Executives Embrace the Non-text Web

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Forbes has done some research to understand manager’s attitudes towards receiving information in a non-text format (i.e. in a video stream).

You can read a summary of the document on eMarketer or if you want the original document you will need to register on the Forbes web site. If video is your thing then it is well worthwhile.

This is what Forbes had to say

A majority of the businesspeople surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 said they watched more online video than a year earlier. Nearly 60% of all respondents said they would watch video before reading text on the same webpage, and 22% said they generally liked watching video more than reading text for reviewing business information. Three-quarters of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than half did the same on YouTube.

As you can see from the image, there was a considerable difference in the attitude of the respondents depending on their age.

But hold on a minute. In the methodology section it states that the number of people interviewed was 300. These are spread over three age groups. It doesn’t say how these were split by age group. Let’s say that the divided the sample equally (i.e. a hundred per age group) then these conclusions are based on 100 people aged 50-plus.

Now we know that there is a big difference in the way older people react to technology, from the age of 60-65 onward. So what we have is an average that will cover the tech savvy younger and less tech aware older old. This makes me think you should be careful in drawing too many conclusions from the results.

Original Post: http://20plus30.blogspot.com/2011/01/executives-embrace-non-text-web.html