Persuasive Technology…Or Content?

One of my heroes is B.J. Fogg for recognizing the value and potential of persuasion in the interactive space. He defined a discipline called persuasive technology (aka captology), which you can study in the excellent book Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think or Do. I love this work.  My issue? Often the “persuader” is the content, not the technology.

Why should you care? It’s critical to understand what exactly is persuading so that you invest time and resources appropriately in a persuasive effort.  If you invest completely in the technology and ignore the content, your persuasive effort will not succeed.

Allow me to explain further. First, let’s look at the definition of captology. The diagram below from Persuasive Technology illustates it as the intersection between computer devices and persuasive purposes.

This diagram defines persuasive technology, aka captology. Is technology getting the credit when the content should?

Is a PDA persuasive?  Does a kiosk influence you? How about a website?  If you’re like me, the answer is “it depends on the content.”

Now let’s take this a step further. Captology identifies three possible persuasive roles that technology might play: tool, medium, and social actor. A tool might be an application that analyzes your fuel efficiency to help motivate you to use less gas, such as Fuelly. A medium is not so much a medium as an environment where an experience is recreated or simulated.  An example is a game such as SimCity, where the player plans a city and watches the effects of his or her decisions carry through the game. (For more on persuasive games, see Ian Bogost’s work.) A social actor persuades more in the way a person would—and in the way I think most people associate with persuasion. A simple example is an e-commerce website congratulating and thanking you for completing a purchase.  This polite encouragement might influence you to shop at the website again later.

The three persuasive roles as defined in captology. Content is important to all three roles.

In my opinion, all of these persuasive roles depend highly on content. The content in the tool interface must support and clarify the tool’s function, as well as offer motivating messages.  The content for a medium must accurately and compellingly create the environment or tell the story.  Who better to tell stories than content experts?  (In fact, Ian Bogost’s background is as much in literature as it is in technology.) The content for a social actor must be well-crafted, use appropriate language, have personality, employ appropriate psychological principles, and more. The social actor role is especially critical to persuasion in interactive business. As interactive self-service continues to grow, our content needs to act like our company’s engaging salesman, helpful customer service representative, and efficient technical support representative.

Am I saying the technology is not important? No. Fogg articulates well the advantages and capabilities of technology as a means for persuasion. But I fear the technology has overshadowed the content. We need both.

Influential Content: Where Persuasive Technology and Content Strategy Meet

Over the past several months I have explored the topic of content, especially persuasive or influential content.  Along the way, I discovered a movement toward defining a discipline called content strategy.  This discipline is about giving content the respect, resources, organization, and time it deserves.

Persuasive technology needs more focus on content.  Content strategy offers a keen focus on content. They’re a perfect fit. I look forward to exploring the intersection of persuasive technology and content strategy in a space I’m calling “influential content.”  Stay tuned.