Social and New Media and Persuasion

Social media is pervasive Facebook has over 1.15 billion users Twitter has over 550 million registered users Google+ has reached 359 million monthly active users

Mass interpersonal persuasion “Facebo0k brings together the power of interpersonal persuasion with the reach of mass media.” B.J. Fogg

Beyoncé example social media and music sales Beyoncé is a social media phenomenon She has 13.8 million Twitter followers, 8 million Instagram followers, and 53 million Facebook fans. On December 13 th, 2013 (in time for Christmas shoppers) she “dropped” her latest album, it was launched directly on iTunes. It sold 828,773 copies in 3 days. It was the fastest selling album worldwide.

Social Media and Marketing Online Pop-ups, banners Webtracking Cookies Search history Purchase history Sentiment analysis: tweets Big Data Mobile marketing Call history Location history Proximity marketing App based marketing In-game marketing Big Brother (government agencies )

Social Media and Politics Social media figure heavily in political campaigns Election 2012: Obama leveraged social media far better than Romney Obama spent 10 times more on social media than Romney; $47 vs. $4.7 million Obama’s Facebook page received twice as many likes as Romney’s Obama logged 20 times more retweets than Romney

Slacktivism or Hashtag Activism Can mouse clicks change the world? Change.org Charges of tokenism, self-promotion Liking a post, sharing a link, retweeting a tweet, forwarding an , signing an online petition requires little effort or involvement “Moral balancing” effect: Performing one good deed demotivates donors and volunteers Well-suited for geographically diverse individuals. Traditional activism doesn’t always require much effort either Signing a petition Yellow bracelets, pink ribbons 2013 study by Georgetown’s Center for Social Impact Communication Engaging with causes via social media prompted them to donate money (68 percent) donate personal items or food (52 percent) attend or participate in an event (43 percent) and even volunteer (53 percent)

Hacktivism Should transparency trump privacy? Are there some secrets that governments should have a right to keep? Edward Snowden Free speech hero or traitor and Russian stooge? He leaked factual information about mass surveillance by government agencies directed at U.S. citizens Julian Assange and WikiLeaks Champion of a free press or reckless egomaniac? Online forum for publishing secret or classified material Example: dossiers on treatment of captives held at Guantanamo Bay.

Hacktivism Chelsea (Bradley) Manning: convicted under the espionage act for releasing classified documents Julian Assange and WikiLeaks Champion of a free press or reckless egomaniac? Online forum for publishing secret or classified material Example: dossiers on treatment of captives held at Guantanamo Bay.

The Digital Future of Persuasion Persuasion technology Nike + Prius and Leaf dashboard displays Fitbit and fitness apps IMoveYou Smart products—GlowCaps