There comes a time where you ask if any internet based contact is valid or worth the price of advertising. Page views increase “but” for many (i.e., newspapers, other media sites) requests don’t turn into profits because no one spends time. Or if they spend time, it’s spent in competition with other devices.
How can you accomplish your goals if it’s hit and run or distracted viewing?
What does it take to hold a person’s interest?
From Pew Internet:
Half of all adult cell phone owners now incorporate their mobile devices into their television watching experiences. These “connected viewers” used their cell phones for a wide range of activities during the 30 days preceding our April 2012 survey:
- 38% of cell owners used their phone to keep themselves occupied during commercials or breaks in something they were watching
- 23% used their phone to exchange text messages with someone else who was watching the same program in a different location
- 22% used their phone to check whether something they heard on television was true
- 20% used their phone to visit a website that was mentioned on television
- 1% used their phone to see what other people were saying online about a program they were watching, and 11% posted their own comments online about a program they were watching using their mobile phone
- 6% used their phone to vote for a reality show contestant
Taken together, 52% of all cell owners are “connected viewers”—meaning they use their phones while watching television for at least one of these reasons.
And we expect advertisers to pay for distracted viewing?
Read or download the full report: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Connected-viewers.aspx
My observations based on a previous Pew study:
Pew states that 65 percent of Americans are involved in social media but what do we mean by “involved?”
The research from Pew suggests that power users constitute about 20%-30% of Facebook users. Only 5 percent of Facebook users were power users on all actions measured, 9 percent on three and 11 percent on two.
There seems to be continuous research that indicates an active 20 to 25 percent of web users who dominate internet activity. They are the ones who stay on your site, they are the ones who comment or like something or interact in some way.
Lots of people in website creation and marketing struggle with time on site. They ask about the relevance of websites as a social media or sales platform.
It’s a matter of context and quality over quantity.
The quality web:
I wrote “Is Social Media Really Social?” The premise is that there is a “Quality Web” made up of power users who seek out information and interact.
But it’s been my experience that the Quality Web is exactly the kind of people you want to reach.
Throughout my 30 year social media, public relations and clearinghouse career I responded to thousands of people who wanted conversations. I’ve had over a hundred comments on some social platforms on one topic.
These inquiries included Congressional staffers, mayors, community leaders, agency heads and everyday citizens. Many were decision makers important to our issues and priorities.
My organizations learned lessons from the unique perspectives of users; we became better agencies and improved operations. We responded to their problems and issues in a personalized way. We learned from them and they learned from us. It was social in every meaning of the word.
The bottom-line is that a minority of website or social media users will dominate the space. As sales people know, the majority of sales come from a minority of customers.
We (unless you’re in advertising) need to stop fretting about the bounce rates (one page only visitors) or the short time spent on websites by the majority of visitors.
The internet, clearinghouses and business all have one thing in common; people important to our issues stick around and that will constitute approximately 25 percent of visitors.
Best, Len.
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Source for Pew: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Facebook-users/Summary.aspx
Source for “Is Social Media Really Social?” https://www.leonardsipes.com/is-social-media-really-social/
