To give some background, a persona is a representation of
behaviors and
goals of a certain target group. Brands of today are developing these
personas for all their products,
as they're finding them imperative for the
understanding of their target customer and thus ensuring their products can
speak a language those customers understand.While some
of my clients call her "Theresa" and others call her "Sarah" ...
I call my digital persona Dalia.
Dalia is not a tech freak, she doesn't have an iPhone or an iPad, but she
lives, breathes and eats online.
Over the past 7 years,
I've seen her spending - on average - two to three
hours a day on the Internet Googling, reading blogs, streaming videos
and
music and connecting with friends and family.
While
the center of her existence may be the kids (where I hopefully
belong!), her best friend is definitely and defiantly
the Internet.
What else can make the new kid on the block
in Oakville a resident expert,
and turn a novice into a pro.
5
days ago, some of you may have noticed that I tweeted heavily (through my
BB) about an internet connection problem we
were facing at home. For some
reason, we suddenly lost access to 3 key websites: Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube for
a few days.
I tried everything, from calling our ISP to
calling the router company
numerous times trying to identify the problem, but nothing worked. Not to
get technical,
but It seems that our IP phone decided to act as a firewall
and was creating non standard IPs that those 3 websites were
rejecting.
Any-who, having lost the blood line to her
digital universe, Dalia tried
very hard during the first two days to incentivise as well as intimidate me
into fixing
it.
When nothing worked, on day 3 Dalia made this announcement:
I have nothing
to do online. I no longer need the Internet.
After
12 years of living online, my mother of two, 30-40 Years old
significant other has narrowed down the "Internet"
to 3 websites: Facebook,
Twitter & YouTube (plus Google of course!)
A very opinionated woman when it comes to her favorite brands, a skilled
DVR operator who waits 10 minutes
after her favorite TV shows start to be
able to fast forward ads, a woman with a lot of pull on her 400 + Facebook
friends, 50+ neighbors, my "Theresa" had decided that if you - brands of
the world - want to reach her and
she is not already searching for you,
then you have one of 3 options: Facebook, YouTube & Twitter.
She goes online to learn (Google), entertain herself (YouTube) and connect
with friends and people of interest (Facebook, Twitter).
And
in all instances, she is after consumer facts. Whether she is looking
for a contractor to install a new granite counter
top in our Kitchen, or
planning a summer camp for the kids, or weekend activities with friends or
a road trip to
DC and deciding on stops we should make on the way, she only
has faith in reviews from those many strangers with experience
you can
usually find online. Brand facts mean nothing to her.
So
when you develop a website, and you have Dalia in mind as your HVC (High
Value Customer), who trust me has continuous
access to my limited funds :)
remember to build it so you can: educate her, entertain her and allow her
to connect
seamlessly with her friends.
If you don't, you will loose
her - just like the Internet did a few days
ago, and all like minded mothers of this digital age. Who according to the
latest Forrester social technographics ladder account for more than 49% of
internet users.
