The web is now the busiest place on earth, this when it comes to retrieving information which usually leads towards a commerce exchange. Users are now becoming desperate for instant and accurate information for answers to their problems, issues, or concerns.
They’re also continuously forced to muddle through all of the unwanted or irrelevant clutter. Going online has now become an array of misguided data, and making sense while attempting to organize it hasn’t been more difficult.
So the recent successes of a few entities on the Internet, the social based Web success stories which are effectively solving all the clutter issues are winning. Sites, specifically such as Reddit, Tumblr, and Pinterest, are making a name for themselves, and as a result have become extremely popular.
These sites are simple in concept as all they do is primarily curate other web information and redistribute it to millions of surfers who are searching for the information. What they do is drive user engagement by creating and then establishing habits.
These social interaction sites are following the same general principles which the original Internet pioneers mapped out and implemented. The giants of the Web, such as, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, all offer different angles of the same objective, and receive similar results, only on a massive scale.
The psychological essence is creating and then establishing user habits, which leverages critical factors which every organization who’s wanting better brand awareness should be attempting to build. And this is to develop better overall engagement with their users.
The Development Of A Habit
Habits burn into one’s brain when they’re wanting to learn a new behavior, usually a complex one. So to learn something new, the assimilation begins the instance that they decide to focus their attention into learning a new concept.
Various social science experts firmly believe these new behaviors are transported to the area of the brain which is associated with uncontrolled actions.
This action also requires little or no cognitive effort whatsoever. Any habit will automatically begin to form once the brain begins taking shortcuts to solve the issue, and will then stop itself short from actively deliberating the decision that’s being made.
The brain then quickly learns to codify the behavior which provides for a solution towards whatever problem which it encounters.
For instance, biting nails is a common habit and misbehavior, which will occur without thinking, typically triggered by nervousness or stress. The nail biter associates being satisfied with the temporary relief that it provides.
As with any habit, someone who’s biting their nails, or twirling their hair, they’re also aware that the conditioned response that they’re doing is also difficult to break.
Similar to the obvious “bad” habits, most of the decisions that we make on a daily basis are made because we somehow found satisfaction or comfort in doing so in the past.
The brain automatically thinks that the decision which was made yesterday was a good one, it worked, so it’ll repeat itself thinking that it will work again today as well.
And Then It Becomes A Habit
The more frequent that any new behavior is adopted and repeated, the stronger that the habit becomes. So frequent engagement with a particular site on the Internet, or an app, increases the likelihood that you’re forming a new habit.
Google and Facebook are services which are built upon establishing frequent behavior, which creates user habits. If you don’t think that these sites are habit forming, then when was the last time you used Bing.
Bing, when it comes to providing search results, the results are almost nearly identical to Google. Even if Google claims that they provide more pure or quicker results because of their algorithm, these issues aren’t what draws the users.
It’s the habit of individuals using Google which keeps them loyal. Everyone is familiar with Google, along with their nuances and their familiar interface. Switching to another search engine, for instance, requires too much effort cognitively.
Google has also now been able to identify the user, and can then personally improve their search results by tailoring it specifically for them, based on their past behaviors or location.
So the more that the same product is used, the more accurate that their algorithm behaves. The result being establishing further habit driven behavior, which results in complete market domination.
Turning Your Products Into Habits
All businesses can also begin to determine the potential of their product, or brand, by they attempting to form what they offer into habitual behavior, this by identifying two known factors:
• How frequent does the particular behavior occur, and
• How rewarding is the behavior that’s perceived by the user
This is where a product, brand, or a service commands some form of action, and with enough frequency, the perceived utility then becomes a default behavior.
Established companies such as, Amazon, Facebook, Google, along with the new entrants such as Pinterest, all succeed by they being able to create user habits.
They help or entertain their users by assisting them to find what they’re looking for in an organized manner in a world of clutter. In return, what the user gives back is loyalty and engagement, making them the “need to use” solutions.
Once a habit is formed, then the capture is complete as they force the same behavior to occur over and over again in the future. What these companies are doing is leveraging user habits to establish a solid place in their lives.