February 2ndPew Internet Study on Tagging
Christopher Kenton
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just released a study (PDF) that looks at the use and implications of tagging. The study also includes an interview with David Weinberger, who discusses why tagging matters, and puts it into a broader social and business context.
The study finds that 28% of Internet users have used tags to classify content suchs as photos, blog postings or news stories. They primarily represent the “classic early adopters of technology”, meaning they’re young, wealthy and well wired. However, the study also suggests that adoption of tagging by the mainstream is likely, as popular sites like Amazon, Yahoo!, and Google are providing tools that make it easy to tag content.
Tagging has broad and significant implications for business and marketing, especially as tags become a more prominent mechanism for people to search and find content. As Weinberger points out in the Interview, tagging represents an opportunity for trusted sharing of useful information.
By searching for a tag we can find material others have discovered ahead of us… Tagging also allows social grous to form around similarities of interests and points view. If you’re using the same tags as I do, we probably share some deep commonalities.
What marketers need to understand about tagging is that it makes it easier for consumers to find public content about your company, products and competitors from their peers, and it’s a universally distributed system that is not trivial to game. While companies have gotten used to spending on SEO/SEM, this is one more trend that will force marketers to invest more time and effort considering their holistic presence in a world of social media.
Tip of the hat to Stowe Boyd.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just released a study (PDF) that looks at the use and implications of tagging. The study also includes an interview with David Weinberger, who discusses why tagging matters, and puts it into a broader social and business context.
The study finds that 28% of Internet users have used tags to classify content suchs as photos, blog postings or news stories. They primarily represent the “classic early adopters of technology”, meaning they’re young, wealthy and well wired. However, the study also suggests that adoption of tagging by the mainstream is likely, as popular sites like Amazon, Yahoo!, and Google are providing tools that make it easy to tag content.
Tagging has broad and significant implications for business and marketing, especially as tags become a more prominent mechanism for people to search and find content. As Weinberger points out in the Interview, tagging represents an opportunity for trusted sharing of useful information.
By searching for a tag we can find material others have discovered ahead of us… Tagging also allows social grous to form around similarities of interests and points view. If you’re using the same tags as I do, we probably share some deep commonalities.
What marketers need to understand about tagging is that it makes it easier for consumers to find public content about your company, products and competitors from their peers, and it’s a universally distributed system that is not trivial to game. While companies have gotten used to spending on SEO/SEM, this is one more trend that will force marketers to invest more time and effort considering their holistic presence in a world of social media.
Tip of the hat to Stowe Boyd.