I have a few friends that are very different from me. While they do use the Internet to look up information from time-to-time and they use their phones to pull up maps, check sports scores, and check email – they don’t use the Internet to communicate. They don’t use Twitter or Facebook – though they’ve heard of both – and they don’t read or write blogs.
Some of these friends think that if they don’t do these things no one else does. Or, they think that those that do are just young kids and not their customers. They are dead wrong.
This sentiment goes both ways, however. People that do these things sometimes believe that everyone does them. They are dead wrong too. "Everyone is on Facebook". No, everyone is not on Facebook. This little blue planet we live on has over 7,000,000,000 people on it. Facebook’s active user base is in the hundreds of millions. Astounding? Yes. Everyone? No.
When you’re evaluating a new marketing strategy, or trying to decide if a business model will work, or you’re looking at a new product — always try to look at yourself to see if you’d be someone that would respond to it. But, just as importantly, know that if you wouldn’t that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t. Try to find someone that does connect to it and try to see how many of those types of people are out there.
I’m using the example of communicating over the Internet for this post but really you can fill just about anything in here such as; people that like rap music, people that enjoy going on vacation, people that drink coffee.
It is true that there are many people just like you. But it is just as true that there are many people that are not like you at all.
