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It is no secret that women love sharing information the most. Researchers have shown that women gossip almost 30% more than men.
This is because men think more strategically and are in no hurry to show all their cards, whereas a woman is a more emotional creature.
Gossip can be called the world’s first form of advertising. And of anti-advertising too.
From modern gossip you can learn where they bake good bread, where the cheapest clothes are sold, or how many men Marusya from the next entrance has had.
But let us get back to history.
In the middle of the 15th century, in 1450 to be precise, Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press. That event is considered the beginning of print advertising.
The very first print advertisement in England dates to 1472. In London, an ad for the sale of prayer books was placed on the door of one of its churches.
And at the end of the 19th century, with the invention of radio, the phrase “petticoat radio” entered common use: that is what men started calling gossip, combining the name of the new invention with the everyday women’s clothing of the time.
Later a picture joined the voice and we discovered television. Here, by the way, is the first ever commercial: it was shot to advertise Bulova watches back in 1941.
Today there are more than a dozen kinds and subkinds of advertising. Ads on TV, on the radio, in newspapers, contextual and banner ads online. Yet word of mouth still enjoys the highest level of trust among people. We trust the words or opinions of other people more. After all, almost every one of us very often decides to buy a product or a service only after hearing or reading someone else’s opinion.
But who or what connects people and lets them share that kind of information online?
– Search engines and search algorithms
Mostly we look for information through a search engine. Google, for example. Google remains the largest search engine in the world: almost 50% of people on the planet use it one way or another. Every phone has Google Search. It is the standard.
One important feature of Google Search is that all its services are interwoven. For instance, if you want to find a good restaurant or pick a new car, Google Search will use data not only from other sites, aggregators or marketplaces, but also from services like Google Maps and YouTube. That gives the user a clearer picture. A better presentation of the product, the service or the venue.
Getting information from search, we analyse it. And make a decision. Today advertising has reached a completely new level.
And the biggest distributor of information on the planet has become the smartphone.
Psychologists in the UK have calculated that every day we spend on average five hours absorbing information from a smartphone. Which means that good old word of mouth works. Only in a different form. On a far bigger scale. Using the internet.
This very thought became the foundation of the technology we invite you to try. Our company tries to study every social and behavioural process online, and the interaction between social networks and search services. We are always looking for new ideas. Every client of ours is our partner: we study the statistics and try to offer interesting solutions, and we aim to grow both our projects and yours.
I will talk in more detail about GEO advertising, motivation and social recommendations in future articles. I hope you enjoyed this one.