Diffusion of Innovation

HI! Welcome to my little space on the internet. My name is Rachel and I plan to use this blog to articulate my thoughts about communication leadership and how it is effective for social media strategies.  What makes me an emerging subject matter expert regarding communication and social media, you ask? Well, for starters, I have a BA in Organizational Communication and am currently working on my masters in, you guessed it, Strategic Communication. You could say I like to talk a lot and I would agree with you. However, throughout this blog I will be discussing how communicating is much more than talking. Moreover, although I wouldn’t call myself an expert in social media, I do have a social media presence and I understand the power behind it. I will do my best to articulate my thoughts on the subject and implore you to comment below to add to the discussion. I love to hear new perspectives regarding the one thing WE all do every day, communicate! And, if you feel so inclined, please drop me a note to let me know how I am doing. Encouragement is a powerful tool, which is often underutilized.

Each week I plan to discuss communication related topics which I have noted below. I will try my best to articulate my thoughts on the topic and how it relates to our daily lives.  

Weekly Topics:

• - Diffusion of Innovation
• - Opinion Leadership
• - Public Relations and how they relate to Communication Leadership
• - Word-of-Mouth Marketing
• - Understanding Social Media
• - Viral Communication
• - Advocating and Communication Ideas
• - How to develop a communication strategy that supports a vision
• - Message development and placement
• - Crisis and Change
• - Evaluating Media Strategies
• - Sustainable Communication Leadership

This week I read several articles on Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and an interesting opinion piece entitled “Why Digital Natives don’t like newspapers” by Newsosaur’s Alan Mutter. Each piece differs however, they all had the same underlying theme: Diffusion. Interesting, yeah? I thought so too!  It would also explain why Rogers’ theory is still relevant today and is revered as one of the most popular adoption models. To understand the similarities, we must first understand what innovation is. An innovation is something that is perceived as new because of enhancements and differs from an invention which is something that is created for the first time.  As Rogers’ explains, diffusion is “the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system”.  An example of an innovation is cell phones and through the diffusion process is how they gained popularity over time. Likewise, the Newsosaur piece discussed the decline in newspaper viewership and how the decline related to Digital Natives, or the “asset-light” generation, made up of Millennials who would much rather consume their news from their digital device than an old fashioned newspaper and because of such, newspaper publishers are looking to find new ways to reach this new target audience.  The newspaper publishers must now utilize the diffusion process to attract the attention of Digital Natives before they permanently ditch the newspaper for good.  One way to attract the “asset-light” generation is through innovation. Publishers need to enhance their digital media presence and deliver content geared toward the targeted group to ensure greater viewership. Likewise, they would benefit by deploying helpful tutorials on how to access their digital content for those who hold out to the very end before adopting this new way due to uncertainty.

The Diffusion of Innovation has been specifically linked to technology and its advances. In his model, Rogers identifies adopter categories, categories that describe members of a social group, and how they are rated by how easily and quickly they adopt a new product or behavior.  The categories include innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. As a young woman, I often think of myself as part of the “asset-light” generation however, I find myself holding out until the near end before adopting a new product. I guess you could say I am risk averse or more simply, I don't like change.  Can you think of way to influence someone like me to engage in the newest social media platform?

If you’re interested in reading the Newsosaur article, you can find it here!

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Communicate2lead.blogspot.com

Ciao!

"The art of communication is the language of leadership" - James Humes