Marketing To Millennials
Social Media & Online Behavior
e-Strategy.com

“This is the first generation to grow up digital —
coming of age in a world where computers, the
internet, videogames, and cell phones are
common, and where expressing themselves
through these tools is the norm. Given how
present these technologies are in their lives, do
young people act, think and learn differently
today? And what are the implications for
education and for society?”
MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton

What Do You Care About?
• Raising visibility
• Executing on program elements
• Informing
• Inspiring
• Getting Feedback
And maybe…
• What is social media, why do teens like it,
and why does it matter?

Life of a 25-54
• Read off-line newspapers and magazines
• Like mobile for voice (and a few for data) but do not see their world on
mobile phones
• Aggregate information on-line and use RSS (though few know the term)
• Community important for tasks, much less so for social. Will stay put.
• Trust experts on factual information but rely heavily on reviews of peers
on hotels, electronics, etc
• When they create content it is to share reviews and experiences (not
diaries or intimacies)
• Rely heavily on personalized portals for news and financials
• Care GREATLY about sources of news and information on-line
• Heavy into e-mail
The Impact of the Internet--Year Six Report, 2006
Surveying the Digital Future—The World Internet Project
USC Annenberg School--Center for the Digital Future

Life of a 12-24
• Will never read a newspaper but attracted to some magazines
• Will never own a land-line phone
• Will not watch television on someone else’s schedule
• Trust unknown peers more than experts
• For first time willing (2005) to pay for digital content. Never before.
• Little interest in the source of information and most information
aggregated.
• Community at the center of Internet experience
• Everything will move to mobile
• Less interested in television than any generation before (except as a
display for videogames)
• Want to move content freely from platform to platform with no
restrictions
The Impact of the Internet--Year Six Report, 2006
• Want to be heard (user generated) Surveying the Digital Future—The World Internet
Project - USC Annenberg School--Center for the
• Use Text Messaging (and IM). Think e-mail isFuture their parents
Digital
for

Millennials
(Born Between 1982-2002)
• Millennials = GI Generation
• Millennials are the children of
Boomers & Xers
• Millennials: Cute baby movies,
precocious children, child safety laws
& products, school shooting laws,
amber alerts, MySpace scares
• Structured lives & Group Play
• Most supervised generation in history
• Pushed to succeed and doted over
• Civic minded
• Diverse, Tolerant & International
• Technology is a given

Is traditional media still important?
Well actually…Yes
• Traditional media still “primes the pipe” of a
significant portion of original online
communication.
• Traditional reporters still add disproportionate
cache’ to a conversation.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY: Traditional media is starting
to “get it” and leading with their strengths while
expanding their Social Media offerings.

Does Using Traditional Media Still
Work?
Answer: Yes. But really…Not by itself
• It’s almost never enough
• It’s becoming an add-on approach,
rather than the starting point
• But…It can work great in synergy
with a social media approach

“Teens and Generation Y (age 18-28) are
significantly more likely than older users
to send and receive instant messages,
play online games, create blogs,
download music, and search for school
information.”
Pew Research “The Ties That Bind”

How can we use Web 2.0
effectively?
• Engagement
• Empowerment
• Relationships

•Go to where teens are getting
information
•Provide something compelling for
them
•Be relevant and interesting!
•Be a resource

•Encourage teens to become
resources
•Provide ways to let them spread “the
message”
•Make sure “the message” is valuable
(or at least funny!)

•Be a two-way street
•Become a forum for the issue
•Be trustworthy
•Provide “authority”

Old(-ish) Media -Viral Content
• Webpages
• Contests (New Media Too!)
• Via Email
• Face to Face (Schools, Parents, etc. “can
prime the pump”)

New Media -Viral Content
• Videos
• Games
• Podcasts
• Contests
• Blog entries
• Via Social Media Sites
• (and email)

Social Media = Spreading the
Word
• There are millions of young people with an
opinion.
• Opinions count. More than ever!
• The barrier to entry is near zero.
• There are powerful conversations online.
• Some of those conversations have only a few
people who care about them (and they are still
powerful).
• Search is a great equalizer.

Internet Usage Demographics
as a Percent of Population

United States: Average Web Usage
Month of January 2008
Online Sessions Per Person 36
Domains Visited Per Person 67
PC Time Per Person 37:01:59
Nielson Netratings

• Symantec (Feb 2008) found that parents underestimate the
time their kids spend online by a factor of 10

Teen Communication Patterns

Nearly 2/3 of Teens are Online Content Creators
• 93% of teens use the internet
• 64% of online teens ages 12-17 have
participated in one or more among a wide
range of content-creating activities up from
57% of online teens in 2004
• 39% of online teens share their own artistic
creations online, such as artwork, photos,
stories, or videos, up from 33% in 2004
• 33% create or work on webpages or blogs
for others, including those for groups they
belong to, friends, or school assignments,
basically unchanged from 2004 (32%)
• 28% have created their own online journal
or blog, up from 19% in 2004
• 27% maintain their own personal webpage,
up from 22% in 2004 Percentage who engage in these activities
(Pew: Teens and Social Media Report)
• 26% remix content they find online into their
own creations, up from 19% in 2004

Demographics of Teen Content Creators
The percentage of content creators in each demographic category:
Sex
Boys 45%
Girls 55
Age
12-14 45
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey
15-17 55 of Parents and Teens, October-November 2006.
Family Income Content Creators n=572. Margin of error for teens is
±4%. *Content creators are defined as teens who
Less than $30k annually 13 have done at least one of the following: created or
worked on a blog, created or worked on
$30,000 - $49,999 21 webpages, shared original creative
$50,000 - $74,999 19
$75,000 + 38
Locale
Urban 23
Suburban 52
Rural 25

Content creators are not devoting their lives
exclusively to virtual participation.

Teens and website creation
• One in four (27%) online teens (ages 14-17 ) work on
their own webpages (22% of online teens in 2004)
• 14% of adults (18+) work on their own webpages
• 32% of online teen girls create or work on their own
webpage, compared with just 22% of boys.
• Online girls ages 15-17 and those who are online on a
daily basis are among the most likely to maintain their
own websites; 34% of each of these groups create or
work on their own webpages.

Social Network Sites
• Find your demographic
• Identify passionate individuals and
communities
• Encourage and participate in community
discussion
• Mobilize
• Display your “Brand”
• Example: Facebook “Causes”

Average Hours per Person per Week: Age 12-17
at MySpace and Facebook,
August 2007 (U.S. Homes)
Nielsen//NetRatings

Social Media Sites are Heavily Used by Teens
• 70% of older (15-17) girls
have used an online social
network and 70% have a
profile
• 57% of older (15-17) boys
have used an online social
network and 54% of them
have a profile
• Nearly half of social
networking teens visit these
sites at least daily
• 30% of online adults report
having a profile on a site
• In 2008, 77% of teen Internet
users will visit a social
networking site at least once
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
a month (Source eMarketer) Survey of Parents and Teens, October-November
2006.

Social Media - Private
Messages
Source: Pew Foundation

Teen Users of Social Network Sites Are More
Likely to Create All Kinds of Content
Content - Creating Activities Online teens Online teens
who use SNS who don’t use SNS
Post pictures for others to see 73% 16%
Share own artistic work 53 22
Create / work on own blog 42 11
Maintain own webpage 42 8
Create / work on webpage for others 41 23
Remix content 32 18
Post videos for others to see 22 6
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey of Parents and Teens, October-November 2006.

Facebook “Causes”
• Facebook Application
• 269,988 daily active
users
• Leverages communities
of common interests
• Allows direct (and
immediate) donation
• Well funded developers

Video and Photo Communities
• Makes your material easier to find
• YouTube (Video) and Flickr (Photos) are the
biggest – and hosting is free. PhotoBucket is
highly trafficed by Teens as well.
• Viewers are self selecting = Almost every view is
a quality one.
• Video and photos can tell a story – sometimes
better or with more impact than text
• If you have people taking photos on-site or if you
have commercials – you already have content
• Video has proven more viral then photos – also
more expensive to do well

Video and Photo Communities

Online Video: The Future is starting now…
“The fact is that people don’t read anymore.”
Steve Jobs: When asked why Apple did not include an eBook reader on the iPod or iPhone

Online Video
• Online video now reaches a mainstream audience; 57% of online adults
have used the internet to watch or download video, and 19% do so on a
typical day.
• Three in four young adult internet users watch or download video
online.
• News video is the most popular category for everyone except young
adults.
• More than half of online video viewers share links to the video they find
with others.
• 20% rate/comment on videos they watch
• Most online video viewers have watched with other people.
• Professional videos are preferred to amateur productions online, but
amateur content appeals to coveted segments of the young (especially
young male) audience.
• coveted segments of the young male audience.
• Few pay to access online video.

Online Video: Dramatic Increases

Online Video Activities

YouTube Dominates Online
Video

Popular Video Genres

Blogs
• Still “The King” of social media
• Search engine positive
• Lowest barrier to immediate entry (Social Networks
take more time and more effort)
• The right bloggers can be an outlet for your
information – and a rally point
• Your own blog can be the same thing!
• Being a blogger provides cache when approaching
bloggers – this is especially key with teens
• Need someone with passion, commitment, and…a
bit of discretion

Teens and Blogs
•Dramatic increases in teen blogging activity account for
much of the growth in the content creation category
•Girls have fueled the growth of the teen blogosphere
•Teens from lower-income and single-parent households are
more likely to blog
•Half of all online teens read blogs
•Teens who are active bloggers, are also highly active offline
•40% of teen bloggers remix music/video/image content

Communities of information
• Digg
• Del.icio.us (delicious.com also works)

Wiki’s
What is a wiki?
• A user-edited compilation of knowledge (Wikipedia, Etc.)
• Easy to edit – usually by anyone allowed access
• Allows branching of content (linking between wiki pages)
Your Own Wiki:
• Generating a knowledge base
• Planning and documenting
• Inter/Intra-organization communications
• Often requires a guide/facilitator and an editor-in-chief
• OpenPlans (www.openplans.org)

U.S. Podcast Audience
Total Podcast audiences are expected to increase
500 percent from 2006 to 2010 from 10 million to
nearly 50 million
- Marketing News July 15, 2006 (eMarketer Inc).
Active Podcast audiences are also expected to
increase 500 percent from 2006 to 2010 from 3
million to nearly 15 million
- Marketing News July 15, 2006 (eMarketer
Inc).

Podcasting

Cell phones
• Those who talk the most on the phone are ages 18 to 24 (who
averaged 290 calls a month in 2007)
• Text messaging was highest among 13- to 17-year-olds (who
averaged 435 messages a month in 2007)
• Users 45 to 54 years old spoke on the phone 194 times, on
average, a month and sent only 57 text messages
• Who young people talk to says something symbolically about
who they are tied to
• Young people are not just talking for two hours straight, but
they are continually connecting through the day
• Text Messages are symbolic gestures of friendship

Perceived Benefits Of Owning A Cell Phone

Cell Phone Features

Personal \"feeling\" When Owning A Cell Phone

Face-to-face contact still matters
• Across the spectrum, the communication
activity that changes the least is the
frequency of face-to-face encounters
• It is still often the best way to impart initial
information - especially with access to
schools (school creates a captive audience)
• But… it is one of the slowest viral
mechanisms - even if one of the strongest

Email Continues to Lose its Allure Among Teens
• 14% of all teens report sending emails to their
friends every day (making it the least popular
form of daily social communication)
• Younger online girls are the exception - 22% of
girls ages 12-14 email friends daily (compared
with 11% of younger boys and 13% of older
teens)

Other Methods of Communication
are Changing
• The number of teens who report instant
message use has dropped since 2004…but…
• Girls 15-17 have the IM highest usage (82%)
• Chatroom visits have declined significantly (18%
at the end of 2006 versus 55% in 2000)

Games and Gadgets
• 67% of teens report playing computer or console
games (such as Xbox or PlayStation)
• 49% of those teens say that they play games online.
• Boys are more likely than girls to play computer or
console games - A third of boys and one in ten girls
(ages 12-14) play video or computer games almost
every day
• Younger teens are more likely to play computer or
• console games than their older counterparts
Teens who play video games are also more
likely to report that they hang out with their
friends in person
• Teens who play video games are also likely to
go online more frequently than non-gaming
teens.
• Teens whose parents earn less than $30,000
annually are more likely than wealthier teens
to play computer or console games and to

Widgets
• 43% of young people ages 18 to 24
know they use widgets
• the older the person, the less likely
he or she is to be familiar with them
• In November of 2997 81.1% of the
total US Internet audience viewed a
Web widget (a figure that does not
include people who used
applications on Facebook.)
• Widgets allow persistent
information delivery
• Widgets can be easy to distribute
• Widgets can enhance the sense of
community
• Widgets boost the functionally of a
website of profile

Online Dangers…?
• One in five children
is now approached
by online
predators…?
• Does the “Stranger
Myth” exist online?

Online Positives
• Easier to keep in touch with larger group of friends,
spread out by geography
• Kids are learning communications skills such as typing
and writing by doing IM, texting and blogging
• Shy people in person may be better able to
communicate in an online setting
• More freedoms online than in real world where
freedoms are curtailed for teens

Online Negatives
• Posted thoughts are out there for everyone in the world to see
• Too much texting — English writing skills can be hurt
• Ergonomic problems of too much computer, texting time.
• Students spend time on school computers texting or posting to
blog, when they should be doing school work
• Reliance on texting or email rather than face-to-face or phone
conversations.
• Online bullying and saying things online you’d never say to
someone’s face (“flaming”)
• Technology Addiction
• Texting while driving

Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks
• Many teenagers avidly use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook,
and employ a variety of tools and techniques to manage their online identities.
• Teens post a variety of things on their profiles, but a first name and photo are
standard.
• Boys and girls have different views and different behaviors when it comes to
privacy.
• Older teens share more personal information than younger teens.
• To teens, all personal information is not created equal. They say it is very
important to understand the context of an information-sharing encounter.
• Most teen profile creators suspect that a motivated person could eventually
identify them. They also think strangers are more likely to contact teens online
than offline.
• Parents are using technical and non-technical measures to protect their
children online.
• More households have rules about internet use than have rules about other

What Information Teens Think it’s
OK to Give Out Online?
Source: Pew Foundation

Stranger Contact

“Cyberbullying”

Parents Regulation of Media Usage

Landing Page Design
• More “scanable” (Easy to read with short
chunks of well headlined text, bullets, and
bolded keywords)
• Simple design – It’s not
your homepage
• Don’t ask for too much
information too soon
• Say Thank You!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Consider it for anything that might appear online
including:
– Webpages
– Landing pages
– Media releases
– Externally hosted content (video, photos, etc.)
• Don’t sacrifice readability for SEO
• Don’t sacrifice long term rankings for quick gains
• Use your time wisely

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
1. Consider your audience
2. Generate a keyword/key phrase list
3. Generate a list of pages that can link to and from your content
4. Create your page using the key words
– First in titles
– Second in headings
– Third in body text
5. Link as much as possible to relevant content (especially content that
shares your key words/phrases). This does not boost your rankings, but it
does help identify your content.
6. If it’s information worth sharing, use Digg, and Del.icio.us
7. Disseminate your content (upload, email, host)
8. Link to your own content and make sure others know how and when to link
to it too.
9. Measure results and modify if necessary
10. Build upon success
SEO is not just for your webpages - Keywords benefit all your social
media content.

Social Media Trend Projections

Tweens Online

Teens and Social Media: A Summary
•The use of social media – from blogging to online social networking to creation of all kinds of
digital material – is central to many teenagers’ lives
•Girls continue to lead the charge as the teen blogosphere grows; 28% of online teens have
created a blog, up from 19% in 2004.
•The growth in blogs tracks with the growth in teens’ use of social networking sites, but they
do not completely overlap.
•Online boys are avid users of video-sharing websites such as YouTube, and boys are more
likely than girls to upload.
•Digital images – stills and videos – have a big role in teen life.
•Posting images and video often starts a virtual conversation. Most teens receive some
feedback on the content they post online.
•Most teens restrict access to their posted photos and videos – at least some of the time.
Adults restrict access to the same content less often.
•In the midst of the digital media mix, the landline is still a lifeline for teen social life.
•Multi-channel teens layer each new communications opportunity on top of pre-existing
channels.
•Email continues to lose its luster among teens as texting, instant messaging, and social
networking sites facilitate more frequent contact with friends.

Key Online Performance Indicators
Traditional Online Measurement Criteria:
• Cancellations / non-renewals
• Page Views
• Return Visitors
• Service/funding requests and inquiries
• Search Metrics (i.e. Google ranking)
• Media Mentions
• Materials Downloads

Key Online Performance Indicators
Future Online Measurement Criteria:
• It’s beyond direct convertibility
• Becoming a part of your community
• Subscribing to your (blog, video, podcast,
news, etc.) feed
• Highly rating your post, video, article, etc.
• Embedding your widget
• Passing on your message (Viral messaging)

David Erickson
derickson@tunheim.com
Pat Lilja
plilja@tunheim.com
www.tunheim.com