To Click or Not To Click

Way back in the mid 90’s I was driving home from work and saw something very cool.  A nice luxury car passed me by.  Probably due to the fact that I drive like an old man in the fast lane and believe that traveling 65mph is plenty fast enough.

The cool thing was not that they passed me but that their license plate read “ONLINE”.  I thought to myself, “Wow, that person has the Internet at home.”  A somewhat new form of media/technology that was not mainstream yet, at least not in my world or that of anyone I knew.  It wasn’t long though before everyone I knew, including myself, had an AOL account.  I remember the very first thing I did when I went online for the first time was punch in: www.PinkFloyd.com.  My life was forever changed.

I learned how to use search engines and how to maintain my equipment.  I became quite good at this new technology in a short period of time.  Well, times are changing faster than you could imagine and if you want to stay on top of your game, you need to stay on top of technology.  PC’s and laptops are becoming old school and mobile devices like smartphone’s and tablets are hot.  What is even more interesting is that there is a trend that was not expected unfolding before our eyes, mobile advertising.

It is being reported that click through rates on mobile devices are now passing out those on PC’s and laptops.  I read a story on Smart Brief.com that said:  “The smartphone click-through rate, which measures the number of clicks an ad receives against the number of times the ad is shown, was 1.25% in the fourth quarter of 2011. The rate for tablets was 1.31%. Desktops and laptops came in at 0.95%.” (Woodward)

Very interesting, what does this mean for those of us planning to earn a living in the interactive communication field?  It means we need to understand the reasons consumers are more likely to click an ad on these types of devices.  I could see the day when PC’s and laptops go the way of VCR’s and cassette tapes.  Do people trust the ads on their mobile devices more?  Or is it that they are away from home and ready to shop or make a purchase immediately.  The article also stated that the content on mobile needs to be written “for mobile” meaning shorter and more direct language. 

 

I am not surprised by this trend and since it is so new, there is not even year old data to compare it to.  I am so glad I am getting into this field on the ground floor, maybe someday I will be listed as an innovator in with the ranks of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs….What, it could happen.  We already share a common first name; the rest will just fall into place.

 

To click or not to click?  That is the question.  Our job is to make it happen.

Woodward, Kevin. "Smartphones and tablets best PCs in click-through rates." Internet Retailer. N.p., 26/1/2012. Web. 27 Jan 2012. <http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/01/26/smartphones-and-tablets-best-pcs-click-through-rates>. 



http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/01/26/smartphones-and-tablets-best-pcs-click-through-rates

SOPA NOPA

    Every type of media has one time or another been put under the microscope.  I could remember the record industry being in the spotlight back in 1985.  A group called the PRMC (Parents Resource Music Center) fought to have warnings put on album jackets that contained violent and/or offensive lyrics/subject matter.  This was a form of censorship and I couldn’t help but wonder to myself, who would interpret what was violent or offensive? 

    More recently there is a House Bill called SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) that is trying to censor the Internet by blocking sites that contain copyrighted material.  In the film Good Copy Bad Copy they talk about how the United States does not own the Internet and cannot tell anyone outside of its boarders what to do.  If I had to take a stand on a bill like SOPA I would have to say I was against it in its present form.  If you want to learn a little more on the subject follow this link for comments and an informative video: http://goo.gl/yzkyC 

    I don’t believe its right to block someone from any website that they choose to visit.  The film and music industry has taken a huge hit because of piracy issues.  I think the numbers are a little skewed though.  I think that when they talk about their losses they assume that everyone that downloaded a free song or movie would have done so even if they had to pay for it.  That simply is not true.  Once in a while the hospital I work for has free coffee for anyone that wants a cup.  I could tell you that on those days there are a lot more coffee drinkers just because it is free.  I think the same is true for the music and movie downloader’s.  If it wasn’t free you would see a lot less of it.

    I want everyone to get paid for the work they do but having a bill like SOPA is not the way to go about it.  A great idea that would generate income for the industry was mentioned in the Good Copy Bad Copy movie.  It was a yearly affordable fee to download as much content as you wanted to.  I think this is probably the way to go but we are far from that solution yet.  Face it, we live in the “Wild Wild Web” and anything goes…..for now.