The Psychology of Word-of-Mouth Marketing [Infographic]

Do you know what motivates your ideal customers to share content online? Understanding the psychology behind social sharing will help you create a successful word-of-mouth marketing strategy that focuses on more of what your customers want.

In the ReferralCandy infographic below, you'll learn about the motivating factors of word-of-mouth sharing from your customer's point of view, the kinds of content shared for each factor, and the psychology behind it all. 

Inside the Mind of Your Customers

Here's a guide to decipher the inner thoughts of your hypothetical customer. Let's call him Bob.

If Bob wants to deal with his emotions, he will share emotional content that speaks to how he's feeling at the moment. Arousing content that excites him by talking about it is another category of content he will gravitate towards. In sharing this content, Bob is able to:

• Get social support. Bob tends to share negative experiences to receive comfort and consolation. This improves his well-being.
• Vent his emotions. Sharing negative experiences reduces emotional impact and feeds Bob's desire for emotional relief.
• Make sense of things. Putting emotions into words requires logical thought and articulation. This fosters cognitive reappraisal, helping Bob get over a negative emotion.
• Share an experience. Bob talks about positive experiences because it allows him to relive the pleasurable emotions and his friends to vicariously experience the story.

Gathering Information

If Bob is looking for information on something, he will share his thoughts online in an effort to get some advice from peers. This could be anything from important or uncertain decisions to finding trustworthy advice and positive experiences to justify a decision. By sharing these feelings, Bob is able to resolve his problems or help others with theirs. Bob also shares to gain an outside perspective.

Persuading Others

Bob might want to persuade others by sharing his opinion on topics that mean a lot to him. In doing this, he's likely to share polarizing or arousing content in an effort to share an experience that increases his persuasiveness, both in sales and interpersonal contexts.

Improving an Image

Bob has a certain personality and self image to maintain. If he want's to portray himself in a more positive light, he might choose to share useful or entertaining content. Personal beliefs or high-status topics are fair game too. Maybe Bob has a meeting with the Prime Minister? If he does, he'll certainly want to talk about it.

Once you understand what makes Bob "tick", you can align your social media marketing strategy to fit his word-of-mouth triggers. The result is not only more customer engagement, but the right kind of it; positive and influential. 

Was this infographic on the Psychology of Word-of-Mouth Marketing helpful to your business? What kinds of content have you found resonate the most with your customers? Let us know in the comments below!