Week 9 Part A: Blogs, Vlogs, Podcasts & Webinars

 Human Interest in Social Media

    You have to consider that there are many different types of people that use social media. Individuals and businesses alike are using social media for marketing their businesses, whatever industry they may be in. They do this because they are aware of the plethora of potential customers and clients that habitually browse social media. If you haven't already, take a moment to realize that you are just one of about four billion individuals that use social media. Considering you're an internet user with your own set of personal interests, beliefs, goals, hobbies, etc., you're probably beginning to see why content that is relatable to a broad audience through emotional appeal, humor appeal, or personal experience is very successful. 

    Personally, in the game development industry I've noticed that an aesthetic appeal is very powerful. When an individual is scrolling through posts on their favorite social media site, they are often stopped by eye-grabbing content such as a photo or video thumbnail. This is the initial impression that many individuals will have of your brand. When people see a post that makes them think "I'd love to try that recipe!" or "I want to draw like that!" they feel a personal connection and are often immediately inspired by the publisher's abilities, giving them a reason to learn more about their brand and become a potential customer. This is part of understanding your target market and how to appeal to the individuals within that group.

    For example, a business focused on selling pet clothing may create an ad of an individual proclaiming that they purchase this brand's products because of how much they love their pet, implying that if you love your pet, you'll purchase those products for your pet as well. More so, many companies that claim to be eco-friendly make that abundantly clear in an effort to appeal to individuals sympathetic to the cause. Another example of this can be found with some "cruelty-free" brands. Other ways of emotionally appealing to audience can be through playing particular music during a video, or specific facial expressions or body gestures of the characters portrayed.

    On the other hand, some businesses may not find emotional appeal to be an effective way of marketing their product or service. Often enough, companies have the need to use another type of appeal to impress their target market. Keeping in mind our understanding of argumentative appeals, passed down from Aristotle, there are three main types of appeal: logical appeal (logos), emotional appeal (pathos), and ethical appeal (ethos). From this, as ambitious humans, we've branched off more specific types of appeal to more effectively deliver our purpose. These include but are not limited to: personal appeal, social appeal, humor appeal, fear appeal, sexual appeal, romantic appeal, endorsement appeal, youth appeal, popularity appeal, musical appeal, adventure appeal, potential appeal, brand appeal, scarcity appeal, status appeal, beauty appeal, etc.. 

    The widespread use of social media has allowed for massive amounts of analytics from around the globe to produce highly accurate algorithms for understanding these appeals and how to use them more effectively for marketing. Understanding your social media's analytics can help you understand your audience and more effectively create or improve and deliver content, products, or service.