There is one universal truth about engaging with your audience on social media: you have to use emotion. With businesses it can often be overlooked in a rush to push the sales message of the brand first. But in social communications emotion works and it needs to be a major part of what you’re saying.
The emotions can be positive or negative emotions. Happy thoughts like fun, enthusiasm and intrigue can be very effective, but so can anything that makes you angry, frustrated or feeling challenged. The massive majority of people who use social media are not the ‘trolls’ that we are constantly reminded of on the news. Generally they are happy to offer help and advice – they just need to be asked in the right way.
This is very evident in the small business social networking space. In this environment many social groups’ members jump in and help out to support other small business owners. It is the strength of these emotional bonds that will improve your standing within social networks and the business environment that you work within.
Once you have made a social connection that is tied based on an emotion it will lead to a stronger connection that is sustainable in the long-term. Although it’s possible that weak ties can form in both communities and social networks, a strong tie is built up in business communities only through a powerful emotional connection.
That means that often your most valued and strongest ties will have started from a weak tie, pulled together through a shared emotion or a set of values. This is where looking at the psychology of social networks can give the insight to the depth of what and why is really happening in social media.
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