Oh To Be Average
A case appeared in the Kansas City Star on Monday about a man who was tagged as a spammer by Facebook. This shouldn’t be all that shocking or surprising; Facebook is heavily targeted by spammers.
This case, however, is different. This man wasn’t a spammer. He was just ‘not average.’ John VanPelt (the supposed spammer) was contacted by Facebook and told that “Facebook has limits in place to prevent behavior that others may find annoying or abusive” and that his account would be suspended from posting and/or sending messages.
Why is this important? Why am I even taking the time to write an entire blog post about it? Simple.
The bell curve.
While for some it brings back memories of high school tests, it seems to be popping up in everyday ways in analytics.
VanPelt was suspended for not being an ‘average’ user as defined by Facebook. But, what is an average user? And why do we not like those who fall outside of that average range?
An average user is one that (in an analytics, social media, or life sense) performs in a way we expect. This average user is the largest part of the bell curve and one that we can, with some certainty, predict.
In marketing, we target the bell curve. We talk about average page views, average time on site, average traffic path, and average conversion rate. We worry about the 80% of website traffic and attempt to influence that 80%.
We don’t like the non-average user because we don’t understand them. Sure, we can track them and interpret them, but they don’t fit our mold. We can’t answer the behavior questions with them because they don’t do the same things as our average users.
We target, follow and worry about the 80%.
But, what if we are all wrong? What if we start to worry, target and influence the other 20%?
Imagine if our 10% to the right of the main bell curve are our most dedicated consumers. They visit our site every day, sometimes several times, spending more time than our average user, buying more items and in general helping us succeed. The question, however, is what are doing to target them?
Imagine if Facebook called VanPelt and used him as a resource. Think about it. He is one of your most using users. He not only users your service but makes it a daily, integral part of his life. And yet, he isn’t seen as a resource, he is the annoying possible spammer.
Imagine that your top 10% users received special promotions, special website landing pages, targeted messages and in general were treated as un-average.
Imagine that the top 10% feel as though they are known to the company and are a valuable part of the sales process.
Imagine that we target the 10% and they become our focus.
To some this seems counter-intuitive. Why would you target the smallest group?
You target them because they are your greatest resource. They understand your site better than you do because they use it every day. They help move your products. They open your emails. They join the social communities. They comment on your Facebook page, they follow you on Twitter, they see your videos on YouTube and they download your mobile app. They are you advocates, proponents and fans of your product, service or company.
Ultimately, the 10% influence the 80%.
