Digital Dating: How We Market Ourselves

We’ve all seen movies showing people from the 50’s dating.  A couple would share conversation over a milkshake at their local burger joint. People often dated their high school sweetheart or someone they met at their job during this time. At this point, media wasn’t frequently used to help people find their partner, but then came the 70’s.

In 1975, 31-year-old Marilyn J. Applerberg became the editor of a publication known as Single News. Instead of meeting at the local church or in a classroom, people started to meet at singles bars or discos and by putting personal ads in physical papers. Some people would have their picture and description written up in the paper, while others wrote what they were searching for in a partner. In the 80’s, film became the new tool for those searching for love. Single people would record a video introducing themselves and detail who they are looking for.

The explosion of the internet in the mid-to-late 1990s changed the dating scene forever. Services like American Online, Prodigy and Craigslist offered chat rooms where potential partners could instantly message each other. In 1995, Match.com was founded, and by 2007 it had become the second highest online industry for paid content. By 2010, different dating sites existed for every city, sexual orientation, race, hobby, and religion. Dating sites made it easier for people to find exactly what they are looking for. Aside from online dating, dating apps have been on the rise for the past ten years.

As apps and online dating sites evolve and big data become more powerful, the algorithms that make these sites tick get more sophisticated.  The owner of Match.come states that the only way to maximize your experience on dating sites is to be truly engaged in the process. Dating apps don’t necessarily use algorithms. The king of all dating apps, Tinder, reigns supreme because of how incredibly easy it is to use. You simply swipe left if you aren’t interested and right if you are. If the other person swipes right to you: it’s a match! This process allows you to be able to communicate through the app instantly. From there, you can decide if you will meet in person. Other apps like Bumble followed Tinder’s lead. This app still utilizes swiping, but only women can initiate a conversation. If there is no message sent within 24 hours, they disappear from your bank of matches. OkCupid mirrors traditional online dating profiles by providing prompts for you to answer. However, OkCupid recently added a quick match function that operates just like Tinder. OkCupid uses the information based off of your profile and the questions you answer to let you know how much of a match you are to other users.

Tons of people around the world are getting in relationships and even getting married to people they have met online, and the success rates are keeping these businesses alive. However, many people feel that these modern dating apps and websites are building a stale dating environment. In short, people feel like they have too many people to choose from and are innately becoming more selective with who they choose to date. This is mostly because when someone is asked exactly what they are looking for and they have their preferences locked into a profile, there is a misconception that there is a 100% perfect fit for them out there and if someone else has one trait they don’t want: they keep moving forward searching for perfection.

From all of us at Velocity Agency: we hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Spread the love back to us by commenting your opinion and experiences with digital dating. We would love to hear your story!