Which way to turn? (aka Thing 4)

I am pretty au fait with Twitter and have 4 accounts to my name at last count (I only use two really though). I'm also pretty good with RSS feeds; I use feeds to connect news on our website to our Facebook page. Although I didn't realise that each time I follow someone's blog it is an RSS feed that adds the content to my Dashboard. Ho-hum!

Pushnote is something I haven't tried before, but unfortuntately I can't use it in work as I don't have Firefox or Chrome on the PCs available to me.  This looks like homework!

I feel I should put a qualifying statement before the following ramblings as it sounds as though I don't agree with using the internet tools we're being told about in cpd23, but please rest assured that I am fully supportive of this course and know I will learn from it.  I just wanted to say a little bit about the use of technology really...

In reading another participant's blog today I was reminded of how all this new technology is not always terrifically effective as a marketing tool.  I am by no means a technophobe, although I am perhaps techno-weary.  There are a variety of methods available to us now to promote our services, but I think there comes a point when (as with road signs) there can be too many.  People stop looking.  I get frustrated when people don't know what we do despite the wealth of advertising, and yet I think it comes down to the fact that we humans still need human interaction. When I'm struck by information overload I just want there to be someone next to me to ask (in person!!).  Instead we need to search Google, scan through all the text and snazzy pictures, the confusing links and the mish-mash of sources.  Are you therefore wondering why someone that thinks like this is doing cpd23?

Well, although I may be pretty nifty on the computer and will go to Google whenever I need an answer, the fact is that we humans sometimes need someone to show us the way.

This course is a good example - we're not having to look for the information; it's all in one place with explanations.  Without this course I wouldn't be thinking about Pushnote etc.  I also wouldn't have homework!  Better still a face-to-face example, such as someone asking a librarian if the library holds a certain book, eventhough they could have found out by looking at the catalogue themselves.

I think a lot of people have realised that there isn't a really easy to use catalogue of the internet out there.  And if someone wants to tell us there is then they're wrong because they had to tell us about it.  I do love Google, but it's not perfect - it can't find me for a start (see my last post).

So what's my point?  My point is this - we can't be surprised when despite our best efforts to show the way people still come and ask.  I may use technology but if the person I'm trying to reach doesn't want to use technology then I can't reach them unless they show up in person, at which point I can't expect them to know what is on the website, etc.  Replace technology with posters or signs in that statement for the same point to be applied for offline marketing.

Does this show a failing in people - that they won't "bother" to find out online (or by simply looking at a poster)?  No.  I don't believe that the greatest minds that ever lived would have achieved half as much if they'd had to contend with all this information overload.  There would have been fewer road signs in their day too!