Marketing to Millenials, Their Privacy Concerns and How They Use Social Networking
The term "millenials" was coined to label the current generation of people who have grown up never knowing what life is like without a computer, gadgets, and Internet connections.
Many of the younger millenials have had social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter available to them for most of their teenage and adult lives.
This group is important to marketers because they are the mid- and long-term future for marketing.
For the brand marketing focus, that is extremely important.
So tomorrow's major brands will be defined today, to this segment.
=== What Millenials Think In April of 2010, Harris took a poll of people aged 18-55 about their use of social networking and their privacy concerns with it.
In this poll, Harris found that millenials (18-34 age group) and their slightly older peers (35-44) were very savvy when it comes to both social networking and privacy.
Of the millenials, 85% understand and take seriously the fact that their participation in social networking means giving up some privacy.
Despite this, 44% of them use social media to give negative comments about brands or specific companies and products.
Yet with this heavy usage of the social networks comes a cynical outlook towards them.
51% of them said that they can't trust a social network website or company at least some of time and 19% said most of the time.
28% said they could never trust a social networking company with their data.
89% of young women in the survey said that they would never put anything on Facebook they don't want their parents to see.
This is interesting, as that same group is the one most active in most social networking activities.
Many of those surveyed are actively monitoring their own online footprints, removing or distancing themselves from those things they believe will affect others' perception of them.
=== What This Means for Marketing Those who engage in social network marketing should understand that while anyone in this age group who befriends you or chooses to "like" your product is probably paying you a big compliment, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Because these millenials are well plugged in, they are just as likely to be fickle about their choices and change that "like" to a network-wide negative message.
This fickleness means that marketing geared towards this group must be both consistent and reliable.
The product and brand must be held intact.
It also means that you should keep their privacy at the forefront and not abuse or misuse their information.
Although most marketing experts stick with the "you must have a list" mantra, they may be missing an important point regarding that list.
Not only should you have a list, but you should also care for the people who are on the list and carefully guard their trust and perception of your brand.
Making a habit of keeping those on your lists as happy as possible is much easier than attempting damage control when one of them gets angry and several thousand people find out about it through them.
Many of the younger millenials have had social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter available to them for most of their teenage and adult lives.
This group is important to marketers because they are the mid- and long-term future for marketing.
For the brand marketing focus, that is extremely important.
So tomorrow's major brands will be defined today, to this segment.
=== What Millenials Think In April of 2010, Harris took a poll of people aged 18-55 about their use of social networking and their privacy concerns with it.
In this poll, Harris found that millenials (18-34 age group) and their slightly older peers (35-44) were very savvy when it comes to both social networking and privacy.
Of the millenials, 85% understand and take seriously the fact that their participation in social networking means giving up some privacy.
Despite this, 44% of them use social media to give negative comments about brands or specific companies and products.
Yet with this heavy usage of the social networks comes a cynical outlook towards them.
51% of them said that they can't trust a social network website or company at least some of time and 19% said most of the time.
28% said they could never trust a social networking company with their data.
89% of young women in the survey said that they would never put anything on Facebook they don't want their parents to see.
This is interesting, as that same group is the one most active in most social networking activities.
Many of those surveyed are actively monitoring their own online footprints, removing or distancing themselves from those things they believe will affect others' perception of them.
=== What This Means for Marketing Those who engage in social network marketing should understand that while anyone in this age group who befriends you or chooses to "like" your product is probably paying you a big compliment, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Because these millenials are well plugged in, they are just as likely to be fickle about their choices and change that "like" to a network-wide negative message.
This fickleness means that marketing geared towards this group must be both consistent and reliable.
The product and brand must be held intact.
It also means that you should keep their privacy at the forefront and not abuse or misuse their information.
Although most marketing experts stick with the "you must have a list" mantra, they may be missing an important point regarding that list.
Not only should you have a list, but you should also care for the people who are on the list and carefully guard their trust and perception of your brand.
Making a habit of keeping those on your lists as happy as possible is much easier than attempting damage control when one of them gets angry and several thousand people find out about it through them.
Source...