Disclose Selectively to Facebook Referrals

As Facebook becomes a progressively more dominant marketing platform available for retailers, it’s valuable to understand the psychology of the Facebook user.
     A snippet of information recently came from The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project about a core element of the retailer-shopper relationship: Trust.
     People who access Facebook multiple times each day were found to be more than three times as likely as non-internet users to say that most people can be trusted. Compared to other internet users, the multi-Facebook group were about 43% more likely to trust others.
     The relationship between social network services and being trusting was not so strong for MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, or other SNS users. But that absence of evidence might very well be a statistical artifact, and therefore not mean much: In the Pew survey of 2,255 adults, more than 90% of SNS users said they employ Facebook. In addition, many Facebook users also use another SNS.
     It’s far from clear what’s the cause and what’s the effect in this relationship between Facebook and being trusting. But it’s an indication that when a shopper tells you they came to your store because of something they saw on Facebook, they’re open to trusting you.
     Keep the interactions professional. Be ready for a mix of what University of Geneva researchers call “secure business attachment” and “close business attachment.” In the first, the customer wants to rely on you for quick answers to questions about purchases made and for quick solutions to problems with purchases. In the second, the customer wants to exchange information about family and friends.
     The trust that has been granted might mean you can selectively withhold information from these customers. Don’t flood customers with what they’d prefer not to know. Your customers at times find it challenging to consider the whole truth.
     If you sense something is important for the customer to know, tell it to them. And if your intent is to mislead or betray, that’s sinful. But in fact, presenting information selectively usually assists the consumer. Researchers at University of Twente in the Netherlands, University of Indiana, and University of Cincinnati set out to confuse study participants by adding to the sales pitch technical jargon, unfamiliar words, illogical product groupings, and dollar prices restated as cents. The result was that the participants chose items more quickly and with more certainty than would be in their best interests.

Click below for more:
Romance the Customer, But Professionally
Selectively Keep Information From Customers
Acknowledge Customers’ Willful Ignorance