Diffusion of Innovations

Hello my name is Kanise Wiggins. I am currently enrolled in my fourth term at Troy University. I attended the University of Alabama during my undergraduate years. At the University of Alabama I began as a broadcast journalism student and finished my degree in Communications studies and minored in African American studies. While at Alabama I discovered I was very interested in journalism and began working on my entertainment website vinkankel.com. I call myself a cultural tastemaker or cultural curator. I am always on the up and up on the latest entertainment news and what millennials enjoy. As a cultural tastemaker and millennial influencer I analyzed how I generated traffic to my own online business Vinkankel.com. Vinkankel.com initially averaged 1,000 views for the first three years it was ran. Vinkankel’s peak months were October through December. The fourth year Vinkankel averaged 200,000 views by examining the behavior of today’s millennials. Vinkankel.com reports entertainment news, particularly music. Vinkankel.com quality circle start studying the hour’s millennials were most active on social media to drive traffic to the site. My organization consists of 4 people who devise solutions for improvement. Vinkankel receives its most traffic between the hours of 4pm – 6pm. Vinkankel’s most popular videos feature artist Drake’s Apple Music commercial and Lil Yachty Sprite campaign. Drake’s Apple Music commercial increased Drake’s sales by 431% (Forbes). Drake is endorsed by T-Mobile, Apple Music and Nike. By posting entertainer Drake and his collaboration with big brands, my website and social media platforms received traffic and a greater following. My website post featuring Hennessey’s latest brand ambassador Nas, received over a thousand views as well. The internal communication used for Vinkankel is similar to the internal communication used within other businesses. Business partnering is imperative. I conduct freelance work with BET and VH1 because they have a larger audience and have dominated public communication. I also research analytic trends and incorporate what I have learned from websites such as Complex magazine and Buzzfeed.

My blog will focus on the diffusion of innovations and how millennials are apart of the theory. The diffusion of innovation explains how, why and at what rate new ideas and technology are spreading. By using analytics and my own research I personally know that the rate technology is being used is very difficult to calculate. New technology trends are being created rapidly.

Millenials are moving pass baby boomers as the largest age group. Millenials are changing the way things are being sold, due to internet sales skyrocketing. There are more 23 year olds than any other age on the planet, 4.7 million, according to a census report taken in June. Entertainment has influenced millennials more than their parent’s values. Businesses look for consumer’s satisfaction. Millennials don’t believe in doing things in a timely matter and believe more in social media and reality television than they believe in real life. The social hierarchy has been diminished because people are able to access what people everywhere are doing by simply engaging in social media online. The social network Linkedln, target audience is millennial business professionals. The informal communication approach connects qualified and creative professionals with some of the biggest brands in the world.

Our reading for this week, the Diffusion of innovations by Roger Everett shed light on some interesting topics and key facts. Roger stated that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea. The innovation itself, communication channels, time and social systems influence ideas. Entertainment is constantly being influenced. Since I’ll be talking about my favorite artist and what drove millennials to become consumers of their products, music and actions Ive included a few points from Everett Rogers theory below:

The Key Elements in diffusion research are:

Innovation Innovations are a broad category, relative to the current knowledge of the analyzed unit. Any idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption could be considered an innovation available for study.[14]

Adopters Adopters are the minimal unit of analysis. In most studies, adopters are individuals, but can also be organizations (businesses, schools, hospitals, etc.), clusters within social networks, or countries.[15]

Communication channels Diffusion, by definition, takes place among people or organizations. Communication channels allow the transfer of information from one unit to the other.[16] Communication patterns or capabilities must be established between parties as a minimum for diffusion to occur.[17]

Time The passage of time is necessary for innovations to be adopted; they are rarely adopted instantaneously. In fact, in the Ryan and Gross (1943) study on hybrid corn adoption, adoption occurred over more than ten years, and most farmers only dedicated a fraction on their fields to the new corn in the first years after adoption.[6][18]

Social system The social system is the combination of external influences (mass media, organizational or governmental mandates) and internal influences (strong and weak social relationships, distance from opinion leaders).[19] There are many roles in a social system, and their combination represents the total influences on a potential adopter.[20]

Five stages of the adoption process

Knowledge The individual is first exposed to an innovation, but lacks information about the innovation. During this stage the individual has not yet been inspired to find out more information about the innovation.

Persuasion The individual is interested in the innovation and actively seeks related information/details.

Decision The individual takes the concept of the change and weighs the advantages/disadvantages of using the innovation and decides whether to adopt or reject the innovation. Due to the individualistic nature of this stage, Rogers notes that it is the most difficult stage on which to acquire empirical evidence.[11]

Implementation The individual employs the innovation to a varying degree depending on the situation. During this stage the individual also determines the usefulness of the innovation and may search for further information about it.

Confirmation The individual finalizes his/her decision to continue using the innovation. This stage is both intrapersonal (may cause cognitive dissonance) and interpersonal, confirmation the group has made the right decision.