Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion

by Nathalie Nahai

As legions of businesses scramble to set up virtual-shop, we face an unprecedented level of competition to win over and keep new customers online. At the forefront of this battleground is your ability to connect with your customers, nurture your relationships and understand the psychology behind what makes them click. In this book The Web Psychologist , Nathalie Nahai, expertly draws from the worlds of psychology, neuroscience and behavioural economics to bring you the latest developments, cutting edge techniques and fascinating insights that will lead to online success. Webs of Influence delivers the tools you need to develop a compelling, influential and profitable online strategy which will catapult your business to the next level – with dazzling results.

Genres: Psychology, Business, Design, Nonfiction, Technology, Self Help, Social

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Nathalie Nahai is an international speaker, author and consultant, whose work explores the intersection between persuasive technology, ethics and the psychology behind evolving consumer behaviours.

With clients including Google, Unilever, Accenture and Harvard Business Review, she teaches businesses how to ethically apply behavioural science principles to enhance their online presence, content marketing, product design and customer experience.

A member of the BIMA Human Insights Council, she also hosts The Hive Podcast and speaks about the impact of emerging technologies in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Stylist, and The Telegraph, as well as TV and radio.

Reviews

[Lea Bech-Sjøthun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for coming up with new ideas - and new ways to improve the landingpage you've been blindly staring at the past week...
Don't expect an in-dept explanation of neuro-psychology. Rather, Nathalie Nahai gives you references to loads of different fields of psychology used on web.

You'll be left with a long list of ideas and practical guidelines on how to improve your conversion rate. And an even longer list of other psychology books to read in near future ;-)

[Kaisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

viimane kohustuslik kirjandus bakas :P
mitte midagi uut ei olnd aga vähemalt hea kokkuvõte

[Heli · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book that includes words, and they don't mean much. The sentences these words form are largely cliches. It calls an action without explaining how to do what is being told you to do. "Learn SEO!" Uhm.. ok? "Do such things on your website but consider cultural aspects!" Uhm... But how do I know what would piss someone off in which place? "Use this principle!!" But How?
If you like content that seems to say a lot but actually doesn't make you understand anything, this book may be for you.

[Adrian Timar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great start for anyone working in digital marketing, specifically CRO/websites. I highly recommend it for starters.

This book is one of those rare examples in which the author mentions a theory and actually has a paragraph about "making it work for you" - high applicability.

The only downside for me was the chapter on Hofstede's dimensions. Hofstede measured each country and indexed it based on a few dimensions, such as individualism vs collectivism. Very interesting, but highly outdated (it was done in the '70s) and does not take into account changes since then. Even if we assume that national identity is an inflexible trait (which is very wrong), people's personal identities changed dramatically since the '70s. Do not run campaigns solely based on Hofstede's dimensions.

[Alvaro Berrios · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the lack-luster 3 star rating (I would give it 2.5 if I could), I genuinely do not believe this is a bad book. I just read it at the wrong stage of my career. This book is definitely targeted towards people who are just getting started in digital marketing and/or web design. In other words, it's a beginner's book. Consequently, in reading this book I was already aware of many of its lessons. However, if I was a novice it would have blown my mind.

As a result, had I read this 3 years ago it would have been great. At this point though I just didn't get much out it. Well written though.

[Kristen Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

good intro to psych and web strategy. recommended for beginners.

[Jeroen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fijn boek over de manieren waarop beeld, kleur, tekst en dergelijke een serieuze invloed hebben op je doelpubliek. Zodat je er goed moet over nadenken. Zeker als je een heterogene markt hebt, of doelgroepen in andere werelddelen of culturen waar kleur en manier van schrijven of voorbeelden tonen een heel andere aanpak kunnen vereisen.
Mooi als naslagwerk, met goede structuur en praktische samenvattingen. Beetje te breedvoerig misschien in een soort wens alles samen te brengen. Waardoor het teveel wordt om meteen praktisch toe te passen. Maar wel zeer nuttig voor op het referentie-schap in mijn marketingbibliotheek.

You could run a Google AdWords campaign testing three variants of a display advert, one using words for openness, the second for extraversion and the third for emotional stability, making sure that each landing page uses language consistent with its advert. You’ll be able to see how each condition performs in terms of impressions, click-through rates and on-page conversions, which should give you an indication of the most prevalent personality traits of your audience, and the kinds of messages most likely to engage them. You can also run this kind of test using promoted tweets, newsletter headlines, Facebook adverts and video headlines on YouTube.

[Madeleine Work · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be, in a word, “Meh.”

While there were some interesting tidbits in this book, I found it to be rather uninspiring for the most part. Most of the studies cited I had seen before, and her advice about how to implement psychological tricks into your business model were... either outdated, obvious, or completely unhelpful. For example, she advised businesses to price their products at $3.99 instead of $4.00 for more sales.... Pretty sure I figured out that trick when I was 8 and asked my mom why businesses didn’t just say the TV cost $400, since $399.99 is basically the same thing.

In short, this book isn’t a complete waste of time, but I think you’d be better off reading blogs on the internet.

[Dorahontas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The informative guide to stick to during your site design process | Level: beginner to intermediate. This is a well-designed book, very informative and insightful. If you are a novice and just stepping into the world of digital this is the perfect crash course guide for you to catch up as fast as possible.

I'd allow myself just a single unsolicited advice - having so many endnotes to follow-up causes a serious distraction and compromises the authenticity of the author's point of view. In any other case, I highly recommend Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion (2nd Edition) to anyone who is curious enough and looking for some mind-boggling discussions.

I'm looking forward to Web of Influence 3.0!

[salvatore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The real value of this book, apart from sparkling curiosity for other fields such as behavioral economics, psychology, web design and so on, lies in the constant reminder about the importance of knowing our target customer. No technique will work on all type of users, so the most important action to take is to deep dive into our business’ roots and come out with a clear idea of whom we want to offer our services to.

[Toby Philpott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful

I’m now a CMO at a Mongolian Non-Bank Financial Institution and face a constant war on two fronts to engage with both Mongolians and expatriate communities. Nathalie’s book has provided very helpful advice on how I should structure our messages to these different audiences. I’ve already gained some useful ideas and insights that I will now put into effect.

The book is now slightly dated (2017) and I hope that a new, updated edition, will be published soon.

[Toan Ho Huu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trong Lan tỏa ảnh hưởng thời kỹ thuật số, Nathalie Nahai đã chọn lọc rất nhiều kiến thức và kinh nghiệm hữu ích từ các chuyên ngành như tâm lý học, khoa học thần kinh và kinh tế học hành vi, mang đến cho bạn đọc những kỹ thuật tiến bộ và thông tin hấp dẫn – hướng dẫn cách đạt thành công trong môi trường kinh doanh thời kỹ thuật số.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's definitely some valuable stuff in here, but it's by no means revolutionary. If you're already a marketer or salesperson, you'll find a mix of some things you already knew (colours create emotional reactions) and others you didn't (price anchoring).

Treat this as a curated list of psychological tricks you can find using Google.

[Denise Joanne 🎀 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read for anyone wanting to learn more about marketing psychology. But having finished it I don’t really feel like I know how to apply these new learnings to my specific job in online marketing. I would have liked some more how-to bits, instead of just lots of information being thrown my way. But still, I’d recommend the book!

[Fahim Sachedina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by the calibre of research and the in-depth stories - echoing some of the other readers, it's definitely for beginners in digital marketing but I found some good insights regardless and appreciated the style of writing.

[Cóilín · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very handy resource. Real, scientific data distilled into easy-to-read insights and practical use cases and examples. I can see myself revisiting certain sections again and again.

[Rolandas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful and interesting book with many real life examples. Easily readable. Recommend for those who want to increase online sales.

[Luca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the honor to do an event with Nathalie in Stockholm a while back, and she was just great! This book got me into psychology behavior and neuroscience. MUST READ

[Chiara Aliotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and handy book about how our mind works. Very useful insights too. The web looks different after I finished to read this book.

[Elizabeth K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very insightful book. It's very intense and dense with information, but can definitely be integrated into the plan of a tenured marketing professional if structured correctly.

[Deepak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dated but still useful

[Salome Khaindrava · Rating 4 out of 5]

ბევრი პრაქტიკული რჩევაა არა მარკეტოლოგისთვის.

[Rochdi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously flawed in web design terms as website accessibility is not only ignored, but incorrectly defined. Accessibility is about ensuring your website is accessible to all users, irrespective of any disability. This is not mentioned. Look in the index and you see two entries for accessibility, but Nahai describes accessibility as information being "easy to locate".

In many countries, you have a legal obligation to ensure your site is accessible. Some of Nahai's design suggestions (e.g. people in a particular age bracket like homepages that consist of one large image) are flawed in accessibility terms. She should at least have mentioned that for the benefit of visually impaired users, text equivalents to images must be available.

This book is the epitome of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

The psychology covered in the book is potentially interesting, but it's been dumbed down to an extreme extent. There is at least a good source list of journal articles and books - looking at some of the originals might be useful.

The book may be useful to someone with absolutely no knowledge of online marketing, but certainly shouldn't be the sole guide in your site design process!

[Feli · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started off quite promising explaining quite well different cultures and how best to target them online. After that initial interesting chapter, it went downhill. Very basic and has only a few good tips. I would only recommend it to people who have very little online marketing knowledge.

I think I will try one of these books, which Nahai based her research on Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations or Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Hopefully these will be a little bit more insightful.

[Catherine Kingsbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book that provides a lot of great insight. It's a double-edged sword as there is A LOT of info, which makes it difficult to take in as large chunks. I highly recommend keeping a notepad handy and taking notes as you are reading it, as you'll experience what I did and have to go back to get the info again when the author refers to earlier points that are near the beginning. But overall, I highly recommend this for individuals who manage websites or other online properties - specially those that intend to reach more than one country!

[Jana Kovářová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved the book. It took me some time to read it but only because there's so much information I needed to take notes and implement it. I personally think this is one of the best books on psychology in online persuasion and a great book to have in your library to read through anytime you need again and again.
Really an endless source of knowledge and inspiration that you can use in many different ways depending on the company or a project you work on now. Can't recommend it enough!

[Umma]

Whilst at university, I went to an event in which Nahai gave a talk. I remember her coming across as confident, someone who knew what they were talking about. And then I read her book... And realised she's a pretty good sales person!

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about online persuasion. Relaxed but full of knowledge. Only problem is that some of the example age quickly.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, reserving judgement. Not massively impressed yet though.