Rubel's Participation Ladder and my Marketing Project
I am realizing that my whole team will have to remember that ~52% of the population are "inactive" online as we pursue our marketing project, a website that connects citizens to their elected representatives. It's all well and good to give citizens the opportunity to connect to their reps, but at least by Rubel's calculations, we're starting with an absolute maximum market of just 48% of the population. Kind of sad. Kind of not surprising. Definitely important to keep in mind as we move forward.
October 27, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Right. So easy to forget we are not exactly part of the whole world out here in the blogotwittersphere. As Frank Lopez pointed out last night, the real cost of reaching people on the net has come down essentially to time and talent. Which I find pretty heady. But what about reaching that 52% who can not/do not participate with us? Who are they, and what are we missing by not having them at the table? I'd love to know how the demographics slice out. Is it more often a matter of age? Of class? Of economics? Is it a kind of fierce identity line like the one demonstrated between users of Facebook and MySpace? I love the idea behind your project and look forward to seeing how you gain traction on these questions.
November 14, 2009 at 6:44 PM
It is rough that only 48% of the market have access but remember that 48% is still a lot of people. I wonder based on these statics on what medium would or could reach more people? Are we attacking the right platforms to get our messages out? Bonnie asks some great questions on who are these people and the demographics. You at least have a great starting point and can now measure the results based on these statistics.