Push or Pull
A short time ago the school district I work for decided to go through a web site refresh. It was actually at my recommendation since we were using the classic Google Sites which was about to reach end of life.
There were some things about the new Google Sites that I didn't like, so I got quotes from several companies to provide us hosting and content management. There are a ton of places that cater specifically to school districts and municipalities for this sort of thing, so it wasn't too hard to settle on one.
This is probably the third or fourth web page refresh I have been through with this district. I actually just jumped over to web.archive.org to reminisce about some of the past web pages the school district has had over the years. One of them I inherited, two I designed myself from scratch, and the other two were hosted with a content management system.
Despite all of those differences, the one thing that has always remained the same is the ever increasing amount of content that gets thrown out on the webpage.
Pull Culture
It has always been a pet peeve of mine how cluttered our web site can get. Through the course of a school year I get countless requests to add things to the site.
Sports boosters are having a golf scramble fundraiser, can you put this flyer on the website
Sure, you want me to put it on the Athletics page?
No, it needs to go on the main page
big sigh from me okay, I'll take are of it when I can.
As you can guess after you get a couple dozen requests like that, the nice compact site that you had designed starts to look like a "cluster".
Perhaps people are okay scrolling through lines and lines of text to finally get to what they want, but personally, I don't enjoy it.
That's the way things used to be though right? You want information, you go out and you pull that info in. You visit a site, you actively seek it out. All of the responsibility was on you to find that information yourself.
For us as a school district, that required us to have the information out there for people to pull it in. We needed a repository for people to pull from.
You with me so far?
Push Culture
I wanted things to be different with our new site. I fought really hard with my other administrators to convince them that all of that extra information was not necessary. I was very clear about the fact that just because it was on the old site doesn't mean it will be on the new site. If anything I wanted less information on the new site than the old one.
My main reason was my belief that people don't access information that way anymore. Things have definitely shifted from pull culture to push culture. Sure, there are still some times that you seek out information to pull in, but for the most part, info is pushed to you.
Facebook, Twitter, Text, other social media alerts, that's the way most people get their information these days. Right?
If you were to do a little bit of Internet sleuthing, you could probably figure out where I work. If you were to visit our current web site, there is honestly still a lot more pull content there than I would like, but I had to compromise a little bit.
Our building secretaries handle the majority of the updates now, so it honestly doesn't bug me as much.
I can get from the top to the bottom of our High School page in three scrolls. That's honestly one more scroll than I would like, but again, compromise.
The Point
The point of this post is to bring attention to the fact that information and the way we get it has changed pretty significantly over the years. What worked even five years ago doesn't necessarily work now. People are adapting and businesses have to adapt as well if they want to keep up.
I know Facebook is a four letter word here on Hive, but how many businesses do you know that have a Facebook page? How much does it annoy you when you are trying to find a business and they don't have a Facebook page? Maybe a lot, maybe a little, but I think for the majority of people, it probably bugs them a lot.
Because that is the way they get their information now. They follow a business they like on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and the info they need is pushed to them.
It's marketing genius, it's the world we live in.
The question now is: What's next?
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
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It seems a lot of organisations just post news and events on social media these days. I guess they can bypass the IT team that way. It's not great for anyone who doesn't want to use those platforms. I think everything should have an RSS feed, so I can read it with whatever app I prefer.
RSS feeds are pretty awesome. I didn't mention it in the post, but that is what I have tried to move to for our site. I am sure you would agree IT teams have plenty on their plates. Letting go of this responsibility probably doesn't make them sad in the least!
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When I saw the title of your article on ListNerds, I thought it was the same as what I read I think around two weeks ago. I forgot who shared it. He also touched on that pull/push dynamic in marketing but in an entirely different context. I agree with both ideas.
People these days are in a hurry and don't have time to sort out the key ideas. The new approach is to simplify things for them for easy digestion and for them to take the necessary action. That's how I understand the pull/push idea in the current article and I agree that in this case, the push approach is the one working.
The other context where the other guy explained his pull/push marketing concept is in relation to hard-selling and establishing relationships. If I understand him correctly, he describes hard-selling as pushing people to buy something, which is the old way of doing things. But here on Hive especially on ListNerds, marketing is done differently. You pull people to start a relationship in order to build trust. Once the relationship is there, then you can start recommending products and services.
I hope my explanation makes sense. ^_^
!gif funny
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Via Tenor
Yeah, makes tons of sense. I think I remember reading that post as well. Things are definitely changing. I am not sure what comes next.
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Never ask a question you won’t like the answer to. 😉
:) Yeah, my bad on that one!
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It reminds me of the user-unfriendliness of many internal corporate intranets. At least you managed to change things a bit.
Yeah, hopefully this will be the last major change before I retire and don't have to deal with it anymore!
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haha i feel you man! :-D
Not so sure I am a fan of push culture. I have multiple kids in school and I get so many emails and alerts as to be absurd.
Yeah, I can understand that. I have always been a proponent of using those services sparingly. I remember one time they wanted to start doing robocalls for over due lunch balances and I told them I wouldn't be a part of that. I figured the last thing we needed was people ignoring important calls because they thought it was just another bill collector.
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Well done bozz...I get your point on this issue.. adapting is a sure thing...we grow everyday and everything advances at a go also ...
Yes change is definitely the most inevitable thing in our lives from day to day.
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Thank you sir bozz ❤️🏆🏆
The admin very often has his own views on the design and functionality of the site, because they have to maintain it, but the site owner is worthless if he gets off the admin’s shoulder and does not try to improve his site, make it more attractive, functional and fast. I look at some coin owners websites and understand that they don't like their coins lol but they want us to fall in love with their coins).
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Haha, yeah. I understand what you are saying. I have seen my share of fancy token sites that ends up being a token you would never want to own. You think you do though!
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I think the shift has really changed. I don't really visit a website unless I am there for a reason otherwise social media sites like Twitter or Facebook are enough. Actually, how many people actually visit the homepage of a school? I don't think I have ever visited it directly because I would google site + place I want to go to.
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Yeah, I think it is pretty rare. Probably even more so for people who are younger than me. I have a feeling I visit more sites than I need to simply because it is ingrained in me. That doesn't even take into account the fact that we have an app as do many other businesses.
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People not only don't like being pushed, but they are also immune to it after years of being pushed around. Thanks for sharing.
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i found you here on listnerds my friend...looking forward to seeing more of you here
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Thank you!