Persuasion online - does it exist?

Hell yeah it exists! The internet is such a powerful tool and online persuasion happens everyday. Thanks to the internet, access to people around the world has become easier and easier and the amount of sales emails, pop up adverts, online businesses, social mediums (twitter, you tube etc…) and educational websites increase on a daily basis.

There are different styles of online persuasion and these are the basic to look at:

1. Social Media

2. Online Business/Sales adverts (Google PPC, pop up boxes etc…)

3. Educational forums/newsletters


The power of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube

How quickly does information spread thanks to these resources. Celebrities announce something on twitter and everybody knows about it, the same is true with social groups where rumours can be spread about colleges and doubt is created in this way. If you have an online community and you use information like you know a loop hole in the lottery then everyone will listen to what you have to say. The beauty is that you can use viral marketing where everyone tells their friends and you have the power to influence many people through this online source. Many online marketers use this persuasion technique very successfully.
Youtube works in the same way where if you post an interesting video it will spread and create suggestion in peoples minds. I will give a good example of the “free hugs” video. This became viral so quickly and it actually influenced people in a positive way where good will increased among peers who would talk about it. This was a powerful form of persuasion but in a very good way.

Online business and sales adverts

There has been a huge increase in the amount of online business and there is a good reason why… because you can reach a lot of people and influence them to buy your product or service. This leads to online sales people and the internet being swamped with adverts and pop ups. I am not against this because it just makes sense to do so as Google quickly found out. They make billions of dollars from PPC (Pay-Per-Click) adverts because there is such a huge demand from online marketers. The persuasion techniques used online do not really differ from television, radio or print media except that you can combine all of them in one. You can even use webinars to talk directly to people and use common conversational persuasion techniques.

Educational websites and forums

We all listen to our teachers and these people usually have the most amount of influence over our way of thinking. Now every university has a website with forums and online learning tools. As a teacher there is a huge responsibility to be responsible in your online teaching because it can reach more than just your students but the entire internet world. “Edu” sites are a place of authority and most people who find information on an “edu” site will believe what they read and be influenced by it. It is the same mentality of reading something in an Encyclopaedia and you believe it with out question because of the standard of reliability that comes with the resource.

Learning persuasion online

If you are interested in learning how to persuade people from an online source then have a look at the link at the top/right of this screen. You will not be let down.

The art of persuasion

Being able to persuade others is a very powerful tool because every leader in this World, every person with power has mastered the art of persuasion. Whether your agenda is world domination, making the world a better place, growing a company, getting sales, attracting the opposite sex or simply being in a position of control you need to understand this amazing art that is persuasion.

There are different methods used to persuade others such as speech, touch, writing, visual techniques and emotional persuasion also. The key is to understand which method to use in the appropriate situation so you can have the most advantage over your “subjects”.

Who should you learn the art of persuasion from?

At the moment for a basic introduction I would highly recommend learning common sales techniques (especially fear of loss) because these simply work and set you up with the tools to further enhance your persuasion techniques. The best form of hard hitting sales is “cold calling” where you approach complete strangers, build rapport and convince them to buy something on the spot.

The next step in your persuasion journey, hypnosis would be a wise decision because this digs into our NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and allows you to understand how to trigger emotions and use them to your advantage in a covert way. I would recommend conversational hypnosis because this is designed purely for strangers and to influence without induction.

Once you have mastered the above techniques then it is time for you to use this information to tailor your own individual persuasive art because we each have our own strengths that we should use and this will turn you into a persuasion master.

Using other resources for persuasion

If you want to use things like television, print or events to persuade then your strategies change because you have to create your campaign to suit the masses. This means that the focus has to be on either your niche market or common triggers that are present in the majority of the population.

A great example is movie trailers where they are trying to convince as many people as possible to see the upcoming movie. They always play on emotion to provide a rise in your interest and get your imagination working on all possibilities of how good this experience will be.

Learning these forms of persuasion are more commercial and I would advise looking into the media would for further information.