The Importance Of Interactivity
September 9th, 2008 by admin
All internet marketers know that building communities and encouraging interaction are important aspects of increasing brand awareness and site popularity. Even if we didn’t have countless blogs and articles (such as this one) ramming that fact down our throats, we only have to think about our own likes and dislikes to know that we prefer to participate than be passive receptacles for information. About a week ago, a new study was presented at the conference of the International Communication Association, which once again showed that test subjects rate interactive sites more highly than static ones.
In the study, 116 undergraduate students were asked to view a number of corporate websites, particularly the sections that were devoted to employment. The researchers chose to use businesses involved in the energy industry as they felt that they were already unpopular owing to rising fuel prices.
They found that the students preferred sites that had measure of interactivity, no matter how small, but that the greater the interaction, the more the students liked the sites. This even applied to companies that the students were unfamiliar with, which is counter to the virtual reasoning that familiar brands and names automatically fare better than their lesser known counterparts.
The researchers behind the study warn, however, that there is such a thing as too much interactivity, and that once that limit has been breached, audience perception plummets. There are as yet no indications as to how much is enough and how much is excessive. It seems that the tone of the website has a lot to do with it. Overly simplistic sites that rely heavily on user interaction could give off an air of quiet desperation and lack of sophistication. Overly-technical sites on the other hand, are likely to frustrate users and cause them to abandon their activities regardless of how far they have progressed.
A key element to consider is how personal your website feels: whether it welcomes interaction and feedback or whether it resents the interference. If users don’t feel like their input is valued, they simply won’t give it, no matter how user-friendly all your applications are.
Recommended site:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080526-the-interactive-webs-other-big-benefit-it-boosts-pr.html
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers MediaVision Interactive ZA SEO marketers leading SEO marketers and experts in the field of search.
Tags: interaction on websites, interactivity, onsite communication and interaction, interactive websites
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