St John’s Ambulance as framing, eliminate complexity (and skilling-up)
youtube.com/user/stjohnambulance?v=sC7zfgCXQFs
32. Hailo is framed differently to the cabbie community and the investor community
33. Airbnb made holiday rentals way more popular by eliminating complexity and collectivism
Eliminate Collectivism
Complexity
37. And the theories to support how and why we use them
motivation Ease
Collectivism Eliminate
Complexity
Framing
Ownership
38. Now it’s down to you to see what’s possible
“The greatest achievements in human history never involved more
than 100,000 people”
Luis Von Ahn
Wikipedia co-authored by 16m people reCaptcha translates books via 750m
people