Key excerpt from FEED 2009 Report: "Digital Primacy..connected consumers are the new mainstream"
The New Mainstream
Based on this data, we believe that “connected consumers”—mirroring other industry research studies and the general broadband population in the United States—are shooting the adoption curve when it comes to Internet technologies.
The Technology Adoption Curve
“Connected consumers” are actively engaged with digital media, both at home and on the go, and are personalizing their experiences whenever possible. This type of behavior may sound a lot like your own, actually. That’s not a surprise—but the speed and scale at which such digital fluency is occurring across the U.S. population is. Simply put, “connected consumers” are the new mainstream.
First, always nice to have a good graphic of the adoption curve handy...
Second, it is interesting that the data from Razorfish's FEED report substantiates what has been a "felt" (i.e. anecdotal) reality for me, and likely for you as well:
The mainstream has clearly shifted, the "geeky" interests, tools, and toys are no longer geeky anymore, they are what everyone is using. This has broad implications for this Attention Economy:
If engagement, to sustain attention, is the new key, then it becomes even crazier to want to e.g. hide your content behind a Pay-Wall, as Rupert Murdoch has been proposing. If you disappear from people's "connected" radar screen, you quite simply... disappear.
And if you're thinking, "well Alex, I'm just a small business, how does what Rupert Murdoch doesn't get apply to me?" I'll tell you how it applies.
Far too many coaches, trainers, and experts of all stripes are placing the equivalent of Rupert's Pay-Wall around their best ideas. By trying to charge say $10 or $20 for that eBook or "real book", they ensure that very few people will ever get to find out what they really have to offer.
Because if you're not known already, it becomes that much harder to push someone over that first sale ("is always the hardest") barrier.
Think about it: Someone like @problogger has been in essence giving away great content for years. THAT is what "earns him the right" to charge for extras, i.e. puts him in a place to successfully to ask for $50 for a report, or $x/month for a membership subscription.
It's called: Moving the Freeline... the antidote to Attention Scarcity brought on by the "connected consumer"...
