Younger Web Users as Both Consumers and Conduits of Information

One of the interesting features of the web is its echoic or multiplier effect. This is based on the fact that bloggers will frequently pick up a story that interests them and then republish it, frequently analyzing it or giving it a new twist. This effect is a key element in web marketing.  In Twitter, the process of republishing a tweet from one person so that it can then be presented to one's own followers is called retweeting.

In addition to blogs, this web multiplier effect is also illustrated by the habit of younger users to pass on to their friends items of interest that they discover on the web. This phenomenon was described in a recent article (see: Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On). Below is an excerpt from it with boldface emphasis mine. It makes the key point that the web multiplier effect is a more modern and powerful version of word-of-mouth.

According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one....In one sense, this social filter is simply a technological version of the oldest tool in politics: word of mouth. Jane Buckingham, the founder of the Intelligence Group, a market research company, said the “social media generation” was comfortable being in constant communication with others, so recommendations from friends or text messages from a campaign — information that is shared, but not sought — were perceived as natural.

Continuing in this same train of thought, I have posted previous notes about how the cell phone has become the most common small computer in use and also a valuable means for distributing public health information (see: Making e-Health Information Accessible with Smart Phones); The Mobile Web and the Future of eHealth). Recall that many cells phones have browsers and access to the web. There is even a term used to refer to health programs and applications deployed on smart phones -- m-Health, which stands for mobile health. So, all of the elements are in place to mount youth-oriented public health campaigns focusing on issues such as obesity, exercise, alcohol abuse, and STDs. There is only one major problem with this idea -- many of the public health officials in charge of such programs do not understand the power of the medium or how to craft messages that will resonate with the young users of the technology so that they will pass it on to their friends.

I know that this sounds odd, but what we need is some sort of captivating video about, say, the risk of chlamydia infection (see: Chlamydia Infection Common but Controversy Arises About Screening Programs) such that viewers will want to pass it on to their friends.