The internet is used for discovery, when we are not actively seeking for a specific piece of information; we often just browse, looking for nothing in particular.
We end up on a page that is seemingly random, but in a world run by algorithms, is there really such a thing as ?random?, even in a loose and unscientific sense? Every added product to a basket is usually part of a much larger pattern of online activity.
Maybe you were channelled through Facebook, maybe from an email campaign.
Social Discovery And Sharing
The discovery of information is a rewarding process, a process that has been encouraged and reinforced by social media sites. If you share a webpage on a social network and you get a reaction from within the network, you feel a sense of reward. This drives marketers to create amazing footage and advertising campaigns that are worthy of sharing.
There are many websites that attempt to create an artificial sense of serendipity, the closest in my opinion being StumbleUpon. A custom filter that brings up web pages based on a number of criteria and what other people have browsed. This is of course not true serendipity, rather relying on interests to bypass your normal ritual of searching for content on your favourite sites.
Another example is YouTube and its links that bring up an endless stream of content related to what you were watching. A good way to discover some more interesting videos, but still very much a path governed by multiple choice.
Is There Luck In Finding Good Content Anymore?
Eric Schmidt CEO of Google had an interesting comment on the autonomy of search that he shared with the Wall Street Journal. ?We?re still happy to be in search, believe me. But one idea is that more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type.?
So are search engines telling us where we should be going even before we do? Or are they presenting us with a more clearly defined and relevant set of results that are likely to lead us to that useful piece of information?
SEOMOZ describe serendipity online as ?The finding of something useful when looking for something else?. Of course, this ?something useful? may be information, but it is also likely to be a product or service such as a local restaurant for example.
Finding That Perfect Restaurant
Your search for a restaurant is tailored (for better or worse) on a number of external variables. Whether your results are prioritised by places that you have visited before, or by your physical proximity to a location, searching is smart so you don?t have to be.
Google + has recently transformed all 80 million+ places listings into their own Google + pages to further enhance the possibility of your social network influencing your search results.
Strategy Internet Marketing discuss this evolution of Google + social search in their blog. By Google places listings combining with your Google + social network, you may see restaurants in you search that friends have visited.
A More Natural Experience
Are there benefits to making you think that you have found a website, rather than having a path laid out for you to follow?
One major area that this serendipity could be applied to is marketing. A common view of advertising is that it is being ?shoved down our throats?.
We are much less likely to have this viewpoint if we are ?discovering? the information ourselves. The whole experience is much more unobtrusive, and we are more likely to be receptive to pleas to open our wallets (or swipe our NFC devices).
Every Customer Treated Individually
As a customer we want to be valued by a brand. We are buying into a lifestyle and we want to be treated as an individual. The dominant emerging strategy that allows for a brand to connect with its customers on an individual level is of course social media.
Social could yet be the last piece of the puzzle for this faux organic feeling, with Facebook, Google+ and other services being a rich source of information for advertisers to aim their products at a targeted audience.
By appealing to the social aspect of marketing, using competitions and other media content, brands are connecting to an audience directly and eliminating the need for an audience to search altogether. Finding a product or brands homepage via a friend through shared media is beginning to replace a chance search through Google.
The thing about this new form of serendipity is that it?s much more under the control of the person sharing (the marketer) than it is under the control of the audience ? and yet it feels as though the audience has more control.
Luck might well be dead. Long live Luck 2.0!
dont trust the b in apartment 23 johnny damon kirk cameron news 10 hillary rosen j.k. rowling j.k. rowling
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন