According to the United States Census Bureau, in 1984, the proportion of households with a computer was 8 percent. In 2001, that number went up to 56 percent. Then in 2003, it was reported that approximately 70 million American households (or 62%) had one OR MORE computers. Data collected also shows that during that time, Internet usage didn’t really come into play until 1997 with about 18% of American households using it. by 2003, the number of households using the Internet had almost tripled since 1997.

Not everyone uses computers, however. Despite the increased popularity of owning a computer and/or using the Internet, it was discovered that 35% of households with people ages 65 and older did not have computers/Internet access. Also, 45% of Black or Hispanic households did not have it either, while another 28% of households with people who had less than a high school education didn’t have computers/Internet access.

In 2003, 45% of households did not have Internet access at home. The three most common reasons as to why this was so included:

• “We don’t need it and/or not interested.” (appx. 39%)
• “It costs too much and/or I don’t have a computer.” (appx. 23%)
• “We have access to the Internet elsewhere.” (appx. 2%)

There is also the thought among many parents that they do not want access to the Internet for fear that their children will use it inappropriately. Interestingly enough, there is a correlation of disinterest in the internet with age. Of the 20 million household members that the U.S. Census Bureau interviewed, who stated that they weren’t interested in the Internet, over 60% were 55 years of age or older.

Overall, the results show that the Internet has become a valuable source of news and communication. For example, there are statistics which show that more people send emails versus talk on the phone or text message. Additonally, the Internet has become a valuable economic tool with more Americans looking for jobs, shopping and selling things online, and it’s continuing to grow! For more information about Internet marketing, visit Create Business Growth.

Tags: Using Technology, Time Management, Social Networking by Janelle - 2 Comments »

When you want someone to do something for you, how do you get them to do it?  You persuade them.  Persuasion, according to Wikipedia, is a form of social influence. It guides people towards the adoption of an idea or action by rational and symbolic means.  It is a problem-solving strategy that relies more on “appeal” versus strength.  Persuasion is quite different from the commonly confused “manipulation,” which is an extreme form of persuasion in which only one person benefits at the cost of another. 

How Persuasion is Achieved

There are several different methods of trying to persuade someone.  Usually these approaches are made by appealing to the following:

1. Appeal to Reason (ex: logic, rhetoric, scientific)
2. Appeal to Emotion (ex: advertising, faith, pity)
3. Aids to Persuasion (ex: body language, sales techniques, personality tests)
4. Coercive Techniques (ex: brainwashing, coercive techniques, mind control, torture)
5. Seduction
6. Other (deception, hypnosis, subliminal advertising)

Using Persuasive Technology in Internet Marketing

Persuasion isn’t about selling.  Persuasion isn’t about getting someone to do something for you.  At the heart of it all, persuasion is about communication.  It’s about reaching a shared understanding.  In the wonderful world of web marketing, persuasive technology combines traditional views of persuasion with modern technology in order to persuade a user to do something.  That “something” can range from anything such as buying a product to playing a game.  In order for persuasive technology to work, a web site has to be geared towards persuading a possible consumer.  This will only work if you have persuasive design, structure and copywriting.  If all of these things work together, then the effectiveness of the website will have a bigger impact on consumers.

Again, the main source of success stems from a general, shared understanding of what the consumer’s needs are.  By understanding what those needs are in conjunction with the business goals of that particular company, you can persuade an Internet user to go where you want them to go without being misleading- which will make both parties happy.

Tags: Using Technology, Internet Marketing by Janelle - 4 Comments »

A post on SEOish brought to my attention a new buzz monitor tool called Serph, a search engine designed to reveal who’s talking about you on the internet, so I decided to investigate.

While the results were significantly less than doing a search in Google (19 vs 39,700), like SEOish points out from his own experiment, I found a couple of mentions of that I wasn’t previously aware of. Another bonus is that they are arranged by date order.

The results were somewhat interesting, but I was still curious about huge discrepancy in the number of results. What were the other 39,681 results that Google found? Many of the Google results were self published articles and press releases. Interesting, but not useful when trying to find out about your buzz factor on the internet so I went in search of a happy medium and found that Google’s blog search feature offered similar types results to that of Serph, but more of them.

Though Google’s Blog search doesn’t order results by date as Serph does, you can define date parameters on the right hand side of the results page.

Both of these are easy and quick enough that they are both worth checking out. Discovering who’s talking about you and why, can open the door to business building and partnership ideas that you may not have previously considered.

Tags: Using Technology, General Business Issues, Internet Marketing by Adam - 5 Comments »

We use Camtasia Studio to create flash based video/audio tutorials. It’s a great program that will allow you to record your own screen activity and audio at the same time. There are multiple formats to choose from when it comes time to saving your work. The TechSmith website has some great additional information about this fantastic product which will also allow you to record audio only or even a web cam.

FYI, the links to TechSmith are not affiliate links. We use Camtasia and love it. Create Business Growth is a full disclosure blog. We WILL never plug something that we don’t believe in.

Tags: Using Technology by David - 2 Comments »