As I am reading my latest issue of Wired, I learned the name of condition that I was already familiar with:
Homophily - the human tendency to seek out information that supports preexisting assumptions.
And, according to Wired, the internet “magnifies this echo-chamber effect.” So, whether your beliefs are right or wrong, you can find a web resource that supports your beliefs and validates whatever argument you are having.
Makes sense. This “condition” aligns with “niching” trend that is facilitated by the internet. With a sense of individualism, people are making choices based on their own needs rather than following the masses around them. To quote the book Microtrends,
“No matter how offbeat their choices, they can now find 100,000 people or more who share their taste for deep fried yak on a stick.
…the Internet has made it so easy to link people together. In the past, it was almost impossible to market to small groups who were spread around the county. Now it’s a virtual piece of cake to find 1 million people who want to try your grapefruit diet, or who can’t get their kids to sleep at night.
With the rise in freedom of choice has come a rise in individuality. And with the rise of individuality has come a rise in the power of choice. The more choices people have, the more they segregate themselves into smaller and smaller niches in society.”
As marketers, this trend presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is reaching broad audiences with our messages. But the opportunity is that our dollars can be more efficiently spent targeting just those consumers likely to connect with our messages.
Check out Wordle, a toy for generating “beautiful word clouds.” Too cool. Here is the Wordle for my del.icio.us tags.
Here.
Reported in Brandweek, and based on findings from a new eMarketer report, here are some stats on the future of brandable widgets (”mini-Web applications that are downloaded and installed for use on personal computers, Web pages, blogs or social-network profiles”):
- 100,000 developers worldwide are currently working on widget programs.
- Facebook began allowing widgets on its site last May. Since then, 13,000 widgets have been created for the site alone.
- Social networking sites are a big destination for widget placement. In 2007, 13.6 million Web surfers between the ages of 12-17 were social network users. That number will be 15.3 million this year and 17.7 million by 2011.
- Asked whether they thought mobile marketing or widgets would play a larger role in advertising strategies for 2008, 58% of marketers sided with widgets.
“Marketers spent $15 million creating, promoting and distributing widgets in 2007. That number is expected to grow to $40 million in 2008.”
Is your brand represented in the widget world?
Earlier this week I wrote about my love of the Kindle after reading that Steve Jobs thinks it is stupid (I am exaggerating, of course) because no one reads anymore. Well, it seems his comments stirred up some others as well. Advertising Age disputes Jobs’ statistics on reading as well:
“‘Who are these “people” to whom Steve Jobs is referring?’ Publishers Weekly Editor in Chief Sara Nelson asked me last week. ‘Not the million-ish who are devouring Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” or the ones who line up for Harry Potter and/or James Patterson novels.’ She added: ‘All I can say is that when I sat in restaurants and airports or on buses or trains and pulled out my Kindle, I got more attention than if I’d shown up naked–with an adorable puppy.’”
Right on.
The Wall Street Journal had a great article in yesterday’s edition with predictions about the ways in which technology will change our shopping behaviors, learning tools and entertainment methods. It is a long article, but I encourage you to read it if you have the time. Here are some highlights from the intro to give you a little taste:
- Televisions that project 3-D images into the middle of the living room.
- Appliances that “talk” to us through email alerts.
- Commuters will still carry newspapers to work, but will likely download them to a pocket-sized computer that can also show TV news broadcasts.
- Shoppers will still be greeted at Wal-Mart, but a computer may be the one saying hello–and reminding them of what they bought on their last visit.
- Friends will still send each other birth and wedding announcements, but the process will be virtually automated, thanks to alerts on social-networking sites.
I love future predictions! Enjoy.
I’ll admit it. I bought the Amazon Kindle, the electronic reader that received much hype and not-so-great reviews. And, I’ll admit that I love it. But, I am a reader. I read a lot and I read fast. I also travel pretty frequently. So, the idea of a device that holds 200 books that I can purchase for $9.99 each was appealing to me. The device has its faults (clunky page turn buttons that are too easily pressed mistakenly, the cover sucks, the power switch is on the back), which I am sure will be repaired in the next generation. I am a little self-conscious using it in public places because it is not that common and people tend to stare (and, I am a little embarrassed about how much I paid for it). But, nonetheless, I love reading from it–it is lightweight, easy to hold, doesn’t hurt my eyes, and holds more books than I can read. The New York Times has even said that “Amazon’s device could turn out to be the iPod of the written word.” I would agree, except supposedly no one reads anymore:
When Steve Jobs “was asked two weeks ago at the Macworld Expo what he thought of the Kindle, he heaped scorn on the book industry. ‘It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don’t read anymore,’ he said. ‘Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.’” Jobs, however, is not always right: “a survey conducted in August 2007 by Ipsos Public Affairs for The Associated Press found that 27 percent of Americans had not read a book in the previous year…the same share–27 percent–read 15 or more books. In fact, when we exclude Americans who had not read a single book in that year, the average number of books read was 20, raised by the 8 percent who read 51 books or more. In other words, a sizable minority does not read, but the overall distribution is balanced somewhat by those who read a lot.”
“The book world has always had an invisible asset that makes up for what it lacks in outsize revenue and profits: the passionate attachment that its authors, editors and most frequent customers have to books themselves. Indeed, in this respect, avid book readers resemble avid Mac users.
“The object we are accustomed to calling a book is undergoing a profound modification as it is stripped of its physical shell. Kindle’s long-term success is still unknown, but Amazon should be credited with imaginatively redefining its original product line, replacing the book business with the reading business.”
