Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

August 11, 2008

Social Media Perspective: Are We What They’re Searching for?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 10:48 am

The Bigger Picture

The Living Web

As I get further on the quest to reconnect with the concrete world, I’ve gained new perspective. I’ve come to see that the problems worth solving are older, more familiar, and more interesting than the problems caused by the Internet.

Social media is important. The participatory culture is changing the very nature of human relationships. But that change is barely a glimpse. It hasn’t happened yet.

A little perspective: In a PEW Internet and American Life Project report released August 6th, Deborah Fallows offered some stunning research that might ground things.

Almost half of all internet users now use search engines on a typical day

PEW Chart of Daily Internet Activities

Email 60%
Online search 49%
Check news 39%
Check weather 30%
Research hobby 29%
Surf web for fun 29%
Visit social networking site 13%

30% of Internet Users are offline on a typical day.

The report explains that searchers are likely to have some college education, incomes over $50K, and are more likely to be men (53%) than women (45%). 58% of those with broadband at home search daily, while only 26% with dial-up search that often. The age ranges breakdown like this:

18 – 29 years 55%
30 – 49 years 54%
50 – 64 years 40%
65 years and older 27%

Explanations are given in the report.

Participation is big in our tiny corner of the Internet it’s not big in every person’s life. The participatory culture is hardly on the radar for most human beings. They’re not near here yet.

Few folks care about another fix for Twitter. Life goes on for most humans without a thought to a dashboard for organizing social networking sites. In the world of human problems, all of social media and social networking issues are a tiny dot.

Social Media Market Problems


Real people still have real problems — the kind that social media folks ALSO have. Social tools and social strategies that solve those problems are worth something.

Meanwhile, real people are searching . . . are we what they’re searching for?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Chart: via PEW, hat tip to Clickz

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15 Comments to “Social Media Perspective: Are We What They’re Searching for?”

  1. August 11th, 2008 at 11:28 am
    Karen Swim said

    Liz, thanks for putting this in perspective. I had a conversation with a fellow marketer about this on Friday. I commented on how many “traditional” marketers don’t know and could care less about “online marketing gurus” and methods and vice versa. Both groups have shared interests and I see value in embracing the whole of marketing implementing ideas and techniques from traditional and new media. To your point, I am always brought back to reality when I go to church, a family gathering or am just in a “regular” group of people. Online to most means search engines, and email!

  2. August 11th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karen,
    I’ll be glad when we quit reliving days gone by when we taught “computer” in the way some are teaching “social media.” Successful folks are using the tools to build businesses and solve problems.

  3. August 11th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
    Nancy Sutherland said

    This is a very informative article. There is so much information right on everyone’s fingertips at any given time. I am amazed that it crosses generations- not really age specific. It’s better than living in a library or having the best set of encylopedias. The search capacity to find anything at all is incredible!

  4. August 11th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
    Keli Whidden said

    Very powerful reminder to look away from the screen once in a while, thanks Liz :)

  5. August 11th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
    lou suSi said

    i wonder how many of the search engine results derived from ‘human problems’ point to social media resources … blogs or other info shared using a social networking site

  6. August 11th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
    Writer Dad said

    We are all at the beginning of something new.

  7. August 12th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
    LaurenMarie - Creative Curio said

    Thanks for the perspective and reminder, Liz. I like what you said in your response to Karen, too, that after the hype dies down, social media will just be another way to connect and get the word out, like the telephone and TV before it.

  8. August 12th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Nancy,
    It’s amazing the information we have access to, isn’t it? Somedays it’s overwhelming.

  9. August 12th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Keli,
    Yeah, once in a while, we have to remember that not everyone is us.

  10. August 12th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi lou suSi,
    I wonder the same thing. :)

  11. August 12th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Yeah, Writer Dad, and we’re pretty full of the infatuation that comes with new things. :)

  12. August 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    LaurenMarie!
    I’m thinking that exactly. Once we get over it as a new thing, we’ll be able to use it as a tool.

  13. August 13th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
    Brent Leary said

    Hi Liz,

    I think many who are entrenched in the social media world forget that the vast majority of people function outside of it.

    Social media tools, strategies and terminologies (blogging, podcasting, twitter, etc.) probably sound crazy and childish to some. But it shouldn’t stop people from exploring how social media can positively impact them. And those entrenched in social media should try to make it easier for “social outsiders” to “get it”. More participation should be better for all of us.

    Thanks for sharing this great information!

  14. August 14th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Brent,
    Once we get done playing with our new toys. We’ll know how to use them to reach out with. I’m sure of it. :)

  15. August 16th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
    When a Hammer Beats a Swiss Army Knife - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] Be the best answer to what they’re searching for. When we need to pound a nail, a hammer beats a Swiss army knife every time. [...]

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