How Instragram triggers us to keep coming back.
Having covered triggers from an emotional perspective, today I would like to discuss them from a socio-physical technological perspective by representing them through the lens of Instagram.
However, before starting, I would like to run you by the ideas of External and Internal triggers that I learned from Nir Eyal’s Hooked.
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Types of Triggers
External Triggers
“External triggers are embedded with information, which tells the user what to do next.” (Nir Eyal, Hooked)
Examples of external triggers are an advertising recommending you to stop smoking, your friend telling you to about the new Nintendo Switch game or a call to action on a website.
Internal Triggers
“Internal triggers manifest automatically in your mind. Connecting internal triggers with a product is the brass ring of consumer technology” (Nir Eyal, Hooked)
Examples of internal triggers are fear of missing out, desire to record moments or a desire to resolve uncertainty.
Ok Cool. Now, let’s run these concepts through the lens of Instagram.
Discovery
Given that 93% of word of mouth happens offline, chances are that you first heard about Instagram through a friend. As explained in Triggering Insiders, these external triggers called “recommendations” are strongest. This is because they come from a trusted source who considers this product or service their own and whom believes it is in your best interest to be a part of it.
During its infancy, Instagram pushed these social epidemics by providing an “invite feature”. A powerful feature that provides a internal trigger in the form of a reward to the person inviting the other, by making them feel like they have given value to the other person. On the other hand, the person receiving the invite gets nudged by their friend to join the network through an external trigger in the form of an email with a call to action.
Acquisition
Regardless of if you pressed the call to action or not, at some point subsequent to these external triggers you would land on the app store and chances are that Instagram would be one of the featured apps. An external trigger that would push a consumer to think “A Top Seller? Let’s see what all the fuss is about.”
And just like that, you have let a service enter your life that can send you triggers as they desire.
Immersion
Unless you are a person who removes all distractions, chances are that you activate notifications for most if not all your apps. By doing so, you have granted these products and services a portal to nudge you as they desire. Here are a few examples.
Badge Icon
By installing an app on your phone you are giving them a piece of real estate which you are likely to engage with around 150 times every day. To be fair, this suggests that you are reminded of these icons and their service a minimum of 10 times a day.
Badge Notification Count
With this badge icon comes an ingenious design that lets people know how popular they are. A separate external trigger that encourages them to open the app to see what they have missed.
Event Based Notifications
The magic of social networks is that they allow us to stay informed of what our friends, or idols do with their lives and vice versa. This interaction causes a stream of external triggers in the form of notifications that let us know if they have liked or commented on what we do and most recently, if they have started a live video.
Dependency
Once you’ve immersed yourself in the environment of Instagram it is hard to walk away from it. You are now hooked to its internal triggers. And it is these (internal) triggers that make the product so successful. Let’s walk through a couple.
Fear of Missing Out
“What’s that? Lucy had a crazy experience and shared the story through Instagram ? Man, I have to check it out.”
A sentiment which most of us have felt at some point in our lives. Curiosity and fear of not being a part of the conversation pushes us to take out our phone and to check out the story that people are talking about.
Desire of Capturing Moments
We all have experiences that take us to beautiful, meaningful places that we want to capture. Thanks to modern technology, capturing these moments in all their glory is now at the tip of our fingers. Instagram encourages us to share it with our network along with a note, describing this magnificent moment.
Desire of being popular
Feeling appreciated and loved is a common human sensation. Instagram took this a step further to allow us to measure exactly how much we are appreciated and loved through a follower count. An addictive feature that triggers influencers to come back and share content multiple times a day to ensure that they maintain and increase their following.
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All thoughts welcome.
Oscar
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