Ad Age reported on the current state of the Internet the other day and made some enlightening observations. One of the key opening statements they made was that podcasts, RSS feeds and blogs, what many of us think of as indisposable, are not even known to the overall U.S. adult population.
They added that the majority of people that believe the new content delivery systems are the greatest thing to come along, are those that don't have any steady incomes. You know what they're politely saying don't you? High school and college students are the ones, for the most 
part, that are engaged and interacting with this medium.
They cite Jupiter Research on some current statistics:
"According to Jupiter Research, 7% of American adults write blogs and 22% read them; about 8% listen to podcasts and 5% use RSS feeds. According to a separate study by WorkPlace Print Media, 88% of the at-work audience doesn't even know what RSS is. And recent data from word-of-mouth research group Keller Fay indicate 92% of brand conversations were taking place offline -- far more than the commonly assumed rate of 80%."
Jupiter also discovered that only 1% of the 210 million mobile-phone subscribers base the decision on who they chose as a provider on the entertainment options available. The overwhelming majority are concerned about the coverage, cost and service offered.
In another surprising poll result, half of teens and young adults said that they had no interest in watching TV or movies on digital or hand-held devices. They still preferred to watch on Television.
Citing a study by Frank N. Nagid Associates, Ad Age reported that the 12-17 demographic also brought in some surprising results: "66% claim they never watch video online and 41% never listen to or download free music online. When it comes to paid content, 84% have never paid to watch or download video and 71% never pay to listen to or download music. Sixty-nine percent never use social-networking sites, 71% have never posted a comment on a blog and 79% have never written their own blogs (though 15% do so frequently)."
Jason Heller, senior VP-managing director at Horizon Interactive, commenting on the viability of podcasts, RSS and blogs said: "Obviously there's a ton of hype around these emerging channels, and clients are very frequently asking us about the viability of podcasts, how do you advertise in blogs. There are some viable opportunities for certain clients, but the harsh reality is podcasting is incredibly nascent, and while RSS is a little further along, we see a very specific type of person using it."
What does all of this tell us?
First of all, we who use the Internet so much, and are enamored with it, must understand that in a certain sense we're a closed community. All of those things that create buzz and viral effects in the online world, aren't necessarily even reaching a huge portion of the population.
When people oppose or support various issues, products or businesses in some type of online interaction, this doesn't mean that people offline even care that much about it or are as engaged with the specific ideas being thrown around. The overall online community, even with all of their differences, still envelops a certain type of individual.
We can believe, because we're so engaged with our online contacts, that everyone is thinking about the same things. This is a big mistake that we need to understand. As we found in the statistics above: huge portions of the population aren't following the Internet trends that we hold so important to us.
Is all of this a negative finding for us online marketers? Absolutely not! We do need to understand that we are a part of the puzzle; not the whole puzzle.
What is significant about the Internet is that it is gaining in popularity in searching for insight, answers and references for people. As of now the Internet is almost equal with television as a source for information. That should continue to grow for years to come.
Is there something in all of this that we can respond to and think about concerning our marketing campaigns? Yes. One of the key strengths at this time is that it is reaching a large amount of those that have influence over others. This is the real power that the Internet has at this time. The best strategy we can come up with is to find ways that we reach these specific people in the niche we're serving. Reaching the influencers is a major part of largely successful viral campaigns.
Another thing in all of this is to not be discouraged by the statistics mentioned above. For example, even though it is said that only 22% of Americans read blogs, that's still around 66 million people. I'm sure there's a lot of opportunity lying within those numbers.
Comment Preview