Monday, April 18, 2011

Discovery Patterns: Timing is everything

At Bitmenu, we've noticed some consistent ways that people discover and access digital media.

Time of Day
The right product at the right price is only part of the equation.  People check their email, Facebook and twitter accounts at various times during the day.  Knowing how a given community accesses these feeds makes them excellent vehicles for sharing offers.

When offers are announced regularly, at a given time of day, those publishers enjoy waves of purchases immediately after sharing a link as their promotion propagates across their community.

Regardless if done by email broadcast, Facebook post, or by Tweet, the first spike of downloads can occur within minutes after an announcement. As a campaign's day progresses, buying picks up towards the late afternoon and evening as people get off school or work and take care of personal business.

Global wake-up
For a US-based publisher, the sharing progresses across the globe as the evening arrives.  Pacific countries like New Zealand and Australia have healthy media appetites. Then Asia, Africa and finally Europe wake up and discover what opportunities have arrived in their feeds.

Weekends see no less action.  Not all users check their messages daily, and others put off acting on some items until they have time to consider their choices carefully.  Some publishers find the weekend provides an excellent time to make new offers available.

These traffic patterns are consistent with what is described in this formal study from Buddy Media.