Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

It’s been floating about for just over 2 weeks now, but in case you haven’t heard about it, here’s a 16 page PDF that culminates digital and device usage studies from users 15 to 56 years old in 11 countries. Complete with attractive and intelligent looking stock photos of people looking inquisitively off into what we presume to be the far reaches of the internet, Living With The Internet: A Global Study of What’s Driving Web Behavior was released on June 2nd. The document confirms everything we at Engine Digital already knew (wink, wink). A joint venture between Microsoft, MEC, and Mindshare, the study’s findings highlight behavioral shifts in internet and device usage when compared to a similar investigation that was conducted in 2007.

A key point of the deck validates and quantifies our behavior online, or at least mine anyway; we’re using the internet in a cyclical manner. We start our sessions in what the study calls the “Personal Zone.” This is email and social sites like Facebook, etc. Then we begin to wander out into the “Public Zone.”

An example: you open your browser, you check your email, nothing doing, so you go to Facebook and run into a photo of your friend sporting some new sneakers. This might prompt a reminder that you too need some new traction on your toes. So you wind up on a couple sneaker blogs, read some reviews, pop by Adidas and maybe make a purchase. Then you complete the cycle and return to Facebook and email, but now your in your Picasa photo library, where you see a photo of you and your significant other. Romance ensues and you decide to send them flowers. Off to the public zone and www.flowers.com! It begins all over again with a return to email; still nothing! (When will something happen?!) Basically it repeats in scenarios like this one, all day long, forever… and ever. I should also mention there is a lot of work getting done during this time, but it’s in the circle too.

Despite the above, our sessions are still based on offline experiences, says the PDF, just less so. And although this wind storm of cyclical surfing might seem aimless, our sessions compared to 2007 are more intuitive and focused (you know you’re looking for shoes, and you know just where to go to get the ones you want. You’re on a mission.) The study supports a focused, digital user with a method to their madness. Don’t forget that in addition to working and running your browser around in circles, there are the conversations you’re hosting in six different IM windows and the entire Motley Crue catalogue you downloaded from a Torrent in 10 seconds that iTunes is playing. This is your life, on the net, as outlined by Microsoft and Co.

Now, this isn’t necessarily the way we all live our lives digitally, but it does represent a lot of us, and in light of this study the numbers are continuing to grow. Let this be a reminder, ad people! For contextual relevance. Our strategies need to take into account the behavior models outlined here and be even more strategically composed than they already are.

This study will help you understand that sort of thing. It may even help you with some new ways in which you can plant ideas in peoples minds and of course control them! Or at least win an award or two.

Now for the goods. Hopefully you were able to stay on the page long enough to get to the link.

DOWNLOAD: Living With The Internet: A Global Study of What’s Driving Web Behavior (PDF)

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