The six shortcuts of persuasion.

The art of persuasion is an art that is very much used in our society. The science behind it goes through six principals or shortcuts. These six shortcuts are: reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking, and consensus. Question is, can some of these principals be used in blogs? Personally I would say that some of them are. There are three of them that I can see being used in blogs: Consensus, authority and liking. Ultimately, some of these are more effective than others. Liking, I would say is the most effective. One of the main factors in liking is relating to others. In a blog we can read of someone who is going through something we ourselves may have gone through, or is blogging about similar ideas and theories that we have had. Following liking the next effective principal is authority. People will follow those who are credible. For example, if a coffee master is blogging about different methods on making the best coffee. Coffee lovers will read and likely indulge in what the coffee master is saying. finally, the last principal I see being effective is consensus. When looking for a blog or even hearing from others of a great blog that person then feels the need to check it out. Ultimately, these three principals can be used to bring in readers to a blog. Each one uses ethos, pathos, or logos in their own way.

Personal Blog #6: The art of influence.

From The Power of Influence I liked how they touched on ethos. Without credibility our arguments carry no weight. Establishing our credibility allows others to see us as honest and trustworthy. It is through this allows us to build up our persuasion tactics and convince a crowd that we are serious about our cause. Other factors correlate with this as well such as being personable.

Furthermore, it discusses how the essayist will indulge in their own ignorance. When a new question is asked the essayist will in fact begin to research the topic to become familiar with it. It goes further to discuss how the essayist will build boarders around the question and begin to paint on the canvince with answers that address the issue.  

The Power of Influence goes on further but let me say this as a former target employee that sold an obscene amount of redcards. Ethos is necessary in any persuasion it allows us the opportunity to develop credibility and build rapport with the person we are talking to. If we do not take the time to research new questions that ruin our credibility than it will ruin our persuasion/ argument. This is the first building block to our tower of persuasion.