January 29, 2008 | Tuesday
The “Google generation” and marketers’ side of the conversation
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in Marketing |Search Engines |Google |Search Research |Social Media
The British Library recently published the results of their study of the “Google generation”. This research looked at those who were born after 1993 and have never known a world without Google, to see how much better they were at using search engines for research than those who are older. What they found may surprise you.
It turns out that the Oldie McWrinklesons of the world are just as good at using search engines as young whippersnappers are. So much for the idea of a “Google generation” that is fresh-faced and still has all its hair. It seems that the skills of rapidly processing the information found via search are prevalent in people of all ages.
What I’d quibble with is how the British Library interpreted these findings.
Their take on it is that this proves that society has been “dumbed down” - that people of all generations are now programmed to focus on bite-sized chunks of data for a few seconds and then keep going to the next bit of information.
The fact is that taking in a large amount of data, scanning it for relevance, and then getting more granular where appropriate is a pretty useful skill.
For example, a friend of mine who is a board member at one of the UK’s largest companies (and thus quite pressed for time) reads non-fiction books this way. He first does a quick perusal to see if it seems worth delving into more deeply. If it does, he reads it more thoroughly. Then, if the book is good enough, he reads and takes notes on it at the same time. This seems like a more time-consuming process until you realise that he is discarding a lot of books after the first skim, moving on to more deeply explore ones that are more relevant and useful to him.
Another point that seems to have escaped the British Library researchers is that there is more to finding the right information online than merely running a keyword search. People who are older just have more experience doing research, in general, and so it’s not that shocking to find that their skills with search engines are on a par with those who are younger.
What is worth noting is that the study also showed that people trust personal recommendations more than they do search results. This is not surprising either - until every search engine’s algorithm is perfect and every site’s SEO flawless, bad results are going to come up from time to time. Also, it is natural to feel that a person recommending something to us has more incentive to steer us in the right direction than a computer does.
Marketers will take from this that the most powerful combination possible is that of stellar search results and excellent referrals from existing customers. Many will spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how to game the system and create the illusion that no one can fault their brand - time and energy that would be better spent figuring out how to provide the best possible value to customers.
“Well, I’m the marketing person, not product development,” you might say. This is just another forceful argument for tearing down the silos inherent in most businesses, so that customer feeedback via marketing makes its way to the product development team. It’s another endorsement for the idea of having a conversation - through social media or whatever means - with customers. Most importantly, it’s further proof that companies must be even more willing to listen to customers than they are to talk to them.
Because, really, does producing a good, ever-improving product go down badly with any generation?
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