Social Media Tricks:
We’ve all been there before. You’re telling a friend about how you need a new pair of boots and scrolling through your Instagram feed. Then suddenly, like magic, an ad for some boot company you’ve never heard of appears on your timeline. Later, you’ll wonder how Instagram knew to serve you up the right ad at the right moment. Before that, though, your mind is elsewhere. After all, it’s time to check out these awesome new boots and see how much they cost!, in this article, you will find 7 Social Media Tricks that social media platforms sneakily get you to open up your wallet.
A whopping 82% of Americans use social media. Going even further, buy from a brand they follow. It is an eye-popping figure. It doesn’t even scratch the surface of all of the impulse purchases people make through influencers and targeted advertising.
If you spend more time than you’d like to admit on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media, there’s a good chance you’re also making more purchases than you’d like to admit. While these products and services may seem like necessities at the time, it’s social media that’s tricking you into spending more money.
1. Impulse buys:
Social media makes it easy for you to hand over your hard-earned (digital) cash with frictionless in-app purchases, like unlocking game levels, adding monthly subscriptions, and shopping for items recommended by people you follow. Within seconds, you can tap or swipe your way into an expensive, unplanned purchase.
2. Suggested posts:
Social media algorithms may not be helping you in your quest to save money. Whether you are interested in fashion, coffee, or beauty products, Instagram’s algorithm remembers what you like and displays content and products similar to your interests. When you open up the app, the algorithm may show you a barrage of things you should buy — and they are usually tailored to your preferences, making it doubly hard to resist.
3. Those sneaky influencers:
IIf you follow any influencers, your best bet is to unfollow them if you want to keep your hard-earned cash. Seeing someone else’s perfectly curated and styled life is a surefire way to feel unsatisfied with what you currently have, especially if the influencer has (as most do) cultivated an approachable persona.
4. FOMO:
It’s telling that fear of missing out, aka FOMO has become common parlance on social media. Most of us, to some eIt’s telling that fear of missing out, aka FOMO has become common parlance on social media. Most of us, to some extent, want to keep up with everyone else. And we fear being left behind or being seen as not up-to-date.
5. An expanded social circle:
Before the advent of social media, it was hard enough to resist comparing ourselves to our friends, but it is even more difficult now with our drastically expanded circles on social media. The increased frequency of social contact online has made it harder to resist spending. Whereas before social media, you might have seen that uber-rich high school classmate once a year, now you see what she’s doing every day on Instagram. Eighty-eight percent of millennials believe that social media makes them compare themselves more with others.
6. Endless MLMs from old friends:
Not long ago, it seemed like every time I opened Facebook, another friend was hawking leggings, skincare, or essential Not long ago, it seemed like every time I opened Facebook, a friend was hawking leggings, skincare, or essential oils from a multilevel marketing (MLM) company. Wanting to support friends who are trying to make ends meet is an admirable goal, but doing so can quickly add up, especially with the high prices of most of these MLM products. Soon, buying a few products I didn’t need had completely wiped out my “fun” money for the month.
7. Hyper-targeted ads:
Sometimes it seems as if the internet is reading your mind. Advertisers on social media can target you based on the data you generate by using the platform. Everything, including the movie you streamed recently, the ramen shop you checked in at, and your political leanings, are accessible in this new marketplace, making it harder to ignore ads that seem custom-made for you.
Every problem has a solution, check this article to find How to Prevent Budget-Busting Impulse Buys:
