If you study history, even before the Internet, people always wanted to be social. It’s built into us, we like to socialize. I don’t know what the next big thing will be. But I can tell you one thing for sure, it will be social.

Social media works online because social media works off-line.

When they invented the telegraph machine the idea was you would put one in each town and then you would have a man run around and deliver the messages to the people. When they invented the telephone it was originally designed for businesses, because no one thought anyone would want a telephone in their home. Motorola said they invented the cell phone long before anyone else, but just couldn’t imagine anyone wanted to carry a phone around with them.

Businesses have always underestimated people’s desire to be social.

The other day had a potential client call me, as we spoke I realized who was.

He was an ex-employee of one of my clients and he had not left on the best of terms. I had to make a decision.

1. Let him know that I knew who he was and that we were not interested in doing the job.
   
2. Pretend like I didn’t know who he was and if the client found out then I could say I didn’t realize who the guy was.
   

But I didn’t want to risk losing the friendship.

Within seconds the decision had been made and I was telling him we weren’t interested in any doing business with him. The fear of losing something you already have is greater than the chance of getting something you don’t have.

Let me see if I can explain that better.

The fear of losing what I’ve already got is greater than the desire for the rewards.

Okay…how about this?

Your website needs to work hard at removing any doubt of losing when someone purchases your product. The way things are worded can also makes a difference. If you have a 90% chance of winning then you are more likely to respond then if you have a 10% chance of losing. Losing scares you more than winning excite you. The way things are worded will affect how you respond as well as photos, colors, layout and content.

Your website design matters and needs to reassure the website visitor every step of the way.

Pictures Matter!

Have you ever heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words?

That’s never been truer than on your website. Did you know that our brains have a mathematical formula it uses to determine if someone is pretty or ugly?

When someone walks up to you and you’re about to buy an item from them, the way that person looks will make a big difference as to rather or not you purchase the item. There’s a lot going on with our bodies that we are not aware of. One of those things is a mathematical formula in our mind that is used to determine whether someone is nice-looking or not. We’ve also got formulas for people that are very un-trustworthy.

So when someone approaches us, our mind first looks to protect us. If everything is okay then it starts looks for mating opportunities or food.  After all there are only three things this brain is interested in, food, protection, and sex. This means that were more likely to buy something from someone who’s about our age and appears to be attractive.

And an attractive person holding a product makes the product look more attractive.

This means that when you build your website it needs to be designed with the targeted market in mind. And this is the reason that you should never stop tweaking, fine tuning, and testing your website. You have to figure out what parts of your website need to be tweaked and changed to have the biggest effect on the largest group you can possibly reach.

Every time you get ready to post a picture into content ask yourself rather or not it adds to the message, if it doesn’t don’t post it. And never post content without a photo.

As you learn more about the brain and how your subconscious is affected by your website design you realize that finding a web designer in India isn’t going to get you what you are wanting. You need someone between you and the design team that is handling the testing, tweaking, and fine tuning of the website.

“Websites That Will Double Your Business!”

Ever wondered why so many people give free information away in exchange for your name and e-mail address?

In 1966 Freedman and Fraser did some research. The first thing they did was to ask people if they could put a big ugly sign in their yard. The sign said drive carefully. Out of all the people they talked to 20% of the people said okay.

The second test they asked people to put this little sign in their car that said drive carefully. Three weeks later they went back around and got 46% of the people to agree to put the big ugly sign in their yard.

The third group was first asked to sign a petition and then three weeks later the same person showed up and asked them to put the sign in their yard. In that group 76% of the people agreed to put the sign in their yard.

So why the big difference?

Each one of us has personas. These are the people we are, when we are around other people.

My persona with my husband would be different than my persona with my kids. My persona with my kids would be different than my persona with the people I work with.

We create personas of ourselves depending on who were around and where we are. Personas are created subconsciously. But each has values and ideas that you give them and those values are real.

So when someone approaches you and ask you to do something small, that is just outside what your persona would normally do, you are more likely to agree to that then if they asked you to do something big. However the small things widen our persona, and subconsciously changes it a little.

Since you signed the petition you are now someone who cares about people driving safely in your subdivision.

When you asked to put a sign in your yard you are more likely to do so because you care about the neighborhood, you are involved.

When you signed the petition you started expanding your persona.  

The other thing that happened was that the person had built a relationship with you before they asked you to put the big ugly sign in your yard. That small relationship more than doubled the results.

By creating websites that build relationships with our website visitors, we can build a business.

In 1955 there was an experiment done where people were asked to estimate the length of a line. One of the things they wanted to study was how committed someone was to their answer.

The experiment included putting people into the group that exaggerated the length of the line. They wanted to know if people would stick with their answer or change their answer and go with something they knew was wrong, only to fit in.

In one of the experiments they asked everybody to write down what they thought the length of the line was.

Group 1
was told to write down how long they thought the line was on a piece of paper but told not to sign it.

Group 2
was told to write down their answer on a magic pad so no one could see it and it was easy to erase.

Group 3
was told to write it down and sign it.

What they found was that people were five times more likely NOT to change their answer if they wrote it down.

We know we can change someone’s persona by getting them going in a direction that they normally would not go. The smallest commitment gets them there even faster.

If someone is on your website and you give them a gift, like a free e-book. In return they give you their email address. They have now made a commitment to you and do not even know it.

If you then follow the e-book with a series of newsletters then you are now building a relationship with that website visitor.

Eventually if this website visitor becomes a customer or even a friend, if you can get them to write you a testimonial then you can put on your website and link back to their website. Then their commitment to you will be deeper. If they ever need a service that you provide, they’ll be coming to you for that service.

Of course to make this work the quality of work, quality of information, and relationship has to always be getting better.

The other day had a potential client call me, as we spoke I realized who was.

He was an ex-employee of one of my clients and he had not left on the best of terms. I had to make a decision.

1. Let him know that I knew who he was and that we were not interested in doing the job.
2. Pretend like I didn’t know who he was and if the client found out then I could say I didn’t realize who the guy was.

But I didn’t want to risk losing the friendship.

Within seconds the decision had been made and I was telling him we weren’t interested in any doing business with him.

You see the fear of losing something you already have is greater than the chance of getting something you don’t have.

Let me see if I can explain that better.

The fear of losing what I’ve already got is greater than what could be gained by investing what I’ve got. Okay…how about this, your website needs to work extra hard at removing any doubt of losing out when someone is about to purchase your product.

The way things are worded can also makes a difference.

If you have a 90% chance of winning then you are more likely to respond then if you have a 10% chance of losing. Losing scares you more than winning excite you. The way things are worded will affect how you respond as well as photos, colors, layout and content.

Your website design matters and needs to reassure the website visitor every step of the way.