Razorfish argue that connected consumers are now the mainstream

So what is the best way to anticipate how people are going to change in the way they use technology? Razorfish think they may have found a way to do this. Rather than surveying the entire population they have taken a sample of highly connected users. They argue that by studying these early adopters of social media we can get a deeper understanding of where we are going and what works in this new more highly interactive, real time, connected world. Their main conclusion is that nowadays “the experience is the message”.

97% of these consumers had searched for a brand on line, 70% had read a corporate blog, 67% had watched a commerical on YouTube, 65% had played a branded browser based game and 73% had posted a product review on a website like Amazon.
40% had actually friended a brand on Facebook and 26% followed a brand on twitter. These customers were definitely being pulled.

However interestingly 44% of those who friend a brand on twitter said it was to get exclusive deals. Similar statistics were shown for Facebook. Dell of course have already shown that this works in cash returns. I can imagine many brands will look at this with interest. Pizza Hut and Papa Johns have had similar experiences when offering free stuff via an iphone app and facebook respectively.

The report also gave some insight into how change is taking place in how information is dispersed. They found that these consumers are increasingly getting their news from social networking sites from Facebook and Twitter. I guess the great thing about news from these sources is that it is very much customized to your interests. I have certainly learnt about several fairly big stories via facebook especially breaking news.

Razorfish conclude that in terms of brands we are more actively engaged with brands than ever before and the companies that are getting it right are the ones that are focusing on the “experience” that customers are having with their brand. 97% of these consumers reported that digital experience has influenced whether or not they went on to make a purchase.

So can these results generalize to the general population? Well Razorfish suggest that what is incredible about digital technology is that people are picking it up very quickly. The speed and scale with which digital fluency grows is very transforming. They believe these connected consumers do represent the mainstream. Personally I find this a pretty big jump to make. There is no way that the majority are behaving the same way as these more highly connected users. However this does not mean that in a year or two this will not change. They are certainly right that the technology is getting entrenched in society quickly and the next generation of young adults will be even more involved with it.

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