Using psychology to guide your social media marketing game in the right direction can give your profile that extra edge it needs to get ahead. I’ve recently learned a lot of tips and tricks in a social media management course at school that I think could give us all a much-needed social media boost for the upcoming New Year.

There are several tricks that can help you enhance your social media presence, and those include social proofing, the mere exposure effect, connection creating, reciprocity, and sharing.

“If we assume that we aren’t affected by psychological tricks, then we won’t do anything to counteract them. And that only serves to make them more effective.” - @SocialMediaToday

Being able to influence people to like what everyone else has already expressed interest in order to build on your own follower count is one of the core elements of social media marketing. This concept is known as social proofing, and it is very important to understand how it works when you’re trying to draw in an audience that will repeatedly engage with your posts. After all, engagement is probably the #1 thing we are all trying to get on our posts.

Exposure, exposure, exposure! With repetitive exposure, your audience will most likely, subconsciously, form a connection with you. This is why top-dog companies have ads everywhere. This simple, yet downright disregarded, concept is branded as the mere exposure effect. Frequently sharing content on your profile reflects on your personal profile. Sharing a lot of content makes you look well informed, and enhances your image. Of course, I don’t mean posting photos every hour, but once or twice a day could work!

The idea of reciprocity works hand-in-hand with the mere exposure effect. People that use ads to promote themselves often pair their ad with a discount code or giveaway of some sort. Of course, this makes your audience more eager to click on your link, and will also influence them to share your profile with their friends. However, your ad doesn’t always have to be paired with a reward. You can simply pair your post with a compliment or some other form of attention! This makes the customer feel more connected to you, and hey, who doesn’t like a little compliment here and there?

These are just some of the hundreds of thousands of tips out there to help you boost your online presence, of course, but I believe it’s a good place to start.