I heard a great analogy this weekend in a discussion about the online theft of music versus the continuing propensity of Boomers and Gen-Xers (almost alone in this) to still pay for their music in the form of CDs or iTunes purchases. The remark went something like this: “Just because you’re able to observe my behavior at an ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet, your so-called research has no value in predicting my order in a fine dining restaurant.” People will sample a lot, but they won’t always buy what they sample.
Buffet or Fine Dining?
It go me to thinking about the value of virality. To extend the music metaphor, I want fans, but I really, really want supporters, frequent attendees at my concerts and, even better, evangelists. My client, for instance, may be enthusiastic about my ability to get folks to take a look at YouTube, but how do I make sure we both keep our eyes on the prize – conversion of samplers to proselytizers.
We eat a lot. I was not surprised, for instance, to read recently that each of us is consuming information at a clip of almost 12 hours per day on average and collectively we got in about 10,500 trillion words. Seems that the all-you-can-eat information buffett is just getting bigger, with each American consumer getting over 100,000 words per day on average, according to the 2009 “How Much Information?” report of the Global Industry Information Center of the University of California, San Diego.
Combine that impact on each of our diets with recent insight from Barrucuda Labs about who is really using Twitter, for instance, and we might take away some important cautions for our colleagues who have fallen in love with social media. Percent of Twitter users with 10 followers or more by December 2009? 26. Percent of Twitter users following less than five people? 51. Those power users who are eating in the Twitterverse buffet are really chowing down! Are they your best engagement partners, proselytizers or customers?
The report also estimates that 34% of Twitter never have posted, and a huge 73% of Twitter’s users tweeted less than 10 times. So, nearly all of the tweets result from about 25% of Twitter doing all the writing.
Looking across social media, the same patterns are likely to hold to a great or lesser degree. And it’s also true that those who play the numbers game in social media can still point to the millions who came and fed at their particular buffett, thus potentially pleasing management or client. We should all be alert to two key points often stressed on The Buzz Bin.
First, the numbers don’t mean a thing unless you have a plan to affect the attitudes about your organization or client and, more importantly, create the behaviors critical to success. Views without further engagement are only worth what they bring to your awareness, and don’t necessarily have an effect on the success of your new marketing efforts.
Second. and probably more interesting to me, is this notion of the difference between eating at the buffet and eating at a fine restaurant. In which place are you more likely to stop and really taste the food?
Very good advice. It is really reassuring to see that people are recognising that numbers aren’t everything and your blog is one of the leading lights in this. Ultimately, success comes from converting, servicing and then retaining customers. There is nothing wrong with using the tools online to get them to notice you, but that isn’t enough. Perhaps one of the problems remains the problem of measurement, so it isn’t surprising people keep referring back to the numbers, but there seems to be a void between that and the bottom line. When that void is filled, then social media will settle in as part of the arsenal of communication, rather than something separate.