British schools in Net frenzy

[NFFC]

Fancy a peek into the future?
Feeling a little old and past it?

They are coming for you, make whatever you can now because the new generation is almost here:

96% of primary schools online [theregister.co.uk]

Primary is 5-11 years old, in my day we didn't even have books at that age!

[rcjordan]

>in my day we didn't even have books at that age!

We can tell.

Seriously, early-age traffic can present some dilemmas to the webmaster. It rarely converts to purchases, for instance. Forms for literature requests (travel or history) can get plenty of "I have an assignment on your county... PS please rush, it's due Friday."

[IanTurner]

Yep my daughter is one of them :)

She has got the hang of yahoo games - but can't even spell yet!!

[carlwright]

We've got a few local schools using us - you'd be surprised what they search for when Miss's back is turned!

[FreeBee]

> you'd be surprised what they search for when Miss's back is turned!

Well in theory the networks filter out some of the stuff they shouldn't see but as NFFC's quote says "Schools Minister ... (is) pleased that 73 per cent of teachers say they feel confident using computers" which leaves a lot of scope for these super confident budding little hackers and geeks more than enough room to play....

[rcjordan]

I've always wondered what the word-of-mouth site referral rate from young surfers to older family members might be. On some items or services in which the kid would have a vested interest (games, toys, travel destinations, etc.) I imagine it's quite high.

[FreeBee]

Bob - I think that in some cases very high. We regularly ponder who made the buying decision with some of our clients (mostly partners) and whether it was the man or woman - I believe more the latter. When it comes to families there's no shadow of a doubt that the kids are a big factor in that part of our business.

In our own household, online expenditure on books, movie tickets, software, gadgets and pet accessories is driven by the kids alone - twice that of their parents! (which explains why some of us end up working such ridiculous hours..)

[rcjordan]

FreeBee, I was thinking of your business in particular (and mine- both having a travel focus) when I made that post. I have played the hunch that the kids deep search better than the adults and come back with "look at this website I've found" when they want to present options. Having a few elementary schools linking to my sites, there is a high nuisance factor (see above), but I'm confident that it's offset to the positive.

[FreeBee]

That nuisance factor is definitely a hassle (we've been instrumental in achieving some pretty good grades in Australia and the US for sure - we've had the feedback!) :)

Interesting to see that a "partner" in our neck of the woods has just added an online quiz - that sort of interactive approach has immense appeal for youngsters. It simply has to beat some of the other viral marketing methods.

We're going a bit off topic here but if I look at the way kids play with the net I'm absolutely convinced that there's a ton of untapped opportunity because of their role in buyer behaviour.

[rcjordan]

>off topic

Not too much really, NFFC said "Fancy a peek into the future?" -Pretty broad scope.

>ton of untapped opportunity

As for the brochure, PDF file, or whatever our partners have delivered to the kitchen table for homework fodder, there's a tremendous amount of branding taking place at that moment.