Some social media posts get hundreds of millions of hits and others get barely any.

Posts that go viral and generate global enthusiasm are what many businesses wish for. This kind of post has brought some businesses straight into the public eye and have generated substantial revenue.

What are the psychological principles that can be applied in effective social media marketing campaigns?

The clearest general strategy that comes out of a long history of psychological principles is that the best way to achieve social media marketing success is to clear the way, use the natural motivational processes and don't add complications that get in the way of them.

1. The Motive to Share

Pulling on the heart-strings has something to do with it in many cases, but there is more to the science of social media marketing than that. There is a part of the brain called the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) where the so-called "primitive brain" of emotions and gross motivation connects with the center for judgement, decision-making, and language, the more advanced human functions. This area combining emotions with judgement is what effective social media appeals to.

In a study at the University of California, Los Angeles, researchers explored

"what differentiates ideas that bomb from ideas that go viral ... increased activity in the TPJ [stimulated by the ideas] was associated with an increased ability to convince others to get on board."

Some particular ideas stimulate the TPJ and generate an emotional response and a need to share. 

2. Permission and encouragement to share

The power of TPJ appealing messages is amplified by the principle of "social proof."

People take on the behaviors of others so that they feel they are acting correctly. A good spokesperson on social media can suggest a kind of behavior that people will regard as correct. Viewers will be quick to share a message that stimulates the TPJ and where the message is delivered in a way where sharing the TPJ stimulation experience is correct, acceptable and encouraged.

3. Organization of the message

The brain has the amazing innate property of taking complex things and organizing them into simple units. These simple units which emerge out of the action of the brain are called "fully developed figures." The brain will round out the disorganized edges of a figure and simplify it so it looks organized. In doing so we sometimes perceive things, not as they are, but in a way that makes sense. The easier it is for the brain to do that, the more effective the message will be. The more powerful messages will present simple ideas with not a lot of exceptions. Similar elements will be grouped together.

4. Getting commitment

There are many non-rational things about human motivation. It starts with the way we interpret and attribute emotions and feelings to the people around us and to ourselves.

Current theories about how we feel emotion say that we get an unspecific feeling in the gut and (after the fact) look for the reason for the feeling. We interpret the gut feeling accordingly. For instance, we might interpret the gut feeling as fear under frightening or threatening conditions, or as love in other situations.

Similarly, when the TPJ gets activated, we have an urge to share something that stimulates us, but the urge to actually share it depends on social proof. To actually get action, the marketer must align with those forces and build a commitment to share.

Furthermore, when encouraging commitment to share, the marketer must optimize conditions for sharing. Consider the demographics of the viewers and what their motivations are. Look to the core of the demographics because the viewer is only going to share if the path is made easy. They will only share what they feel their friends and family will enjoy.

5. Power of membership

What differentiates social media marketing from conventional advertising is that it originates from one of us. 

Messages are received from the marketer, just as they would be received from personal acquaintances or friends.

To be successful, the marketer must maintain that identity. Self-serving messages will alienate the marketer from the social unit and cause them to be psychologically shut out.