Sitting in on a PR meeting last week, I was pondering the thought of my internal consulting teams starting to blog and participate in social media when someone from across the room said Social Media is more relative to the younger demographics we have in our organization.
Of course the more seasoned veterans of my team all pointed to me as the NON example of Social Media being age related (don’t go asking me my age now). When I remarked …. “Social media isn’t an age thing it’s a lifestyle.”
And I do believe that is true …. I think the adoption or lack thereof in some companies is because the more senior folks have now adopted the internet and social media rather than growing up IN the internet with social media all around them.
What’s your view and how is the adoption of social media going in your organization? I would love to hear about it.
Tags: Social Media
I’ve noticed an interesting trend recently, one I call The Magic Week.
This is the time between our first social media talk with a skeptical client and our follow-up meeting a week later.
In that week, they often start asking around and spending more personal time on sites that they’ve long assumed were just packed with kids. They come back with this earnest level of surprise, telling us things like “you know, this stuff’s actually pretty useful!”
I love the magic week. The only thing better than convincing someone of social media’s wide range is watching them convince themselves.
Never heard of the magic week – now the next trick would be to get the magic week to be enterprise wide!
I would agree with you if you are defining lifestyle as “…behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time and place, including social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. The behaviors and practices within lifestyles are a mixture of habits, conventional ways of doing things, and reasoned actions. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual’s attitudes, values or worldview. Therefore, a lifestyle is a means of forging a sense of self and to create cultural symbols that resonate with personal identity.”
Some people are more social, more comfortable with writing down their thoughts and (possibly) sharing them with others.
For those people that have the time and inclination, social media fits.
For those that lack the time or the inner desire to turn every stranger into a friend or share their inner thoughts with others (or, in the case of Twitter, sharing random tidbits of their day), social media is more work than pleasure.
It’s because of that second group that I hope we remember that social media is a piece of the communication puzzle and not the entire puzzle.
I agree use of social media is not about someone’s age. In fact, the people I know engaging in social media span a couple generations (from my 20-something colleagues to my parents in their 50s). Also, a lot of my 20-something friends and colleagues, though they’re using social media, are doing so in their personal lives (vs for business in any way). I think it’s the older, more experienced business folks who are more able to leverage social media for business purposes.
Ellie
Great to hear that you think the more experienced business person would be better able to leverage social media
it is still hard to imagine CEOs using social media or even social networking but again we are still in the early adopter phase for that demographic
We agree definitely a lifestyle as we’ve seen people of all ages embrace social media. There is so many different forms of it that if one person does not embrace one kind of social media medium – they may in fact embrace another.
It definitely needs to be referred to as a lifestyle — after all, the input tools are the same for everybody — a computer, followed by a keyboard and finally a mouse. The willingness to use any of the SM tools available will therefore depend on the content and the end user.
Well the average demographics of users on MySpace and now Facebook are in the mid 30’s There are plenty of 40 and 50 years olds on these sites as well. Linkedin is full of people in their “older years”.
I am often surprised when meeting with ad agencies about socail network marketing that many of the younger people are not using social networks. So I agree it is a lifestyle and one you should get acquainted with ASAP if you are in marketing.
There are many myths and misleading statements about social network marketing so it pays to have first hand knowledge.
You might be interested in some white papers I have written on the subject. You can get them at http://www.octanecorp.com/WhitePapers/tabid/2159/Default.aspx
I agree that social media doesn’t have to be a demographic issue as it catches on even more. However, marketers who haven’t stuck their toes in this marketing pond, should really try it out or risk being left behind.
I hesitate to say if it’s generational or not, bc I might be on the line at 35. But someone asked me today if I twitter or tweet — and I just had to laugh.
I agree it’s a lifestyle “activity” and in fact I would go so far as to call it a “technology snack.”
People seem to need these small fixes or snacks like they need cheetos – and it seems to have the same rather dulling affect.
I think social media is becoming more and more a life style for the young. They are permanently anchored nowadays in social networks, and, more that that, they are all the same, all the time, online. It’s their basic environment.
I work with youth on a regular basis both proffesionally and personally and have gained a lot of insight from listening to the conversations they have with each other.
The most intriguing of which is one I have heard a lot lately: “my mom just got Facebook and sent me a friend request…what do I do now?”. They are scared to death and feel like their privacy is being invaded.
I wonder how the aging of Facebook will affect usage among younger users going forward.
I agree with Pat. Most of us that work 50 hours a week while coping with family duties, do not have time to be assimilated into social media. Those of any age with the time (young=more time) are much more likely to become engaged in these sites.
I do think there is a definite correlation between age and use of social media, primarily because the ‘youngers’ have grown up with these tools and it’s part of their daily life. For those of us who have been working a while, it’s about learning something new and many of us simply don’t perceive we have the time. However, if the value of the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) is communicated well, people are far more likely to invest the time necessary to use the tool. Although I am definitely out of the young demographic, I am more interested in trying and joining simply because I am a marketer and I need to stay current. Thus, I have motivation.
I found this blog post by our intern http://www.akgroup.com/news/blog/200807/virtual-work-and-social-psychology revealing in that it gave a concrete example of the benefits of using Facebook in a different, more adult way. Showing a collaborative feature of Facebook demonstrates a real benefit that can apply to business. I call it an “Aha!” moment when a concept suddenly makes sense.
This doesn’t mean everyone will adopt social networking tools or the same one, thus creating a level of challenge for marketers… we have to reach out in many different ways to get to the entire audience or risk not having our message heard.
I am a baby boomer, but feel quite connected with young coworkers and learn much about social media from them. I joined Facebook because of them, and find 90% of my ‘friends’ are 18-30. Very few of my generation are on there. When someone does surface, it is usually a scary person from high school 30 years ago, that you didn’t want to associate with then, and now you feel like they’re stalking you:) We do find it an invasion of privacy and a time consuming ‘hobby’.
From a business perspective, I work in an industry where many of the people we sell too are not tech saavy, yet we sell a tech product – long story. The bottom line is that a social media tool or campaign wouldn’t work. Blogs, RSS feeds – nothing like that would be beneficial and would be high maintenance with little ROI. Using it for B2B marketing is risky and has to be very tightly managed.
I want to stay current with social media, so I dabble a bit, and stay close to my younger cube-mates, oh, and my friends’ kids.
Although the company I work for has a uniquely young team heading the ship, most of us are fairly unfamiliar with Social Media. I think this speaks exactly to your point Paul – It’s a lifestyle thing, not an age thing. And because of this, as I begin to look at relevant social media endeavors for our company to explore, I am balanced by an enthusiastic yet somewhat skeptical team.
It’s not just an age thing or only an age thing because it is a confluence of interests – in web tools that make it work and genuine affinity for what is going on outside of your offline room.
It doesn’t hurt that you’re personality is more social but thing is the web makes it easy for you to participate even if you’re actually living in a cave, with a wi-fi that is.
Best.
alain
http://www.mor.ph
I am a young “Boomer” Sales Director and digital “immigrant” who has rcently chosen to adapt to more of this “lifestyle”, as I have found that it is integral to any and all future marketing and conversation that I have with my retail travel agents, who are in dire need of new marketing thought. These new tools are so efficient, but it is hard to get many to see the value and to get beyond the traditional methods. I even have one long term 25 yr plus sales rep that can barely do an attachment in word! I am choosing to take a leadership role among my peers with this for my company and love it!
Social Media can very well be a lifestyle for everyone, but tends to go towards 40 and under. It usually depends on the individual but there is a trend in today’s Marketing, Advertising, and PR world: the employees are all young and with ideas. The CEOs of these companies are also young. For example, Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5W Public Relations is only 33 and has kept 5WPR growing for the past five years. But this is the way it should be; we have to continuously reach newer audiences, and companies have to have the right PR or Marketing to target these consumers creatively.
Definitly its a lifestyle.Future is totally social media.