Facebook.com Is Not Important
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Our job is to design for behaviors, not for websites.
(via Faris' Transmedia Presentation)
We need to be careful when we talk about digital media, that we don't get the tools mixed up with the behaviors. Obsessing over the significance of one site over another, or arguing the importance of participating on a site while not even considering what you're going to do when you get there or if it's even the right place, is a waste of time.
Facebook.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are actively building and managing a personal network of relationships that can be accessed at any time via digital technology.
YouTube.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are sharing original videos with other people all over the world at will.
Twitter.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are developing a habit of broadcasting every experience and piece of information that they think might be of interest to their network.
As these tools evolve (and capabilities and uses merge), let's remember that the tools we use aren't as important as the behaviors they create.
(Click for full size image)
(via Faris' Transmedia Presentation)
We need to be careful when we talk about digital media, that we don't get the tools mixed up with the behaviors. Obsessing over the significance of one site over another, or arguing the importance of participating on a site while not even considering what you're going to do when you get there or if it's even the right place, is a waste of time.
Facebook.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are actively building and managing a personal network of relationships that can be accessed at any time via digital technology.
YouTube.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are sharing original videos with other people all over the world at will.
Twitter.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are developing a habit of broadcasting every experience and piece of information that they think might be of interest to their network.
As these tools evolve (and capabilities and uses merge), let's remember that the tools we use aren't as important as the behaviors they create.
6 Comments:
In a similar vein, I tell my clients to consider users not based on the sites they use (e.g., facebook users, twitter users, etc.), but based on the behaviors they exhibit (e.g., blogging, photo sharing, video creation, networking, etc.).
Great piece.
What I have recently found so interesting about this (incredibly) important point is that there's a very large community in our industry that obsesses about user-behavior and how it affects their craft everyday. I'm talking about designers (interaction, experience, IA's, whatever you prefer the prefix to be), YET when it comes to marketing it is something we so rarely think about. And if we do, it usually ends up in a tactic or two (if we're lucky), not in the core of the strategy.
I've been fortunate enough in the past year to be more involved on current project in designing a rich user-experience that is almost completely void of the typical marketing tactics. As a result, it has opened my eyes to just how much we can, WE SHOULD, be applying all the user centric insights that go into designing an intuitive online transaction or crafting a useful piece of site functionality into our marketing plans. Marketing insights have always been part of the process, but they typically only touch the surface of behavior and revolve around things like shopping habits or purchase behavior.
We all give the same reasons why "advertising is broken" based on how the user's behavior is changing, yet so many creative briefs I read still describe the "target" in terms of demographics with a smidge of pyschographics when it's more than likely that the designer down the hall from you has 5 distinct personas hung up on their wall (hopefully) representing the same audience.
Strategists must start thinking like designers and leveraging their tools. It's not just about user-centered design, it's about user-centered marketing as well.
(sorry, i know i'm preaching to the choir, but your post touched a topic that I have been thinking on for some time now. thanks.)
I agree with both of the Michaels above, as well as the one who wrote the post.
For marketers, there is no question that the “user centric insights” themselves are more important than the social media platforms that lend those insights.
I don’t remember who said it, but I remember reading a tweet the other day: “If the 80s were the “me generation” we are currently living in the “Look at me generation.” ” The 3 examples you provided give us an insight to the narcissism epidemic becoming more prevalent every day. Brands should become more concerned with such deeper cultural forces, rather than the miniscule alterations in tactical executions that changes to their platform will make.
Becoming more “user centered” enhances the quality of any psychographic segmentation, in doing so allowing brands to build stronger values connections with their specific target.
Yep good reminder Mike. Nice one
Very, very smart reminder.
That is so true. And so important. Thanks Mike.
Now I have something to refer to when people think I talk about social networks. Because I am not.
I talk about social networking.
Cheers,
steph
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