This is part 3 in the Visitors, Truth, False Information and Personal Information arc. Many readers wrote that they missed my arcs, was everything okay? Yes, just traveling. This arc deals with Evolution Technology's (ET) ability to determine the level of honesty website visitors are demonstrating when they fill out forms, et cetera.
The rest of this post covers a seven day cycle, 27 Sept - 4 Oct 07, for several industries that NextStage monitors. Visitors, Truth, False Information and Personal Information, Part 1 provided a report for a general B2B sampling of sites NextStage monitors for clients. Part 2 dealt with B2C sites. This post deals with blogs.
First, an explanation of how to read these charts is at the bottom of this post. Second, the majority of blogs NextStage is monitoring are social in nature, not business or informational. Wow. Who knew the majority of people involved in social blogging were...umm...so good at...uhh...had such strong imaginations? Compare this image with its B2B and B2C cousins and you'll notice that consumers -- both business and general -- tell the truth (green) or recognizable portions of it (yellow) than do bloggers. This finding doesn't surprise me at all in light of what I wrote in B2B Visitors, Truth, False Information and Personal Information, Part 1 and the findings in Social networking sites: Almost two thirds of users enter false information to protect identity. I guess that shows up on social blogs as well.
And now to recapitulate the explanation:
Green indicates the number of visitors who respond truthfully to questionnaires, in chat sessions, etc., yellow indicates people who mix truth with non-truth and red indicates people who just make things up. Even when there's nothing to fill out or form to fill in, these values indicate which parts of the brain are firing most actively. The question probably then becomes, "If there's nothing to fill in, how can people be telling the truth or making things up?"
Deceitful behavior is both a boundary and defense mechanism. Think of a cat poofing its tale, a dog bristling it's back, things like that. These mechanisms engage to make the animal appear larger than it is. It is, in a sense, being deceitful, making itself appear larger than it is, to protect itself or its territory. Thus, when there are no forms to fill out, et cetera, and ET is picking up fabricational behavior it is an indication site visitors are uncomfortable with the website they're navigating. Similarly, truthful behavior is an indication visitors are comfortable with the website they're navigating.
(more to follow)
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
Upcoming Trainings: Upcoming Conferences:- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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