Geonexus

What makes the web irresistible? As consumers of information, why can’t we stop ourselves as we flit from page to page, site to site?

And for a publisher of information like a B2B website, what makes one site more engaging than another for visitors?

The hunger for information is part of our biology
Lee Gomes’ column in the Wall Street Journal this week describes some insights into these questions from the research of USC neuroscientist Irving Biederman.

What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible? Clues are offered by research conducted by Irving Biederman, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, who is interested in the evolutionary and biological basis of the human need for information.

Dr. Biederman first showed a collection of photographs to volunteer test subjects, and found they said they preferred certain kinds of pictures (monkeys in a tree or a group of houses along a river) over others (an empty parking lot or a pile of old paint cans).

The preferred pictures had certain common features, including a good vantage on a landscape and an element of mystery. In one way or another, said Dr. Biederman, they all presented new information that somehow needed to be interpreted.

Rich, new information makes us feel good
Biederman then went on to examine brain scans of people who were looking at different pictures. The preferred pictures generated much more brain activity.

In other words, coming across what Dr. Biederman calls new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good, which in turn causes us to seek out even more of it. The reverse is true as well: We want to avoid not getting those hits because, for one, we are so averse to boredom.

It is something we seem hard-wired to do, says Dr. Biederman. When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us ‘infovores.’ ”

We can’t help flitting from web page to web page because we are hard-wired to seek new information. We’re infovores. Seeking and finding new information gives us a pleasurable feeling.

But it’s not just any information, it’s information that “somehow needs to be interpreted.”

Do our B2B websites serve the hunger of infovores?
What elements in a B2B website would create a sense of mystery and a desire to know more so as to resolve our questions?

Information on most B2B sites is vague or incomplete about the biggest questions on visitors’ minds. Although companies are anxious to explain the benefits of their offer, their superior competitive position, and case studies that prove they can solve problems for customers, they leave out other information.

Potential buyers are left asking these questions:

• What will happen if I provide my email and phone number to this company?
• Will I be inundated with “newsletters” and phone calls?
• How much does the product or service cost?
• What will it be like to work with this company?
• What kind of support will I get after the sale?

Business buyers that are considering a long-term relationship with a company want to know what kind of company they will be working with.

Blogs are one way to engage visitors
I think that’s why blogs, including some business blogs, are a satisfying vehicle.

For the buyer they provide more genuine insight into how the company works and conducts itself.

And for the business, blogs are a way to create some mystery, some information that needs to be interpreted. Business blogs are an ongoing story that has twists and turns and we want to see how it’s going to turn out, so we keep coming back for more.

Of course not all business blogs are like this. Some are not interesting because they are packaged, impersonal, not genuine. And as Dr. Biederman said, we are averse to boredom.

But some blogs continue to create surprise and sustain interest. Some examples? Here are a few blogs I read because I follow the story and the infovore in me wants to see what happens next.

• Patrick Fetterman is the VP Marketing at a software company and writes about how to apply lean thinking to marketing and marketing issues that face a Software as a Service (SaaS) company. Many marketing consultants write blogs but Patrick is one of the few senior marketing practitioners writing from inside a company.
• If I told you that Alan Rimm-Kaufman has a PhD in statistics and runs a business that places search ads for direct mail catalog companies, you would probably be stifling a yawn. But it turns out it’s an interesting and complex business and that Alan and his cohorts that write the rkgblog are natural teachers. Not only do we learn about the use of search for direct marketing companies, we get insights into Alan’s business practices, the development of their business, and through interviews we get the thoughts of other practitioners in related fields.
• Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst on Social Media at Forrester, writes Web Strategy by Jeremiah. He not only provides lots of information on a rapidly growing field, he also writes about how he works. So you get two mysteries to solve, the development of a market and the journey of a professional.
• Bill Slawski is an attorney and Search Engine Optimization expert. One of the recurring topics in his blog SEO by the Sea is new patent filings by the search engines. His uses his interpretation of these patents to suggest possible directions of the search engines. Who knew patents could be so interesting?
• Matt Cutts works in the Quality group at Google. His job is to finds ways to prevent people from manipulating the search results. His blog is a constant conversation with webmasters and search specialists about which techniques are acceptable and which are not. The cast even has bad guys (black hats) and good guys (white hats), although Matt seems to get along well with all of them.
• Check Out, the blog of buyers at WalMart, is a real surprise. It’s written about their buying decisions and process. One of the most surprising blogs because you don’t expect WalMart to let their employees speak their mind.

What other business sites create sustained interest? Suggest them in the comments below!