Posted 3. April 2009, 12:00 by Robert Wilde
Category : Home   Academic developments On one hand in 2007 £25 – 30 billion was spent online in the UK in 2007 (Lawrence and Clark 2007) and suggests that “Almost half of UK shoppers who have bought online now prefer the virtual high street to the real one.â€? This statement accentuates the power that online has to make consumers really active through making purchases the ultimate goal of communication.

Online’s credentials concentrate on participation and empowering consumers through blogs, online communities and consumer generated content, but can online make people active in terms of spending their pennies?

This short article discusses the ability the internet has to make consumers active rather than what we already know with regards to the internet being a brilliant tool for communication and interaction. It discusses the two sides to the discussion with reference to the Long Tail theory and the Leaky Bucket.

Clear evidence for the power of online communities:

Smith and Kollock (2000) identify that “Net surfers don’t ride alone� communities can now be defined not “in terms of physical proximity but in terms of social networks� (Smith and Kollock 2000 p.17) It can be distinguished that “high involvement in virtual community will make people move away from involvement in real life communities� (Smith and Kollock p.181)
Blogs and forums make it possible to review every product before purchase so can strongly affect purchase decision through powerful ‘word of mouse’.

Despite the apparent development of online communities often online fails to actually make people active. I recently conducted a campaign to raise awareness for testicular cancer with a group of fellow students with our Balls to Cancer promotion, it was demonstrated that buzz and awareness was create within the communities that we are present in, but little money was raised for the campaign.

Recently this has happened with the Boycott Costa Coffee campaign which generated a lot of buzz and awareness through utilising social networks, CEMP and e-mail usage however little impact was actually made.

It can be concluded that online provides useful information to users however often does little to effect consumers being active.

Recommendations to make users more active: Flow is: “the process of optimal experience�, Csikszentmiharli (1977, cited by Molesworth, 2006)
The basic concept is that if navigational flow is high on a website, users are more willing to have continued use of the site. Flow can create increased learning, positive subjective experience, a feeling of control and a positive reinforcement (Molesworth 2006)
Rettie 2001 identifies there are inhibitors to creating flow such as waiting for downloads, inappropriate search results, advertising and costs.(cited by Molesworth 2006) Google Adwords can be used to provide accurate search results and specific targeting of adverts can avoid inhibitors to flow.

The leaky bucket can be used to improve flow, the leaky bucket theory suggests that users exit a website at different drop off points, once these points of reviewed they will metaphorically close the holes in the leaky bucket which will make navigation easier and keep users on the website longer to make them active through purchase.

The theory of flow and the leaky bucket accentuate the importance of keeping users on the site to drive them to be active through purchase.

On balance this article draws attention to the ability of online as a communication and interactive platform and suggests with the use of the good navigation around the communication platform users can become active.

Reference

Lawrence, G., Clark, H., 2007. Is the web killing the high street? ESOMAR,
Retail Conference, Valencia,
Available from:
http://www.warc.com/ArticleCenter/Default.asp?CType=A&AID=WORDSEARCH85731&Tab=A

Jones, S.J., 1998. Cybersociety 2.0 revisiting computer-mediated communication and community. Sage: London.

Smith, A.M., Kollock. P,. 2000. Communities in cyberspace. Routledge: London

Molesworth, M. 2006. Lecture 4 Network Navigation: Bournemouth University.