How to Use the Herd Effect in Your Business

Using the crowd effect in business is a familiar marketing tactic. In the Internet age especially, the crowd effect works even better. So what is the crowd effect and how does it affect marketing and business? Find out in the article below from Mona Media.

What is the crowd effect?

People always live in social groups and cannot separate themselves from the community. That is why we are so easily influenced psychologically by the crowd. The crowd effect is a concept that has been studied in psychology.

It happens when one or more people are psychologically influenced by the behavior of a crowd. When influenced, people often cannot tell whether that behavior is appropriate. Usually we let the majority shape our own decisions.

This comes from the common mindset that "the majority is always right". People who go against the majority are easily pressured or pushed out of the group. This is especially true today, with the Internet and social media thriving. A lot of information is posted without being verified. People are easily swayed by different streams of opinion and comment on events by following trends.

How the crowd effect affects your business

The crowd effect is not new; it has existed in society for a very long time. Only recently, though, has it been named and applied in fields such as business. The crowd effect on work goes two ways: negative and positive.

Positive effects

If a business uses the power of the crowd well, it gets positive feedback.

• Attracts customers' attention, increases engagement through likes, shares, follows, comments and more.
• The crowd effect helps a business increase brand awareness
• Earns customers' trust in the product or service through reviews, comments and more.
• Improves the results of sales campaignsand marketing communications.

For example, when you go to a supermarket, many sellers run marketing campaign to attract shoppers. If you see people gathering around a product, you get curious and want to look. When many people comment that a product is good, you easily trust it and buy it to try.

Negative effects

A business can also be hit by the crowd effect in a negative way:

• When unverified bad information spreads, a business can easily be boycotted and unable to sell. Some businesses have even lost money and stood on the edge of bankruptcy.
• On online selling platforms, a business's Fanpage can get 1-star reviews from the crowd, leaving a bad impression on customers who come later.
• When a crowd attacks, it can insult individuals and organizations in the business, hurting some people and affecting their mental health.

This negative effect is clear in many events. After a post related to YouTuber Khoa Pug, streamer Pew Pew upset part of his audience. As a result, many people gave Pew Pew's bread product a one-star rating on Google.

Should you use the crowd effect in business?

Many businesses are applying the crowd effect to their marketing strategy However, it is a double-edged sword: without research and understanding, a business can easily be hit by backlash.

But risk is unavoidable in business. Applied the right way, the crowd effect brings strong results for a smart marketing strategy. In the booming 4.0 era, no one can deny the power of the crowd effect.

A typical example is sellers on e-commerce platforms. Products with high sales and 5-star ratings sell better. That is also why many sellers are willing to hire people to post fake reviews to win customers' attention and trust. So applied correctly, the crowd effect helps a business a lot.

How to harness the power of the crowd effect in business

Using the power of the crowd is not just about creating reviews or news that favor the business. It is a process of building lasting value for marketing activities and for the business's brand.

Using the crowd effect on social media

If you are wondering where to start, choose social media. The speed at which social media grows today can change consumers' fake ratings.

A single Facebook status, TikTok video or Instagram story can reach millions of users. The power is even wider when it comes from hot TikTokers, experts, reviewers and the like. Real data shows that 92% of users easily trust products and services recommended by individuals.

If your business has a verified badge on these platforms, brand credibility and trust go up further. Social media also has star ratings and uses likes, shares and comments to gauge popularity. Using the crowd through social media is a tactic many businesses have applied successfully.

See more: How to write an attractive product review

Using customer praise and complaints in marketing

Businesses can also use customer praise and complaints for marketing. This is not a new strategy, but it still brings real value. Reviews, whether positive or negative, help build strong brand awareness.

What is more, when a business responds to complaints about its product, its credibility rises. For example, when a customer is unhappy, the business can apologize, correct the record, or show it wants to compensate and improve the product.

The brand Biti's once used the power of the crowd to handle the controversy over Chinese brocade fabric. Right after customers responded, they took responsibility and apologized to those affected. This not only raised goodwill among consumers but also promoted Biti's brand image.

Crowd power on media channel , a team you can trust

Besides social media, businesses can also use the crowd effect on reputable media channels such as newspapers, television, film and flyers. This kind of marketing spreads to many audiences and affects users' psychology in many ways. The core message easy to remember, presented vividly, will bring good results for business campaigns.

That's everything about how to use the power of the crowd effect in business MONA has shared with you. To use this power well, a business needs skill and care in researching, planning and applying it in practice.