We cannot act as our 100% authentic selves in everyday real world interactions. Think of you bringing your “party self” to a marketing presentation to a funeral home. Being kegger Kyle probably would not go so well and my job would be swiftly jettisoned to the crematory for its fiery demise. Social context makes a HUGE difference. Facebook—on the other hand— may not have social constraints like real world interactions and allows users to create their own perceived identity. It is no shocker that individuals when constructing their facebook identities may be creating socially desirable ones.

According to sociologists from Temple University, individuals tend to construct their socially desirable facebook identity in three ways. I’m popular. I’m well rounded. And damn it… I’m thoughtful. Kind of sounds like a crazy Stuart Smalley mantra to me. I’ll explain what they mean in the following nice bold bulleted list. Feel free read it like a horoscope and see if they apply to you.

I’m Popular!

The majority of my photo albums on facebook are pictures of me with friends and/or groups.

My main facebook profile picture is me with my friends and/or in a group.

I have a good number of facebook friends and often compete with others to have more friends.

My facebook is setup so everyone can see my friends’ posts on my wall.

The research found that participants showed they were popular among friends through their photo albums, wall posts, and feedback from participants being competitive about the amount of their facebook friends.

I’m Well Rounded !

In my “about me” section of my facebook profile, I list a slew of things that I do from bike riding, hanging out with friends, having fun, reading, dancing, movies etc.

The research found that participants wanted to show they were “well rounded” or “anti-nerd” (yeah that’s actually the words they used) by writing in their about me section something that reflected a sociable and fun-loving person.  

I’m Thoughtful!

The quotes I use in my profile are reflections on my life.

The quotes I use are positive in nature.

The research found that participants wanted to show they were “thoughtful” by putting quotes in their profile that reflected a positive attitude and made the person “look good”.

Did all those apply to you? The research goes on to explain that the social desirable self can be interpreted as a “hoped for possible self.” The hoped for possible self is the identity that we want to have, but because of social constraints we cannot have it.  Facebook allows us to paint that picture of us being that well rounded, thoughtful, and popular person.

Feel free to share your thoughts and/or feelings about this in the comment section. Oh…and please try not to leave anonymous posts because it encourages deviant behavior .

Kyle Znamenak

Email Me

Social Media Director

Sampson Carnegie

It’s long been said that making your brand relevant to Asians is much more than a good Simple Chinese, Mandarin or Cantonese translation of your current brand messaging. Today’s American Asian Communities represent a significant economic opportunity for those companies who want to position themselves as an optimum source provider. In many instances, such as Northeast Ohio, it is critical to develop branding strategies which are relevant to the Asian cultural traditions and taboos. Creating messages in native language requires significantly smarter thinking than simply translating.

Just ask one of our casino clients, Presque Isle Downs and Casino. Through the course of our process we helped them increase their Asian gaming patronage by 375% in 8 months. (really…no kidding)

Now it just so happens that Presque Isle Downs & Casino is a smart, passionate client working on a daily basis to be certain the entire company organization lives up to exceed their Asian brand promise – not to mention a continual focus on refining that brand promise to keep it relevant to continually grow their Asian customer base. (We love working with smart clients like this…)

They came to us specifically because they had done their homework and figured out that Johnny Wu, our principle brand strategist for Dynamic Multicultural Branding, personally showed up on their radar as a significant opinion influencer in the Northeast Ohio Asian Community.

Click here to learn more about Johnny Wu

We led them through brand strategies and marketing communications programs designed to imbed the casino into the Asian community as the Brand Name for this type of entertainment.

The casino also developed an Asian themed restaurant and brought on an Asian Host. They understood the need to re-craft their current brand and use this re-crafted brand only to the Asian market.

In addition to casino core creative – we also helped them develop a micro-website about the casino at a custom domain name: www.AsianCasinoErie.com Chinese and Vietnamese as well. We had them create another tier of club member cards calling it “The Emperor’ s Club” Other tactics along the Asian customer journey included special events such as Asian Idol Karaoke, Moon Festival, Asian Thanksgiving Concert, Lunar New Year Celebration, and an Asian Music Festival.

What can we do for your casino? contact Johnny Wu, email Johnny@smarterthinking.com

The Rimkus Transportation Marketing Group wanted to increase assignments from trucking companies.
Our brand strategies included a micro website : www.YouWantTheFacts.com and a series of emails along with direct mail with bold, iconic headlines designed to quickly grab attention.
Result: They increased assignments from trucking companies 18% in within a six month time frame.

What Do They Have In Common?
Yes. Both have been very successful social media and traditional media campaigns. (Although, the Invisible Monkey campaign resulted from a complaint from PETA.) Think back within the late 1990′s where marketing campaigns had talking dogs and frogs pitching their slogans like “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” or BUD-WIS-EER… Still don’t know?

They all share the cognitive psychology principle called the Von Restorff effect.

The Von Restorff effect is simply we are more likely to remember things that stand out. So here is an example taken from Changingminds.org

Which of these words are you more likely to remember?

• Jump
• Cut
• Run
• Fly
• Duck-billed platypus
• Read
• Build

If you said Duck-billed platypus… you are a winner. Two psychologist, Taylor & Fiske, (1978) indicated that attention is usually captured by salient, novel, surprising, or distinctive stimuli.

So how does this relate to invisible monkeys and witty manly men?

The more unique or weird an advertisement is… the more likely people will remember it. Think of it this way… If you were flipping through TV channels and all the ads looked the same (like cut, run, fly in our above list) and then suddenly you come across an ad that has a man “swan diving” into adventure (our duck-billed platypus), you are a heck more likely to remember it! These ads also shared another common trait.

Humor

Cartoon Used in Strick, Baaren, Holland, and Knippenberg, 2009

These campaigns also use humor. A 2009 study by Strick, Baaren, Holland, and Knippenberg found that products that were paired with humor (a humours cartoon above) were evaluated more positively than products paired with neutral advertising. This humor pairing phenomenon kind of works like the classical conditioning study with Pavlov’s dog…just rather than drooling, people are laughing and buying. So humor is an awesome way to change people’s attitudes about your product!

So what does this mean when constructing branding or marketing campaigns?

DO NOT COPY OFF OF PREVIOUSLY USED HUMORS/ODD ADS.

Why? Lets say you want to do another Old Spice Campaign, but use a lumberjack named Frank instead? The “manly man” concept is no longer unique, which means the Von Restorff effect will not happen. It’s like flipping through the channels and everything is the same! So be creative and come of with something new so you too can activate the Von Resorff effect.