More than Half of "Tech Resistant" Consumers Visit Social Networking Sites

A couple of years ago, I reviewed Bill Tancer’s excellent book “Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters.” Now Bill’s team at Experian has released a new report that looks at changes in consumer behavior using the local, social, mobile web. One of the most interesting findings is that more than half of so-called “Novices” (i.e., the folks “…most resistant to adopting a new technology-focused life”) text, email and visit social networking sites.

In fact, those three activities were the only ones listed that garnered greater than 70% share among consumers in the survey:

Search was not listed as an activity, though I suspect it would clear the 70% bar, too.

Interestingly, “send/receive email” showed a slight decline year-on-year, while “send/receive text” grew 8% and “visited social network sites” shot up over 20%.

Another great finding: 28% of consumers perform shopping activities from their mobile phones while in brick-and-mortar stores. I’ve argued that you should ignore the “no one uses mobile” meme and I suspect this number will grow in the coming months and years.

There are loads of other excellent insights in the report. Check it out if you get the chance and let me know what you think.

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