Have you ever noticed how some people can never do anything wrong, while others don’t ever seem to put a foot right? You can see examples on any social media group, forum and in life outside the internet. For some reason one person can write a very ordinary book, or post a very average painting or photograph and get dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of accolades, while another can produce distinguished work and get ignored. It seems strange, but this trend can be seen everywhere, and mostly it relates to what is known as the “halo effect”, and its opposite, the “devil effect”.
The term “halo effect” was coined by the psychologist Edward Thorndike, who found that the way soldiers were evaluated was highly correlated across different categories. For example, someone evaluated highly for physical qualities would also be ranked highly for leadership and personality traits. Other research has shown that the more attractive a person is, the more highly they are rated on a diverse range of activities. In general, it seems that if a person is good at one thing, even so far as being physically attractive, then everything else they do is ranked more highly. If we like someone we automatically judge everything they do in a favourable light.
The devil effect works in the opposite way. Some people are demonized, and almost nothing they do can change the negative view held of them. No matter the quality of their work, they will never be judged fairly.
Clearly, then, if you want to build a loyal readership you need somehow to find a halo and polish it so brightly that fans will flock to admire your work, or at least give it a fair hearing. This is about managing your public image. Everything from the photo in your facebook bio, the posts you make on twitter, the way you support your online community or, say, what you think about the environment will influence how people see you. In terms of social media, the big winners are those who help form opinion, or who share personal parts of themselves. For artists, posting pictures of dogs is way more popular and “likeable” than posting a photograph of a snake. Photographs of attractive people or cute flurry critters gain many more admiring comments than a photograph of a forest. Accessible writing about romance, elves, spaceships doing battle somewhere or tough, gritty soldiers or police officers will appeal to far more readers than an obscure surrealist tract.
If you “win” in any of these areas then remember, the halo effect tells us that you will gain in every other aspect of your public life, even so far as pushing your image and reputation into the viral stage, and from then on everything you do will be applauded and sales might even grow beyond your expectations!
For writers, the current advice on increasing sales is to become known, to get good reviews and, most of all, find a way to be talked about. Everyone starting out as a writer of fiction knows that whether you are published traditionally or self-publishing, you can’t sell books unless people know who you are; that they have heard about you and seen your work somewhere. Well, to do that these days, you need a public profile, so facebook, twitter, a personal website and a blog are essential. But this is not enough; there are thousands of them out there already. You need something else, and quickly you’ll find out about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is how you get your efforts found by search engines such as Google et al. However, a search engine only works if you have content that enough people are looking for, otherwise you can have a perfect site but no one will care enough to go there, and those who do will probably never return. You absolutely need great content, you do have to take care of SEO, but you also need halo. There has to be something that draws people towards you, as a person. So, work on your image. Add content that makes people feel good about you, but also about themselves. Work on being the good guy, which means finding your specific halo and polishing it so brightly that it illuminates everything you do. If you want success, you have to find a way to bring smiles to people’s faces, and once they really do love you, the rest will fall into place.
May 122012
