8: Roger's Diffusion of Ideas as it relates to Facebook

Diffusion of Innovations breaks down a timeline of how every innovation or idea is adopted and ultimately matures. This social science theory was developed in 1962 by E.M. Rogers. It looks at how a product, idea, or behavior is adopted. In order for this to happen, people must do something differently than they previously had. This could be buying a new product, acting differently, or performing a new behavior. This process does not happen simultaneously for everyone. Within a population or social system, some people adopt innovations more quickly than others. There are 5 categories of adopters who act differently. It is important to understand all of them even though the majority of people fall into 2 of the 5 categories. Innovators are the first, and they are the smallest group. This group is interested in new ideas and wants to be the first to try out new innovations. They are willing to take risks, and companies do not need to do much work to interest them. Early Adopters is the second group. These people tend to be in leadership roles and embrace change. They do not need to be convinced to change, and they are influenced most effectively through how-to manuals and information sheets. Early Majority and Late Majority are the two largest groups, and they are fairly similar. These groups are willing to adopt after some convincing, and they are reached most effectively through success stories of the innovation being used by the earlier adopters. Laggards is the final group, and they are conservative and traditional people. They are skeptical of change, and it takes more work to convince them. Some of the best approaches for this group are fear appeals, statistics, and pressure from the other groups. While focusing on the majority groups may be enticing, they are mainly influenced by the opinions and reviews of the Innovators and Early Adopters. It is important to interact with all of these groups, but each may require different forms of convincing.

Illustration of Roger's Diffusion of Innovations

This theory of Diffusion of Innovations can be applied to any new product, behavior, or idea.  For example, Facebook began as a platform strictly for Harvard students.  College students are a great group of Innovators, especially for technology.  As Facebook expanded, more college campuses and some businesses began to use the social networking site.  After these Early Adopters used the site and the company made adjustments, they began to build momentum and were able to release the site for use to anyone with a valid email address over the age of 13.  Now, the Early Majority were using the site.  It was available to many more people, but not everyone immediately made an account.  As more people began to use the site, they shared their thoughts and opinions of it with friends and family.  This motivated the Late Majority to make an account.  Laggards may still be holding out, but some have absolutely been swayed into joining the site.  With the diffusion of Facebook's site, it currently has 2.37 billion active monthly users and is the largest social networking site today.