How to get people to actually come to your fundraiser event
When would you describe someone as socially influential? Someone who has the most likes on his/her tweets on Twitter? Or someone who has the most friends on Facebook? In the article, the author defines socially influence as the ability to persuade others into doing what you suggested them to do. Therefore, being socially influential requires a strategy of using the right resource at the right time, instead of just your popularity. One problem that stops one from being socially influential is the casuality of behavioral change. For example, Kanye West has millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram, but how many times have the followers done what Kanye had told them to do? Similarly, you just changed your cover photo of your Facebook page to a poster of your fundraiser within in club. You got 100 likes within an hour, however, how many of those 100 people would actually contribute to your fundraiser? The main purpose of social media is to communicate with one another and exchange ideas within the community. Nowadays, people concentrate more on establishing the perfect image within the cyber world but do not care whether their ideas are being heard or advocated. The second problem is the saying, “birds of a feather flock together.” You have 100 likes on your fundraiser cover page, but more than half of those people are also from your club or people who have the same interest/value as you. It is difficult to persuade a person who has different values from you to do things that you tell them to do. In order to convince others to agree with your ideas or join your “movement”, you need to understand well the roles of people within the network and devise a strategy that can optimize the exposure of your idea within your network.
In the diagram above, node A represents the people who act as the bridges within a network; node B represents the highly-centralized people who are the most well-connected within the network; node C represents the people on the periphery who are less involved within the network. By categorizing the people in your network, you will be able to see their roles and responsibilities within the network. Node B is the best for spreading messages quickly and efficiently due to their expansive connection within the network. However, if your proposed idea is risky and relatively new, you can approach node C and persuade them first before you spread your message within the network. It is always more convincing when persuading others if you have several believers in your “movement.” Social psychologists have theories that human tend to mimic behaviors or actions of another individual. If a person see that a group of people have liked a certain post, he/she is more likely to press the “like” button. Highly connected individuals, like node B, are more resistant to change and sticks more with the status quo, and a new idea may seem less attractive to them. Loosely connected individual, node A is more susceptible to change, because they are more likely adopt new ideas and change their behavior. Moreover, the triadic closure theory states that new behaviors can spread to an individual if two of his/her best friends have adopted the behavioral change, resulting in a cascade of social change. To sum up, it is very important to have a deep understanding of your network and to make good use of each and every friend when you want to socially influence your network. Sometimes, overwhelming your friends with millions of text messages or Facebook posts is not the best way!