Comments on: Users, customers, or audience – what do you call the people that visit your site?

By: jonknight

jonknight — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:49:30 +0000

Ditto.

'Members' seems to encompass the entire group as well as each individual.

By: jonknight

jonknight — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:49:30 +0000

Ditto.

'Members' seems to encompass the entire group as well as each individual.

By: To my first 10,000 blog subscribers: Thank you! | Andrew Chen (@andrew_chen)

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:59:16 +0000

[...] Users, customers, or audience – what do you call the people that visit your site? [...]

By: Daniel James

Daniel James — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:58:28 +0000

I am with Joe on ‘Players’. I like Customers, though, and dislike ‘Users’ for the reasons mentioned in the comments above.

By: Nigel Eccles

Nigel Eccles — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:30:58 +0000

I try to where possible use the term community. Users has too many negative connotations and feels slightly derogatory. Customers feels transactional and audience is obviously one way. Feels like there is a gap in the market to describe someone who is a member of a web2.0 community.

By: Regia

Regia — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:21:05 +0000

"ART LOVERS" or "COLLECTORS"

People that comes to my regiaart.com or my blog regiarichest.blogspot.com they are all ART LOVERS... not clients, not customers, not readers, not audience.

By: Tom Clarkson

Tom Clarkson — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:27:06 +0000

“User” would be most common as it’s the only one that covers a wide range of business models. “Audience” or “Reader” only works if your business model is pure advertising. “Customer” only works if all the users are buying something. There are a lot of options in between, and “user” is the only description vague enough to cover all the types of user you get even within a single service.

By: Joe Ludwig

Joe Ludwig — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:30:21 +0000

I call ours “Players”. That’s probably because our service is a game. Player is really just a more specific form of User. Of course Customer is implied by that.

By: Oren

Oren — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:58:56 +0000

Companies with a gaming DNA would often use the term 'players', which is like users but with an emphasize on entertainment, rather than utility

content-focused sites sometimes use readers (blogs etc.) or viewers (video) as a sub-category of sorts to audience...

By: Randy Stewart

Randy Stewart — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:05:20 +0000

Ive been a big fan of members since working on Epinions and it is what we use at Boxbe. I dont really like the term users.

Im not the first to say it, but the only two industries that call its customers users is the computer industry and drug dealers.

Coincidence?

Cheers,
Randy Stewart

By: Ted Rheingold

Ted Rheingold — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:40:10 +0000

Early on for Dogster and Catster we used the term user, but found it far to insincere. Since then we have used customer, even if they are merely a one-time site visitor.

When describing our customers we break them into visitors, members, and subscribers defined respectively by people we don't know, people that have registered, and people that are paying members.

Honestly I think every business-minded website would benefit by refering to people who use their website as customers reinforces who you are serving and why you do what you do. Without them you would have no business so use the most respectful term you can to never forget that.

By: PXLated

PXLated — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:49:24 +0000

Like Bobby…Readers/Visitors…I think most sites are in this category, not trying to monetize/aggregrate, get them to use anything or form a community.

By: Bobby Bokista

Bobby Bokista — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:52:13 +0000

"Readers"

This term implies that I'm not necessarily seeking monetary compensation for the services I provide, looking to target any group of people, nor making claims that those who come to my website are actively involved with shaping the direction and content. It is a blog where I do most of the writing and get occasional comments from other people. "Reader" not only says a lot about the kind of visitor to my site, but frames the kind of content I make available.

By: Geoff A

Geoff A — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:30:56 +0000

I try to use “people”. I think when we use other terms, like “users”, we may not always think of them as human beings. I also wonder if we should be called People Experience Designers

By: Jonathan Mendez

Jonathan Mendez — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:22:28 +0000

Consumers?

what about "people?"

This is a great question and one I struggle with often.