The Technology Toe Test

I probably didn't explain in my original post why I've created this blog: it's one of our technology assignments. For marks. (No capitals here, you'll notice...but this doesn't mean I 'm not shouting).

We’re required to comment each week on aspects of PR & Technology, but my fellow students, mean age 23 (see that, Derek?), have forgotten more about technology than I’m likely ever to know. Which means the smart move is to leave the more informed, expert critiquing of the subject to them.

I’ve decided my blog’s usp will be to comment on PR & Technology but, from an over-50s perspective. (Strategic approach to study, Derek!) And if this sounds a bit one-foot-in-the-grave’ish, trust me, I ain’t dead yet.

Au contraire, stumbling around the technological maze is proving to be a gob-smacking adventure and, whilst the resulting information overload can be an uncomfortable experience, it beats the hell out of thinking I know everything – which really would be one-foot-in-the-grave territory. Instead, here I am, dipping a toe in the technology pool.

Hackers

So what have I learned this week? Well, I want to thank Manuel Castells (The Internet Galaxy) for changing my view of hackers – which I now realise owed more to reading of the red tops: ‘Hackers sabotage world bank accounts…steal nuclear secrets…create airline chaos’ than it did to reality.

They’re bloody heroes! Brilliant, dedicated, passionate, sharing and co-operative – eschewing financial reward in favour of peer group recognition and embarrassing governments and corporations who aren’t entirely sold on the principle of free speech. Goooo, hackers! (You think this is a simplistic view of hackers? Give me a break – I’m still in my technology honeymoon period.)

Second Life

Moving right along, I step, all unsuspecting, into Second Life. Until this week, I’d assumed that ‘The Matrix’ had been a magnificent figment of some writer’s wild imagination. Now I realise he was just taking the whole virtual world scenario to its logical conclusion, with thousands, possibly millions of individuals permanently logged on and loving it, in a non-existent life.

My first 30 minutes of trawling through SL related websites proved a surreal experience, mostly because high-profile businesses in the real world are fighting for entry visas and some now hold their business meetings in that virtual environment…while posing as nurses and crocodiles. (You couldn’t make it up.)

SL is presently virtually inhabited by 4.5 million people worldwide, who are represented in that world by their personally created alter-egos or ‘avatars’. The residents own the rights to their digital creations, so they can buy, sell and trade with other residents. They can also have sex with other residents (some of whom aren’t even human) any time and anywhere they fancy. Blue Peter it ain’t.

It seems there are lots of great careers to be had in SL; you can be a party or wedding planner, a tattooist, an aerospace engineer, a private detective or a hug maker (don’t ask). And there’s money in that there hugging.

Now for the scary bit. SL has its own currency – The Linden dollar – which can be converted into US dollars at online Linden dollar exchanges. Already, the website supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions – and when a whole 16 acre island can be theirs for just $1,675 and monthly island maintenance is a paltry $295, you can see why SLrs are keen to part with their money. (Did I just type that? Am I going mad?)

Can I see the potential for PR with this technology? Only entirely. When people are willing to buy non-existent islands with real money and blokes murder each other in the real world because of some jealous love triangle that unfolded in SL over a sexy female avatar (whose real-world self is probably a six foot, hairy, knuckle-dragging car mechanic) I can only think this is very fertile ground for any PR who has a message to diffuse and who wants to engage directly with stakeholders. The trick, I guess, will be identifying your publics, since most of Second Life’s inhabitants are working hard to be anyone, or anything, rather than themselves.

Social Media

Removing my docking arm from my portal…I take a little peek (and possibly a poke) at the whirlwind that is Social Media. For a chilling moment, I’m convinced that everything I’m presently striving to learn about PR has become somehow redundant, as I read scathing attacks on the more traditional aspects of this profession. With consummate timing, Derek cautions us that anyone who tells us PR is dead, long live Internet PR…is probably trying to sell us something. Oh…you are so, so right, Derek. For more, read my next post.

Class Act

That’s the PR and Technology bit sorted (marks, please!). I started this blog by describing University life for the mature missus and I think that’s worth continuing…

We’re asked to come armed with cameras to take pictures for our blog. I keep my camera under wraps until the last moment. It’s about 25cms long by 15cms high and it weighs about half a kilo, so you can understand my embarrassment.

But hey – it’s digital. And it’s got a real spider trapped in the viewfinder; so eat your heart out. Actually, the ‘spider’ is, I suspect, a cat flea. But since the girlies in class are already yelping about the spider monster, I feel the flea thing is ‘way too much information.

‘Amazing – it’s got its own hard disk’, says Derek, waving an After-Eight sized wafer in the air. ‘That would once have cost around five hundred quid and I used to seriously desire one’ he adds, popping said disk back into my Canon. ‘Of course, it’s obsolete now.’ How to make a girl feel good….

Hello, Photoshop. Of course I knew it existed. I’d just never used it before. Picture rezising, optimising, gifs and Jpegs. Anything, everything you see on screen, can be copied. So excited that night, I can hardly sleep.

Not nearly so excited by Sampling; and as for Statistics….I know there are people out there who think Public Relations is all about arranging parties and other glam events. There is nothing glam about statistics and quantitative data analysis and nothing sexy about SPSS for Windows. The combination is creating a head-mash of the most serious sort for this particular wannabe PR. I check out the next lecture. Inferential Statistics. Oooh, now I really am all anticipation.

Techno Go-Slow

Back on the subject (make that a rant) of technology and the over-50s…I think this is an issue that either wannabe or already-are PRs should be climbing all over the back of. I mean, when you’ve got a great story to tell or a neat product to sell – or even if you just want to rattle a few cages – it seems crazy to miss out on a whole sector of your potential market or audience.

But galloping technology has brought with it a new kind of social exclusion and ‘othered’ those of us who are quaint enough to just want to use a mobile to make a call, don’t care about the ring tones and feel no desire to take pics of each other’s asses with our natty little built in cameras, while waiting at the bus stop. Sadly, we lack the genetically modified texting thumb. And it would help if we could see the bloody keypads.

It’s great that society’s knee-deep in endless ways to ease speedy and global communication. But with few exceptions, Public Relations and Marketing efforts centre on the teens and twenties, with a vague nod in the general direction of the still-under-30 brigade.

If that's your target audience, cool. But if your message is meant for the rest of us – and you’ve factored us into your financials – then you need to know that the majority of viral emails, blogs and forums are written in a somewhat 'exclusive' fashion and provoke an active response from only a brave few silver surfers.

In the UK at least (and actually through most of Europe and North America) ours is an aging population. We’re part of an aging market. So I’d say that bringing us on board with bespoke technology and relevant websites which speak our language is the smart way to go. That’s if you want our vote, our buy-in, our attention, our permission, our agreement, our support… or our money? Mmmm – thought so.

A trawl through WARC (World Advertising Research Center) uncovered Robert Diamond, founder and MD of marketing consultancy group, Diametric. In the autumn of 2003, he gave the industry a heads-up regarding the punter power of the silver fox. His article 'Why fmcg marketers need to wake up to older consumers' in Market Leader, Issue 22 was revealing, as he reported that over-50s were the single largest demographic group online, visiting more sites more often and for longer.

Diamond stated that, within this group, usage varied greatly by demographic: 61% of ABs were online (averaging 10 hours usage/month), compared with 51% C1, 29% C2, 12% D. Email click-through for over-50s was also higher than average (8%10% vs. 3%5%).

Although they represented 25% of the UK online population, research showed older people were slower and less accurate in navigating the web. This is partly due to the physical deterioration that accompanies growing older; decline in short-term memory, failing eyesight and problems with precision movement. It doesn't help that many older people have spent most of their working lives without computers and the internet, resulting in a lack of direct experience and the instinctive understanding of how the technology works. Mindful of this, Diamond's forecast when he wrote the article was that by now, Europe was likely to have around eight million new internet users with sight and physical dexterity conditions

Diamond insisted that websites could be made much more user-friendly for this age group and much of the supporting research comes from academia and from those working to improve websites for people with disabilities. Neither of these groups has much visibility with commercial web designers, whose only concession toward over-50s is to use a bigger font size. He suggested that Marketers who are serious about attracting more mature surfers, should take note of the information contained in '50+ Interactive Marketing' by Dick Stroud, www.50plus.blogspot.com and concentrate on the following four areas:

1. Navigation structure...The website's navigation is the most important element to get right and is where most mistakes occur. Most older web users prefer using 'goal-centred' navigation, which anticipates the user's questions and provides a simple way for them to get the answers. All too often the navigation reflects the structure and priorities of the company, rather than its potential customers.

Other examples of poor navigation include:

• Making it difficult for the user to return to the home page
• Having multiple navigation styles throughout the site
• Forcing the user to scroll through long pages of text

2. Design elements

The text font, colour scheme and level of animation have a significant influence on a website's ease of use. They must make the site easy to see, fast to load and relaxing to use.

The use of animation can annoy and distract users, especially if it is slow to load and requires their PC to have a special software program. Above all, ensure the combination of the design elements works on the PC and internet configuration of the website user. Many over50s web users have the latest PCs and fastest broadband connections, but many do not.

Older web users prefer fast loading, simple and uncluttered websites.

3. Use of language and imagery

The site must assume the user has a minimal knowledge of the internet.

The language and imagery of the site must be suitable for an older person. For example, does the language of the website convey a 'value system' more appropriate to a younger generation?

The language of the website must be understandable and relevant.

Avoid:

• Words that are specific to the company/industry but mean nothing to the site's user
• Too many sales messages and too little factual information in the website copy
• Writing suited to the annual report but not a website

4. Functionality

'Search', 'shopping basket', 'registration', 'purchase product' are innocent and simple features that appear on countless websites. If they are badly implemented they will result in users 'clicking away' in frustration.

There is no substitute for having these features extensively tested - not by your web designers or people in your company, but by potential users of the site. Fortunately, there is a wealth of 'good practice' guidelines to help in the testing process. The trick is making sure they are used.From an edited version of '50+ Interactive Marketing' by Dick Stroud, www.50plus.blogspot.com

Wherever they are right now, I hope Dick Stroud and Robert Diamond are still banging on about the untapped potential of silver surfers because we need them in our corner. We may be a tad technophobic but we're on message...it just takes us a little longer to decode. Youthful PRs and marketers should please take note.

Monday. New Semester, new timetable, new venues. Just when I've managed to get my head around the old ones. So naturally, I end up in the wrong place at the wrong end of the campus and late for the first lecture.

Professional Skills for Research...sounds like a doddle, you say. Oh, that is so not the case. An hour of lectures, a short break for self-flagellation, then straight onto the workshop. 'Why are we teaching you this stuff?' screams Derek's opening slide. Why indeed?

Derek is one of our Evil Axis of lecturers. Smiling and avuncular but fooling no-one as he ploughs on through Formative, Evaluative and Quantitative Research, throws in SMART objectives, delves into Practitioner Attitudes and throws in a bit of R&E (who he?) for free. Coding, Stats, Content Analysis...are we having fun yet?

It's going to be a long day....

Tuesday starts off on a low. PR & Technology. My idea of hi-tech is a retractable mascara wand. DVDs are beyond my ken. The microwave just sits there, laughing at me.

'What's an iPod?' I have the good sense not to attempt an answer and instead sit there, wide-eyed while fellow students polish off iPods and move onto the finer points of blogging . Two hours of tagging, linking, post editing and comment moderating later, I stumble out into the light - processing the fact that we're to make individual presentations in the coming weeks.

We have cut cards for the subject matter; 9 of hearts lands me with 'Social Media Press Releases - discuss'. Could have been worse; might have gotten Search Engine Optimisation or Wikis and Other Collaboration Software. You're never too old to cry.

Today, Wednesday, is a good day. I answer a question. Not correctly, you understand. But that's hardly the point. How did I manage to execute this maneuvre in the teeth of such hot competition? Easy - I was the only one not nursing a huge hangover. Booze maketh the level playing field.

Thursday is Public Relations and Health. Bring it on! I've answered a bloody question and the game's not over yet....