• by Frank Lee , December 7, 2009

 

It was obvious that the highlight of day 3 was the Ball State University Panel led by Michelle Prieb, Project Manager, Research and Communications for Ball State University.  The panel showcased 5 local university students and their media consumption patterns.  It was fascinating to hear how they use media and what their web behavior was like.  As a result, the round tables were adapted to speak to these students more after the panel.   

Janel Landis Laravie, Co-Founder of Booyah Search (BOOYAH!) led this round table and the conference attendees were able to ask the students more questions about their shopping patterns, sites they visit, offline media usage (TV has been completely replaced by Hulu with these guys!) and the reasons behind their behavior.  

Here is a recap of the round table -

·         Unanimously, the group loved the Ball State session and think we should continue doing them with different demographic targets at each future Summit.

·         The students stuck around and clarified for everyone that they really don’t even understand why Google cares about what they have searched for and they assume they can trust Google.

·         The students said that if given the opportunity to rank advertisements, they would take the time to do it, just so they could filter out the things they don’t like.

·         In discussions about what may be the next big thing on the internet, the students like sites like:

o   http://www.facebook.com/l/fc6e8;Peopleofwalmart.com

o   Failblog

o   TextsFromLastNight

o   LameBook

·         Everyone finds iphone apps extremely useful and sees these as having more importance for specific requests.

·         Interestingly, the students said the term “social media” means nothing to them, but that they know Facebook is “social networking”…  they just say Facebook.  Facebook is to social networking as iPod is to MP3 Player.

·         When shopping online, Free Shipping is super important.  People are willing to spend $50 on a site in order to get free shipping, but really do not expect to pay for it and will even consider other sites with higher price points if those sites offer Free Shipping.

·         Great Quotes from the students:

o   Thinh said, “Twitter is like something your aunt found out about.”

o   Mitchell said, “MySpace is the red headed stepchild that wears a steak around its head so the dogs will play with it.” (In reference to MySpace Music)

o   Mitchell also stated (this is not a question, but a statement), “What’s better than Facebook.”