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📝 Intro

Take these two statements:

1. “Remember to check the evidence”

2. “Don’t forget to check the evidence”

They mean the same thing. But the second one uses a negation (“Don’t”).

Does it make a difference?

In an analysis of 7,382 Facebook posts and 8,226 Tweets from 18 top brands (e.g. Adidas, McDonald’s, Bank of America) only 14.7% and 10% used negations, respectively.

They are missing a big opportunity.

Here is what scientists found by looking at over 53 million social media likes, comments, and shares - and confirming their findings with two controlled experiments.

P.S.: Just think of the work that goes into scientific studies like these. How can (the vast majority of) company-published ‘research’ compare with science? Short answer: it doesn’t.

Peer-reviewed, published scientific research - despite its flaws - is orders of magnitude better than anything we have.

Always turn to scientific evidence for your decisions, when available. 

Use negations to increase engagement and word of mouth

Channels: Messaging | Marketing communications | Social media | Email | Ads | Website
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B
Research date: July 2022

📈 Recommendation

Use negations in your social media posts and messaging to increase engagement. Negations are words such as “no”, “don’t”, or “nobody”. 

For example, say:

• “Don’t wait to refinance” not “Refinance now”

• “The computer that never sleeps” not “The computer that is always on”

• “Prices have never been lower” not “Prices are the lowest ever”

People will perceive you as more powerful and want to engage with and recommend you more.

🎓 Findings

• Negations increase how much people want to associate and interact with a brand.

• Negations are an alternative way to write messages. They can be used to tell people:

  • What not to do (e.g. “Don’t forget to buy” vs “Remember to buy”)

  • What is not the case (e.g. “We never let you down” vs “We always keep our promises”)

  • What is impossible (e.g. “You can’t find a better deal” vs “The best deal you can find”)

• A text analysis of 15,608 Facebook posts and Tweets found that posts containing negation words had higher engagement (likes, comments, shares).

• In two experiments, people:

  • Rated a Facebook post 17.6% more engaging when it contained negations (“Don’t settle for less than what you deserve. Contact us today.”) vs when it didn’t (“Go with what you deserve. Contact us today.”)

  • Said they were 17.8% more likely to recommend a newsletter when the email asking them to sign up used negations (“[...] It doesn’t matter what others might say, you’re not wrong to be worried about your health. [...] Don’t wait to subscribe to our healthy living newsletter! 1,000 happy subscribers can’t be wrong.”)

• The effect is stronger for people that have a high need for status (e.g. buyers of luxury products or people in high power distance cultures such as China, Egypt, Brazil, and India).

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🧠 Why it works

• We perceive people that act negative or contrarian as more powerful because they act differently than what is socially expected, which is to be positive and nice.

• The same happens with how brands communicate (just like we’ve seen before that assertive words increase engagement).

• We want to engage with and buy from brands that feel powerful because it signals to others that we are of higher social status. Acquiring and signaling status is one of our fundamental motives in life.

• The effect is similar to what is known as “compensatory consumption” (buying and using certain products to signal status), and could be called “compensatory engagement” (liking or recommending a powerful brand to signal status).

✋ Limitations

• The driver of this effect is the perceived power of a brand. While sounding powerful usually has positive effects (e.g. more attractive, likable, and influential), it may not be the case if a brand’s positioning is to be warm and approachable. This was not tested.

🏢 Companies using this

• Of the 18 brands analyzed in the study, those with the most negations in social media posts were:

  • LinkedIn (28% Facebook, 26% Twitter), 

  • Adidas (22% Facebook, 23% Twitter)

  • Skittles (23% Facebook, 20% Twitter)

• Examples of negations use in social media posts:

  • Under Armour: “Don’t wait. Work”. 

  • Red Bull: “Success isn’t given, it’s earned,” 

  • LinkedIn: “It’s never too early to start networking,” 

  • Intel: “No matter where you vacation, Intel tablet battery life won’t leave you high and dry.”

• Examples of negations in company messaging:

  • American Express: “Don’t leave home without it”

  • Sarah Lee: “Nobody doesn’t like Sarah Lee”

⚡ Steps to implement

• This study analyzed the use of negations in social media and emails, but the effect seems likely to carry over in most brand messaging. Try to also use them on your website or in ads.

• You can form sentences with negations by:

  • Using words such as “no” or “not”

  • Combining negators with verbs such as “can’t”, doesn’t”, or “haven’t”

  • Using quantifier words such as “nobody”, “nowhere”, or “never”

🔍 Study type

Online experiments and market observation (of 7,382 Facebook and 8,226 Twitter posts of 18 well-known brands, between July 2013 and June 2014)

Fun fact: this study used the same social media dataset and text-analysis as this previous insight about the effect of assertive words

📖 Research

What’s not to like? Negations in brand messages increase consumer engagement. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (July 2022).

🏫 Researchers

• Todd Pezzuti. University of Adolfo Ibáñez

• James M. Leonhardt. University of Nevada

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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