Appealing to Casual Users

I ran across the elaboration likelihood model today. And, my main takeaway was that there are two types of customers: those with high interest in a product or issue and those with low interest. And, it is a good idea to pay attention to both.

I think Mojeek does a good job of appealing to people with a high interest in online privacy and search. But I think the company favors those people and doesn’t spend as much time on low interest users. For example, Mojeek has been criticized for its appearance. And, addressing that criticism would be more of a priority if casual users were a concern.

I don’t expect everyone to become fans of online privacy or unbiased search results or an independent search index.

But, we do care about those things.

And, I think it makes sense to develop a path for people to become interested in and start using Mojeek even though they might never take the time to learn more about the issues or why Mojeek helps them.

That’s why I think Mojeek should split its effort between high- and low-interest users. And, concerns like the appearance should be addressed.

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Thanks Mike that’s an interesting perspective and I was not aware of the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Such an approach would be counter I think, to what is now understood about how move from being a startup (small market penetration) to scale (significant market share). I speak as someone who has helped over one hundred startups, and been co-founder in 4 others. Whilst there is no comprehensive documentation of a proven route to success, it is probably best, or certainly most famously, explained by Paul Graham here in “Do Things That Don’t Scale”.

In summary we are not in the mass persuasion business, in two respects!

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Thanks for taking the time to look at this. :motorway:

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