Basically, we have our own selves to blame: we cannot keep from sharing our feelings, whatever they are, on social media. It’s already a habit, a compulsion that propels us towards a public display of our own intimacy, of our inner, emotional life. As Brett Williams wrote in his article for Mashable, “Facebook knows what you’re going through,” and that’s not at all just a metaphor. The only thing is that online marketers don’t call it “feelings” or “shared posts.” They call it — way less emotionally — “data.”
Needless to say, marketers take data seriously. After all, it’s their job. Facebook IQ, a blog that “provides marketers a true understanding of people — who they are, what they do and why they do it (as they themselves write on their ‘about us’ page)” — recently published an entry on how to seem appealing to people who have the Valentine’s Day Blues.
One of the things these researchers explained is that people who are going through heart-breaking experiences tend to rely on social interaction — even if online — to deal with their feelings. That means they’re willing to spend more time online, just chatting or surfing the web, just the way they spent every possible minute of their everyday life with the person they were with. That, of course, exposes them to online advertising far more than usual. And that’s where advertising jumps in.
As Williams points out, marketers realized people won’t fill their emotional holes with things. Instead, those who get the blues just want to fly away from it all — literally: travel-related sales increased by up to 25% among people who expressed feelings of Valentine blues on social media. His advice? Stay offline for a while, if possible, to avoid falling into temptation.
If you want to read Williams’ article in its entirety, as published on Mashable, click here.
And today we celebrate...