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If You Don't Understand Psychology, You Don't Understand Social Media | Kallaway | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: If You Don't Understand Psychology, You Don't Understand Social Media
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Core Theme
The core theme is that understanding and applying human psychology is the most crucial factor for creating content that resonates with viewers and achieves success, by tapping into their fundamental desires and building trust.
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If you want your content to perform
better, all you have to understand is
human psychology. This is the number one
thing that separates the great creators
from everyone else. And if you can learn
this one thing, there is absolutely zero
chance you will fail in the content
game. So, in this video, I'm going to
walk through exactly how to use
psychology to hack a viewer's brain into
watching your videos. Now, there are
eight main psychology principles when it
comes to content. I'm going to break
down each one, how it works, why it
works, and the exact tactics for how you
can use it for yourself. By the way, if
you don't know me, I'm Callaway. I have
a million followers. I've done billions
of views. And if there's one thing that
helped me grow super fast on both social
media and YouTube, it's understanding
psychology. All right. Now, the first
psychology principle is called desire
mapping. And this really is the
foundational piece for how all of human
psychology works. All right. Here it is.
Every human has base desires. Typically,
these desires map back to money, time,
health, and status. I call these the
four horsemen of desires. Typically,
this is the root of what everyone wants.
Now, human behavior is wired to make you
take actions that unlock those desires.
For example, if I want more money, I'm
going to figure out what actions I need
to take so I can make more money. This
is how base human behavior works. Now,
the main actions a human can take to
unlock those desires are to spend time
or to spend money. Those are the two
main inputs. So, really, most human
behavior boils down to this. spending
time or money to try to get more time,
more money, more health, or more status.
And now, that sounds pretty obvious, but
that fundamental equation is critical to
understanding exactly how human behavior
really works. Okay, so what does all
this have to do with getting people to
watch your content? When a viewer
watches something, they're paying with
their time. This video is free, so it
doesn't cost any dollars, but you're
paying with your time and attention. So,
the question really is, why do you ever
spend any time watching any educational
content? And the answer is you do it
because you believe that time investment
will help you unlock one of those four
desires. The truth is you're watching
this video right now because you believe
it will help you learn how to get more
views on your content. And if you do
that, you'll grow a following. And if
you grow a following, you'll eventually
unlock influence and make more money.
That is why you're watching, whether you
realize it consciously or not. And this
really is the psychology secret for why
anyone watches any educational content
ever. They believe that time in will
eventually equal skills and desires out.
Now, because I know this is how your
brain works, I've engineered the title,
the thumbnail, the intro, and the
storytelling to specifically trigger
that desire loop. In other words, I've
manipulated you into watching because I
already know what you want. And that is
desire [music] mapping. I figured out
what you desire and then frame my
content in the optimal way so that it
makes you opt in to thinking it will
help you get it. And that's the big
psychology trick happening in content,
especially with anything that's
educational. All you have to do is get
someone to trust that if they keep
watching, they will get closer to their
desired outcome. But here's where it all
breaks. As soon as they feel like
spending more time watching will not get
them closer, they're going to bounce
immediately. It's not that they get
bored, it's that they lose trust that
the rest of the video is actually going
to help them. So, in that spirit, for
the rest of this video, I'm going to
walk through seven more psychology
tactics that will get viewers to trust
your content will help unlock their
desires. Because if you can get them to
trust that, they will be watching
forever. All right. Now, the second
psychology tactic is called the light
bulb effect. And here it is. The more
someone understands what you're saying,
the faster they will trust you. And this
is because when people understand
things, they feel smart. And when they
feel smart, they also think you're smart
because you're the one that made them
feel that way. It turns out people hate
feeling dumb. and they don't trust
people that they can't understand. And
so for you in your content, if you're
trying to maximize speed to trust, you
need to increase the viewer's absorption
rate of the words you're saying.
Literally, what percentage of the words
you say does the viewer actually
understand and comprehend? The higher
this rate, the smarter they'll feel and
the faster they'll trust you. Now,
here's why I call this the light bulb
effect. The faster you can get a viewer
to think, "Ah, I get it now. That makes
so much sense." the sooner they will
trust you and keep watching because
they'll want to feel more of those light
bulb moments. And as soon as you can get
them to two light bulb moments in the
video, you've got them hooked, line, and
sinker forever. Now, tactically, here
are the four things you need to do in
your content to make those light bulb
moments happen sooner. First, talk at a
fifth grade reading level. No big words,
short, simple sentences, simple
phrasing. Don't over complicate it
unnecessarily. And I say this all the
time in my videos when I'm talking about
clarity and comprehension because this
really is the most important thing. If
they can't understand your words, then
they can't understand the meaning and so
they won't extract what you're trying to
teach. All right. Second, talk in
comparisons. You want to relate the new
thing you're talking about to an
existing thing they already understand.
This will make it way easier for them to
comprehend what you're saying because of
relative understanding. Have you ever
wondered why those A versus B
bodybuilding ads with the pre and post
always work so well? It's because
everybody already understands what A
feels like. That's what they're living
today. So when you show A versus B, they
don't need to dream up what A feels
like. They know. And so B is the future
that they want. I'm telling you,
relative understanding is a cheat code
for explaining anything. Third, remove
all the fluff in the intro and beginning
so you can reduce the time to aha. You
don't get extra points for being the one
with the most details. So cut everything
that does not matter. And fourth, use
visuals to support the words you're
saying. All these graphics we make, we
do this for a reason. It's so that they
can help improve your understanding of
the words as I say them. Words by
themselves are very hard to comprehend
in a long piece of content. The brain
can only absorb so many words at once.
But words plus visuals are way easier to
digest for much longer. Just remember
this, it's not sexy, but clarity is the
ultimate psychology hack because it
means the viewer actually understands
the words you're saying enough to be
influenced by them. All right,
psychology hack number three is called
emulation. I also call this one the
mirroring effect. And here it is. People
trust you faster when you look, dress,
sound, and act like the person that they
want to become. In other words, they
want to emulate your exact action path
so that they can become a version of
you. Now, emulation is a subconscious
psychological trigger, but it's really
effective at getting someone to trust
you and watch for longer. And I'll
admit, it seems kind of silly to think
your visual representation matters more
than the words you're actually saying.
But you would be shocked at how
influential this can be. And here's why.
When someone sees you, they take in
everything they can see and instantly
form a snap judgment of who you are and
if they want to be like you. Now, if
they don't want to be like you or don't
really like your vibe, they'll put a
much more rigorous filter on the
information you share, almost looking
for a reason to churn or stop watching.
But if they do want to be like you, they
will give you a much longer leash of
attention. Essentially, the bar for them
to turn off your content is much, much
lower. And this is because your visual
presentation or visual vibe signals who
you really are. and it often gives off a
representation that your methods or
teachings have been effective. For
example, if you have a super crisp
camera and a really clean setup, it
signals that you care enough about this
to invest the money in upgrading the
quality and that you're serious on it.
If you're wearing a $50,000 Rolex in the
video, it signals that you've been
successful in some way, shape, or form.
It's visual proof in a way. So
tactically, it can be extremely helpful
to look, dress, sound, and act like the
end state of what your ideal viewer or
ideal customer wants to be. And it's
simple. If your target audience is
aspiring designers, then you want to
look like what an aspiring designer
wants to be 10 or 20 years in the
future. In this example, I think of my
friend Orin, who is targeting designers,
and I think of what he wears and how his
set looks on his videos, and it maps
perfectly to this visual aesthetic or
visual vibe. Now, if you make content
about crypto, you need to look and act
and talk the way someone that was in
deep crypto would look. So, don't
shower, sit in the dark, don't make eye
contact with the camera. I'm just
kidding. That was a joke. One joke per
video. That was a pretty good one. All
right. Now, I will say one thing. When
it comes to building this visual
persona, one word of caution. I would
recommend that instead of playing a
character that is not representative of
who you actually are, lean into your
true self really all the way into the
things that actually represent you.
Because if you play a character that you
have to lie to embody, eventually it
will come back to bite you when you
can't keep up the charade. The point is,
it can be an extremely helpful exercise
to map out what the visual
representation of the end state for your
ideal audience wants to be. And then try
to emulate those characteristics in your
content. things like what you wear, how
you act, how you talk, the brands you
reference, the slang you use, it all
helps influence subconscious liability,
and will send trust signals to people
that want to [music] be like that. Also,
before I go on, if you want to learn
more about psychology and how to use it
in content so you can grow faster on
social media and YouTube, you should
definitely join Wavy World. It's a
completely free community that I built
specifically for business owners and
entrepreneurs trying to improve their
content. There's a bunch of other video
lessons in there on psychology as well
as all the other pieces of the content
stack, [music] ideas, strategy, tools,
everything. There's 36,000 other
entrepreneurs in there and it's
completely free. I've got a link in the
description if you want to join. All
right, the next psychology trick that
really holds attention is called
personalization. The more you make it
feel like your content is personalized
to the viewer, the more they're going to
trust that it will solve their specific
problem. Now, why is this the case?
People trust generic solutions less
because they realize they're going to
have to both learn the information and
translate it for their specific use
case. But personalized solutions for
them are ready to go off the shelf.
They're already skinned for the use case
you have. For example, let's say I ran a
marketing agency and I was making
content about social media growth. If my
advice in the content was generic and
surface level, then a clothing brand
founder would have to both learn the
tactics and try to figure out what
exactly applies for him. This is much
less compelling than if I were to make a
video saying, "Here's how to grow on
social media if you're a clothing
brand." Now, obviously, this advice to
go more personal and more specific
sounds counterintuitive if you're
optimizing for max views. Because the
more specific you get with your content,
the fewer people it's going to apply to
and the less views you'll get. But if
you're running a business, it isn't
really about pure views. It's about
ontarget views from your target buyers.
So, my suggestion here would be to
experiment with much more personalized
and targeted content and be willing to
trade off pure views in exchange for
precision targeting. To do this, you can
start packaging or introing your videos
specifically by calling out the group
that you're making it for. For example,
if you're building a clothing brand,
here are three social media growth
strategies you should study. Or, these
are the best three clothing brands
growing on social media right now.
Because I hear time and time again from
business owners that they're getting
views on their content, but it's not
converting into actual customers. And
this is because when you make broad
content optimized for max views, most of
the viewers are not in your buyer
avatar. Now, another way to infuse
personalization into your content that
is a lot less limiting is to use the
words you and your as much as you
possibly can. When someone hears the
word you in the content, it feels like
you're talking directly to them. And
this has a subconscious psychological
effect that the content is more
personalized for them. So the guidance
really is this. Think about who your
ideal buyer is and personalize your
content so it speaks directly to them.
And this will drive total views down but
it will bring ontarget views up which
will increase overall trust with the
people that are watching. All right, the
next psychology hack is pretty obvious
but it matters so much it's worth going
over and that is proof and hit rate.
People will trust you way faster if you
actually have proof that what you're
talking about has worked for someone
like them. And they'll trust you even
faster if you have a high hit rate with
proof across multiple different types of
customers over and over. Now, why is
this? Outside proof is the ultimate
signal that your knowledge works
regardless of who implements it. Because
the truth is, most viewers will stop
watching once they get the feeling that
the information is too custom for them
to be able to implement it themselves.
But if you have proof that this has
already worked for somebody else,
especially if that person kind of seems
like them, well, they're going to stay
because they expect you to be able to
explain it in a way they can use. I
cannot overstate how critical it is to
signal this proof as early as possible
in the video. Now, you have two ways to
communicate proof, direct and indirect.
If you actually have proof yourself, you
should say it ASAP. This is direct. So,
for example, when I make videos, I
always say in the intro, "By the way,
I'm Callaway. I have a million
followers. I've done billions of views.
And content is all I do all day long. I
say that every single time and sometimes
I even add I've helped hundreds of
business owners solve their content
problems or some version of that. This
is me signaling that I have tons of
proof myself and that my lessons have
worked for literally hundreds of others
just like the people watching. But what
do you do if you don't have direct proof
yet? You're more of a beginner and you
haven't yet established direct proof.
The indirect proof way would be to
piggyback off of someone that does have
direct proof. So, instead of saying,
"These are the six best viral hooks,"
and then making someone guess if they
can trust you or not, you could say
something like, "I've studied Callaway.
He has a million followers and a billion
views, and these are the six best hooks
that he says work amazingly." And then
you could break down what I say with
your own perspective. What you've done
here is offloaded some of the proof
requirement onto my personal brand so
that you don't have to carry the full
proof yourself. Now, obviously, this is
going to be less effective than direct
proof because some of the credit's going
to go to me in the viewer's eyes, but
this is a great way to get some proof
rather than none. If there's one thing
you can do to get people to trust you
faster, it's proof. This is why every
company in the world has case studies,
public metrics, and testimonials all
over their site. Proof is the easiest
way to build instant trust. All right,
the next psychology hack to use in your
content is familiarity. And this builds
on the point before about indirect
proof. People will trust your content
more if you show faces or visuals that
they already recognize. This is why you
see smaller channels on YouTube use
famous creators or entrepreneurs faces
in their thumbnails. This is why you see
unknown creators using famous names in
their titles. This is why you see
visuals of well-known people in the
intro of most videos. We even use famous
creators and entrepreneurs in our
intros. And we do it because giving
viewers something they're already
familiar with and recognize is a cheat
code in getting them to trust you
faster. And here's why this works from a
psychology perspective. The brain is a
pattern matching machine. It releases
dopamine when it sees something it
recognized. So when you show someone
something they've already seen before,
they get that familiarity recognition
and they implicitly trust it more. And
this goes back to both the clarity point
and the proof. They're going to get more
clarity when you show them visuals of
something they already recognize. So
they'll understand the point you're
making more. And they're going to trust
you faster because they're going to
associate some portion of that point to
the expert that they already know. When
you're small and relatively unknown, the
most important thing is to find points
of familiarity so you can build common
ground of trust with the viewer. And
over time, as you get more credible,
that's when you start infusing the
visuals of yourself. All right,
psychology tip number seven really is my
secret weapon. This is the thing I
figured out that really moves the needle
when it comes to speed to trust. And I
call it one standard deviation. The key
with content is getting a viewer to opt
in that they actually have some pain
point or blocker without their BS
detector going off. Because if you come
right out in the intro or the title or
the thumbnail and you say, "If you want
to make more money, do this." It often
triggers their BS detector and they
dismiss you immediately. And this
happens because viewers hear that, "If
you want more money," and they think,
"It really can't be that easy, so there
must be some snake oil thing going on."
And they dismiss it. And this is all
happening subconsciously in their mind
because of psychology. They've been
trained to see so many of these internet
scams that the warning bells go off when
something seems too good to be true.
Now, once that BS detector is tripped,
like a bank robber tripping the wire,
it's over. They don't trust you. They're
going to bounce and they're never going
to come back. So, this is where the one
standard deviation tactic comes in when
you're either packaging your video,
writing the intro, or kind of getting
into the story. Now, I call it one
standard deviation because sometimes it
can be easier to package your content
one standard deviation away from the
desire the person actually wants and let
them make the leap themselves. So, for
example, let's take a piece of content
about growing on social media. Most
people want to grow on social media
because they think it'll make them more
money. They don't actually want to spend
40 hours per week making videos. They
just want more money. That's the desire
they're targeting. But the beauty is
most people already believe that if they
grow on social media, they will make
money. They think of it as the same
thing. It's a proxy. So, if I target
with my content that they're not growing
their social channels fast enough and
that there are faster ways, they will
associate this with the money desire
that they want. And when they hear not
growing faster on social media, they
make the leap and opt in. It doesn't
trigger the BS detector. And to prove
this is so effective, if you look at my
videos, anytime I reference money, the
videos just don't do that well. And I
think this is what's happening
subconsciously. But anytime I reference
a specific, very clear content painoint
that is a proxy for growing on social
media, which will lead to money, the
videos always crush. And this isn't an
accident. It's just psychology. people
are tripping the red wire when you talk
about the desire directly. But if you go
one standard deviation away, they won't.
So the specific tactic is this. Figure
out which of the four horsemen desires
you're targeting and then go one
standard deviation away to package your
content and make topics about things
that are proxies for those desires in
the viewer's mind. All right, guys.
That's all I've got for this video. As a
recap, we covered eight psychology
tactics to help you build trust with
viewers faster so that they watch your
content for longer. And when they trust
you and believe your content will help
them unlock their desires, they're going
to keep watching for a long time. As a
reminder, if you're a business owner and
you're trying to get better at content
and you like the way I explain things,
you should join Wavy World. It's
completely free and we have over 36,000
other entrepreneurs that are all working
together to help each other. If you want
to do that, there's a link in the
description where you can join. All
right, we will see you guys on the next
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