Likeonomics is a term that explains the new affinity economy where the most likeable people, ideas and organizations are the ones we believe in, buy from and get inspired by.
The concept of Likeonomics is based on 5 big insights into communications that have fundamentally shifted our understanding of how people choose to believe or reject ideas and messages. Each of these insights is something that has been reported over and over in media, extensively analyzed in best selling business and psychology books, explored through academic research and spotlighted in trend reports. They are global and affect every culture.
#1. There is a modern believability crisis.
Overly hyped marketing messages and corporate greed have led consumers toward a fundamental distrust of business. Social media is bringing more visibility to it, as people have more ways to uncover it than ever before. This is the modern believability crisis, and it is impacting every form of communication.
#2. People make decisions emotionally, not logically.
The way we make decisions has not changed, but our understanding of it has. Best selling books like Predictably Irrational, Blink, and Sway – as well as mountains of new brain research point to the fact that people are inherently irrational and that emotions play a fundamental and often misunderstood role in decision making.
3. Stories are the most compelling form of communication.
Related to our understanding of the power of emotion is the growing attention on storytelling as the ultimate form of communication, as it has been for thousands of years. The people and organizations who tell better stories are the ones that inspire movements, get elected or sell millions of products.
4. Simplicity is the foundation of all great communications.
People are paralyzed by too much choice and nothing can kill an idea faster than complexity. The most iconic products and services of today, from the iPad to the Dyson Vacuum to the Flip Camera to Twitter all owe a great part of their success to their inherent ability to simplify everything about their experiences. Simplicity is the secret weapon.
5. In strangers (and “microexpertise”) we trust.
Wikipedia is only the most visible example of a revolution in trust that has meant that people are going online and trusting the opinions and expertise of people who they don’t know. Content creation, aggregation and now … content curation are all new forms of microinfluence and they are shifting everything we know about trust.
