Youth Marketing and Social Media

• Author: Christine Burroughs
• Posted: July 19th, 2010
• Tags: Facebook, marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter

I was struck this week by an advert in Marketing magazine for the Youth Marketing Conference 2010...

• Comments: Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I was struck this week by an advert in Marketing magazine for the Youth Marketing Conference 2010. With seminars on subjects from social media to mobile marketing, to segmentation of the youth market, the conference looks set to touch on many of the up and coming platforms of youth culture and marketing tools.

As a voluntary youth leader in my spare time, I have become increasingly aware of the impact of marketing upon young people. Social media has taken the youth population by storm. I only have to log into my Facebook account to see and hear all the pages and fan sites that my young people have joined, and I can see the effect of viral marketing. This constant stream of ambient marketing is incredibly effective, and you’d be surprised just how many young people one campaign can reach within an hour! At the youth group I support, we hosted a fundraising event for Stop The Traffik, and it is amazing just how frequently the iconic barcode image has come up on my newsfeed as yet more of my young people sign up to support the cause.

Interestingly, this week Ben and Jerry’s have announced that they are abandoning email marketing for social media, being one of the first big brands to do so. The ice cream brand acted on consumer feedback that their preference for brand communication is via social media platforms, rather than the traditional email marketing. This is a strong move for the iconic ice cream brand, with plans to only contact consumers via email once annually, and to use the platforms of Facebook and Twitter to engage with their customers. Whether this will prove successful for the older generations is yet to be seen, but I’m sure that with young people it will be a success!

Already with official fan pages, Facebook applications and countless unofficial fan pages, it is clear that the brand is already a success on the social networking site, and judging from the number of times my young people mention the brand, it has potential to be ground breaking. Social media is amongst the top new marketing tools, and by the looks of it, it’s definitely an avenue worth considering. The question is how to engage with the culture in such a way as to inspire a following. For that, we will have to just wait and see.

To read more about Ben and Jerry’s decision:
www.nma.co.uk/news/ben-and-jerry%E2%80%99s-drops-email-in-favour-of-social-media/3015773.article

Comments.

• Respond to this post: Leave a comment
• Comments: No responses to this article

Comments are closed.