MediaJoltz

So before a seminar or presentation you normally find me scouring the Internet for information about podcasting, blogging or new media in general, so I can tout what is going on and why people need to be a part of something big.

Recent discussions though, have led me to look at those statistics more carefully. In my research I have found that while it seems to be growing, we who are of the “new media” space are a very, very small number.

According to Internet World Stats Website there are 6,574,666,417 people in the world today and 1,244,449,601 people have internet access. Normally I say take a look at this stat and tell me if your company is doing something to reach that amount of people who have internet access. But today I ask you, did you realize that only about 19% of the world has internet access?

Here are some stats and the websites I found the stats on the popular applications people are using:

There are 506,331 users of twitter as of Oct 11th 2007, according to http://www.twitdir.com/. Out of those how many are actually active is still unknown. And only 506K when there are more than a billion people who have access to the internet is not that many.
34 million active members worldwide are using Facebook according to the Wikipedia article on Facebook. Once again I would normally say something like “34 million people, how would you like even a piece of those people to become your friends and get on your mailing list,” or something like that. And yet 34 million is still comparatively small.

Now for something thats still very new, we turn to Second Life. According to the description on their webpage only 9,980,489 people logged into Second Life within the last 60 days.

Noticed how I said only. Believe me, when talking to those outside the fishbowl, I normally talk in an excited voice and act like this is huge! But to those of us in it, how many new people do you continue to talk to on a regular basis, compared to the “handful” of regulars?

If you go to the Pew internet Research Company and type blogging in the search function you get a list of different reports. Report number one and six specifically drew my interest:

From these reports you will find these stats:

Eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirty-nine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs – a significant increase since the fall of 2005.

Only 8% keep and 39% read a blog. So if you are reading or writing or doing both, boy are you leaps and bounds above more than half of the population of the U.S. Makes you feel special and lonely all at the same time, huh?

44% of adult American Internet users – more than 53 million people – have contributed material to the online world. Content creation in our definition includes creating a Web site, posting material to another Web site for work, family or another organization, posting materials to a personal or another person’s Weblog or online diary. It also includes posting photos, artwork, writing, or audio and video files to the World Wide Web, to a chat room or discussion or newsgroup. The average number of content creating activities for a content creator is relatively small – 1.7 activities – and that suggests the most Internet users are content for now to find a small number of ways to make their contribution.

This stat is the one that got me. “Content Creation” meaning doing pretty much anything to add to the internet, including creating a website-and only 44% of American Internet Users have done this? Way to go those of you who have bravely gone this far!

Some 13% of Internet users have their own Web site. Most do not refresh the material on their site very often: 10% of Web site owners post to their sites daily or more often, but the plurality (42%) update their site once a month or less often.

Okay, for those 13% of you who have a website, lesson to learn-the people who are online are dynamic. Unless you provide fresh material, they have no reason to come back.
I know that stats are not the end all, and there are so many reports that contradict each other, but come on, we have to understand that no matter what the stats say, 9 million or 20 million, the fishbowl is still very small.

I really like what Tom Webster Vice President of Edison Media Research has to say in his analysis: New Podcasting Statistic-Is the Glass Half-Full, or Half Empty? and encourage you to read the whole thing. One comment he makes I have heard myself in my podcasting seminars:

“Though long-time podcasters are tired of hearing this, and probably rejected it two years ago, there is no question that a good chunk of people who might otherwise be interested in podcasts believe that an MP3 player (and, specifically, an iPod) is required to listen.”

I don’t know how many times people have said in seminars, “but I don’t have an iPod.”   It really is amazing.

So what we need to do to help is make new media easy for the non-tech person to access it. Don’t start talking about how they can subscribe to your podcast through an RSS that automatically downloads the episode to their computer through an aggregator… you’ve lost them already! Tell them to go to the website and hit play to listen to your new show, or to read an article you wrote.

Stop talking about podcasting, blogging and new media like it is some foreign thing that only you understand and start talking about your show, or journal-use words people understand, make it simple.

Wow, C.C. Chapman is talking today on his podcast Managing the Gray about how to break out of the fishbowl and stop having conversations with the same people online. At least the title of his podcast episode is called New Clients and Breaking Fishbowls.

So CC says we need to break the proverbial fishbowl and let it crash to pieces so we can just simply get a bigger fishbowl.
So what are you doing to break out of the “echo chamber?” Are you talking to friends and family about what is going on? Do they understand? Does it take more than a casual conversation for them to understand?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now since I was called in to help some friends create a better online presence for their conference-The Wasatch Business Conference. But you see, the people who have been attracted to this conference are not ones who spend much of their time on the Internet. I was told we need to teach them the importance of the online world. This is right within my realm of work-helping business owners create an online presence that kicks butt. The problem is, is that I have found, at least in my area, that the learning curve for those who aren’t ready to be taken into the online world, is VERY high right now. I have narrowed my target audience to those who are interested in learning the importance-not those who really don’t know or care.

Take my mother for instance, the one who is scared of mechanical pencils. Is she someone who belongs online, does she deserve the careful continuous education, even though I don’t think she’ll ever get it? And no, I’m not slacking on teaching her because I’m afraid she’ll read my post about her being scared of mechanical pencils…

Seriously though, are there people like that out there you are working with-are you going to continue educating them or is it time to move on to someone else? How do you know it is time to move on?

Photo provided by www.ellie-miller.com/fishbowl.jpg

From my post yesterday about what you would do if the internet went down, I found another topic to discuss: Online relationships, how are they different from real life relationships?

Max Web made a comment on my blog about how being online has impeded our social skills because now we are so use to “friending” and “unfriending”. He made a really good point stating:

“I think we have avoided or even ditched, “real life” relationships in some ways because of the ease of Internet relations… if I don’t like you on the internet, it’s not too hard to “un-friend” you, but if I screw up my relationship with a neighbor, what do I do, move? The Internet has been the greatest invention for social slackers, it allows us to have great people we might never meet or relate to in real life, as “friends.”

But for some people, being online has helped them go out of their comfort zones. Where in real life they would never approach someone and start talking to them, online they are a popular social bug. But then again, what happens when there is a meet-up? I felt that at the PME where I suddenly got scared that people wouldn’t like me in real life. But I’m the same in real life as I am online, at least I think I am. I have no trouble approaching people in both situations, but that’s me. I know of others who are online who are not as outgoing in real life-but they are comfortable with this almost alter ego online.

Max brought up another good point- are the people you are connecting to online, the same type of people you would hang out with and be friends with in real life? That’s an awesome question. At the PME I overheard a conversation about how there are some people that get on this group’s nerves. I sat there thinking, why are you connected to them then? Well, its because this group saw that there was value in these people’s knowledge. Would any from the group actually hang out and be friends with these people in real life? Probably not.

Do you feel a little more free about whom you connect to online? How many people are you connected to simply because they share good knowledge, vs. those you really would want to be friends with?

Cammon made a comment about how he likes relationships online because he can talk on his own time.

“It’s easy for me because I have the time to connect with people on my own schedule. It’s hard for our neighbors to all get together because we all have different free time. So staying connected with someone online is not hampered as much by time, it’s easy to write a quick note or post a video and you stay connected.”

I bet a lot of us feel that way. We’ve even got voicemail on Facebook! Now I have to be careful because Cammon is my husband, but, playing devils advocate, why not leave a note on your neighbor’s door? Is that not like an email? You are giving them a message that you are thinking of them, they don’t get it until they are ready for it. Why are we so against direct contact?

Are these skills that we are learning online, hurting or helping our real life social skills? Are they making us more lazy, or are they providing us with an extra means to make more friends. Those you are connecting to, online, do you really consider each one a friend? If not, why?

(a note about the comments-my php friend will be fixing the black text on gray box problem tonight!)

What if the Internet crashes?  And I don’t just mean for a day or two.  What if for some bizarre reason, the Internet one day just doesn’t exist.

Let me take a step back.  This post was inspired by a conversation I had with Chris Brogan yesterday, so the original thought comes directly from him.  But he asked a question that got me thinking deeper.  What if Facebook just crashed one day?  Would you be okay with that?  Would you still be able to keep in touch with the friends/clients  you have made?

And so my mind started turning and the topic got more and more exciting for me.  Just think about it.  I remember when not TOO long ago :0)  I was only allowed to carry a cell phone with me when I ventured the two hours it took to get to my softball travel team practice.  Now, I can’t leave home without it-I don’t even have a landline!

Dave Delaney from Two Boobs and a Baby +  recorded a video about how he felt when twitter went down for maintenance.  At the Podcast and New Media Expo-I went a whole day without being able to get on the internet from my computer, but I was okay because I had the web on my phone/pda.

We are so dependent on the Internet for connections, are we ignoring vital face to face connections that can also help our company, home and lifestyle?

I belong to several networking groups in my local community and I remember at one lunch the director said “I want to make sure you develop deep relationships with the people of this community such that if we close our doors tomorrow and never have another event again, you have no problem continuing those relationships without us.”

So what if the Internet crashed?  Where are all your relationships? Are you speaking to all of your customers through one medium?  If the Internet crashed would you still be able to talk with them?

What if we are talking about a single application like Facebook, or email-what if your customers stopped using an application-are you able to talk to them through another way?  Are you everywhere you ought to be?

What about personally? Do you have people you can turn to right in your own neighborhood?  Do you even know your neighbors?  Not that I’m promoting solicitation in church, but do your fellow friends at church even know what you do?  Why not?

How about the friends you know online.  Do you have a way to get in touch with them?  Do they know how to get in touch with you?  Is it all simply Internet based or have you taken that online relationship and made it real through mail or through the phone?  I’m not saying to broadcast your phone number out to everyone, but those you really are connecting with, what are you doing to make sure there is an ongoing dialogue no matter what.

Are you mixing the medium and/or crossing platforms?

Hey so I apologize for not writing, thought I would have time during the Podcast and New Media Conference I went to, to put up posts, but turns out I had such good time hanging with people I’ve been talking to that I burned out by the night. But lets jump right into some meat for you guys to read:

One of the classes I went to helped me to realize something that I learned about myself and my blog. The class was “10 Secret Habits to Podcast Stardom” taught by Franklin McMahon of Franklin McMahon Studio.

What we need to remember is that habits need to be practiced over and over again-so APPLY THEM!! Its not going to be easy, and it is very repetitious, but that’s what makes the difference between succeeding and failing.

I really liked the fact that he brought up the fact that we need to get out of the bubble. I believe Chris Brogan put it: “get out of the fishbowl.” You can read his first posts about this topic here Extend the conversation and 5 ways to extend the conversation.

When you are talking about podcasting with those not familiar with the term, you can very easily scare them off by talking about podcasting and RSS and subscribtion and iTunes. To get someone easily connecting to your show, just tell them you have created a show, send them to your website and make sure you have an easy website that has a play button for them to watch/listen right away.

So for an example instead of saying-“Hey I’ve got a podcast on surfing that is really cool because you can subscribe to it and the code in the subscription will let your computer know when a new episode has been uploaded blah blah blah,” make it about the show.
Say “Hey I’ve got a show that’s about surfing. It gives tips and tricks on how to do some of the most awesome moves-AND some ideas on how to make sure you keep your board in the best shape it can be.”

And don’t just think about new media marketing for your show, you can do press releases, tv and radio interviews. We do need to keep in touch with each other, but we also need to be doing our part to help others understand this technology.

I wanted today to add some of my thoughts. The podcast and new media expo 2007 was my first “new media” conference you could say and I learned a lot. One of the main things I realized (and it was in this class) that those of you reading this blog, probably aren’t my target audience. I’ve been worried that I haven’t been posting good things and that’s why I haven’t hit 30K downloads a month. But, my target audience is probably not reading blogs-beacause they don’t know how.

Those who are my target audience need me to help them get set up online. They are businessmen and women who already have a website but want to do more because they understand the importance of online relationships-but don’t know how to start.

What am I going to do about it? Well I came up with a few ideas and one of those is to start having more seminars. I want to tell people about this technology, I want to make more friends online and I know of so many people who would benefit from making friends with some of the people I know-I want to share it with everyone. So seminars it is-and heck, maybe I’ll get into the speaker/presentation arena. I got a great friend named Laura who consults on presentations. Her company Pistachio Consulting is “helping lots of presentations suck less.” I think I’ll give her a call.

But I also wanted to throw out there a thank you to those of you who are reading my blog as my support group even if you aren’t learning something new everyday.