{"id":14259,"date":"2018-02-05T12:54:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T12:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=14259"},"modified":"2018-05-15T12:24:02","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T11:24:02","slug":"billion-dollar-mind-trick-intro-triggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marvelapp.com\/blog\/billion-dollar-mind-trick-intro-triggers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Billion Dollar Mind Trick: An Intro to\u00a0Triggers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: I\u2019m proud to have co-authored this post with <\/em>Jason Hreha<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yin asked not to be identified by her real name. A young addict in her mid-twenties, she lives in Palo Alto and, despite her addiction, attends Stanford University. She has all the composure and polish you\u2019d expect of a student at a prestigious school, yet she succombs to her habit throughout the day. She can\u2019t help it; she\u2019s compulsively hooked.<\/p>\n

Yin is an Instagram addict. The photo sharing social network, recently purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, captured the minds of Yin and 40 million others like her. The acquisition demonstrates the increasing importance\u2013and immense value created by\u2013habit-forming technologies. Of course, the Instagram purchase price was driven by a host of factors including a rumored bidding war<\/a> for the company. But at its core, Instagram is the latest example of an enterprising team, conversant in psychology<\/a> as much as technology, that unleashed an addictive product on users who made it part of their daily routines.<\/p>\n

Like all addicts, Yin doesn\u2019t realize she\u2019s hooked. \u201cIt\u2019s just fun,\u201d she says as she captures her latest in a collection of moody snapshots reminiscent of the late 1970s. \u201cI don\u2019t have a problem or anything. I just use it whenever I see something cool. I feel I need to grab it before it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE TRIGGERS IN YOUR\u00a0HEAD<\/h2>\n

Instagram manufactured a predictable response inside Yin\u2019s brain. Her behavior was reshaped by a reinforcement loop which, through repeated conditioning, created a connection between the things she sees in the world around her and the app inside her pocket.<\/p>\n

When a product is tightly coupled with a thought, an emotion, or a pre-existing habit<\/a>, it creates an \u201cinternal trigger.\u201d Unlike external triggers<\/a>, which are sensory stimuli, like a phone ringing or an ad online telling us to \u201cclick here now!,\u201d you can\u2019t see, touch, or hear internal triggers. Internal triggers manifest automatically in the mind and creating them is the brass ring of consumer technology.<\/p>\n

We check Twitter when we feel boredom. We pull up Facebook when we\u2019re lonesome. The impulse to use these services is cued by emotions. But how does an app like Instagram create internal triggers in Yin and millions of other users? Turns out there is a stepwise approach to create internal triggers:<\/p>\n

1. EDUCATE AND ACQUIRE WITH EXTERNAL\u00a0TRIGGERS<\/h2>\n

Instagram filled Twitter streams and Facebook feeds with whimsical sepia-toned images, each with multiple links back to the service. These external triggers not only helped attract new users, but also showed them how to use the product. Instagram effectively used external triggers to communicate what their service is for<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFast beautiful photo sharing,\u201d as their slogan says, conveyed the purpose of the service. And by clearly communicating the use-case, Instagram was successful in acquiring millions of new users. But high growth is not enough<\/a>. In a world full of digital distractions, Instagram needed users to employ the product daily.<\/p>\n

2. CREATE\u00a0DESIRE<\/h2>\n

To get users using, Instagram followed a product design pattern familiar among habit-forming technologies, hooks<\/a>. After clicking through from external triggers, users are prompted to install the app and they begin using it for the first time. The minimalist interface all but removes the need to think. With a click, a photo is taken and all kinds of sensory and social rewards<\/a> ensue. Each photo taken and shared further commits the user to the app. Subsequently, users change not only their behavior, but also their minds.<\/p>\n

3. AFFIX THE INTERNAL\u00a0TRIGGERS<\/h2>\n

Finally, a habit is formed. Users no longer require external triggers to use Instagram because the internal triggers happen on their own. As Yin said, \u201cI just use it whenever I see something cool.\u201d Having viewed the \u201cpopular\u201d tab of the app thousands of times, she\u2019s honed her understanding of what \u201ccool\u201d is. She\u2019s also received feedback from friends who reward her with comments and likes. Now she finds herself constantly on the hunt for images that fit the Instagram style. Like a never-ending scavenger hunt, she feels compelled to capture these moments.<\/p>\n

For millions of users like Yin, Instagram is a harbor for emotions and inspirations. It\u2019s a virtual memoir in pretty pixels. By thoughtfully moving users from external to internal triggers, Instagram designed a persistent routine in peoples\u2019 lives. Once the users\u2019 internal triggers began to fire, competing services didn\u2019t stand a chance. Each snapshot further committed users to Instagram, making it indispensable to them, and apparently to Facebook as well.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Dierk Schaefer<\/a><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on Nir's blog<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: I\u2019m proud to have co-authored this post with Jason Hreha. Yin asked not to be identified by her real name. A young addict in her mid-twenties, she lives in Palo Alto and, despite her addiction, attends Stanford University. She has all the composure and polish you\u2019d expect of a student at a prestigious school, yet she succombs to her… Read More ￫<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":14269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n