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Nudge podcast: A surprisingly effective way to persuade (almost) anyone

  • The power of identity (people like us, do things like this)
  • Conforming to status
  • It’s all mimicry

Being a mirror that looks like a window.

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Running sales is a short-term solution that can create long-term problems.

Discounting Trains Customers to Devalue You → Short-term revenue spikes don’t build sustainable customer behavior. Your audience starts waiting for sales instead of buying on impulse.

Discounting is lazy. The best brands make full-price irresistible.

via Buyology

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Reports of Instagram’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

Meta’s various apps are the closest we have the US to everything apps. The feature sets are deep enough that people can use them in different ways.

in multiple interviews with 15- to 26-year-olds, Gen Z people, they said that they used Instagram to keep in touch with friends, scope out crushes, build businesses, and pour over cooking videos. But out of all of its features, they seemed least interested in the polished public photo feed that had once been Instagram’s marquee offering.

But Instagram (and TikTok) aren’t social networks, they’re social media

it feels more comfortable to post on TikTok than it does on Instagram. And I think that’s a common narrative and sentiment that we hear all the time. But I think the reality is that most people, young people in particular, don’t really feel comfortable posting anywhere at this point

Instagram is a mix of entertainment, inbox (DMs as the new email), and search. At least for younger users.

What does this mean for how brands use Instagram?

The traditional feed is certainly easiest for most. But how much are people engaging with this “legacy” feature.

On-platform search plus Google indexing posts for off-platform search means the Instagram feed is more like Pinterest than TikTok. A visual microblog.

via Behind the Numbers

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Zuck’s dream of fully automated ad platform is starting to come true

Meta said that nearly two million advertisers are now using GenAI video generation tools. That’s about 20% of Meta’s entire advertiser base based on the latest available estimates.

I do think it was really telling that Zuckerberg was careful to say that these tools are the most valuable for small and medium-sized businesses and that agencies will continue to play an important role with big brands.

This will continue to bifurcate between those with big budgets and those without.

via Jasmine Enberg on Behind the Numbers

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When messaging your product, don’t say what’s missing.

Renaming the “𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐭-𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭” to “𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝-𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭” made diners 200% more likely to pick the plant-based option.

&

renamed “𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳-𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨” to “𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒔”.
Doing so increased sales of the carrots by 25%.

Why? Loss aversion. Losses hurt more than gains feel good, even if we say we want less of thing (e.g. sugar).

caveat: disregard this if what your product is missing is what you’re turning into an enemy to stand against (e.g. Liquid Death’s death to plastic tag).