How marketers persuade customers has changed: Using new technologies, we can now combine interpersonal influence with mass media reach—the biggest advance in persuasion since radio.
But many companies have no idea how to function in this new age of persuasion: not because they can't use technology but because they don't understand human behavior.
Enter Dr. BJ Fogg of Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab. To change human behavior, Fogg says, you must merge three factors into one moment: motivation, ability, and triggers—e.g., prompts and calls to action.
And with today's mobile and social media, you can influence behavior in ways never before possible, particularly by creating "hot triggers"—those that prompt immediate action, in part because there's a lack of obstacles on the user's/consumer's path.
Facebook and Twitter are prime examples: They allow marketers to motivate people, facilitate behavior, and trigger immediate actions that create company value.
In the following interview conducted by MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer Ann Handley, Fogg touches on those points and more:
The interview took place after a keynote presentation by Fogg at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer event in Chicago.
Fogg founded the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford, where he teaches and conducts research in his area of expertise. In addition, he leads innovation projects for companies and organizations, bringing a psychologist's perspective to technology innovations.
He is the author of Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do, which explains how computers can motivate and influence people. He is the co-editor of Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behavior Change. Another volume he has co-edited, Texting 4 Health, was published in 2009, while The Psychology of Facebook is in the works.
