Gen Y and Social Networks
I was introduced to MySpace my first year in college, 2004. As we walked to class one fall morning, my sister explained to me that she had her own “MySpace”. Thinking to myself, I had no idea what this “MySpace” was or that it even existed. She later showed me this “MySpace” thing. I was thoroughly amazed at the entire idea of being connected to friends and family. Even though it took nearly two years for my sister to convince me to join this social network, I have found this site useful and valuable in my everyday life.
Generation Y (Gen Y), or better known as the Millennials, are the most technologically advanced age group capable of learning how to use new gadgets and gismos as they are introduced. They have been influenced in many ways to communicate via the internet, iphones, email and television. The boom for Gen Y has been joining and using social networks in the past few years. According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, Gen Y makes up 30% of all internet users. Because of this, Gen Y is dominating most of the internet activities – instant messaging, social networking, gaming and blogging – whereas the older generations still prefer emailing.
Unlike their older counterparts, Gen Y is actively seeking entertainment online, such as videos, games, music, and virtual worlds. Nearly 78% of Gen Y’s online activities include playing games and emailing. However, the majority of Gen Y are using social networks to communicate and to keep friends and family updated about their everyday lives. The most popular social networks include Facebook, Myspace, Craigslist, Twitter, Cyworld, and Friendster. If you are a marketer, following social networks will help you connect with Gen Y in new and exciting ways.
Marketers may know that Gen Y doesn’t watch television or MTV anymore; therefore, marketing to them on television is not going to be effective. Gen Y is more about reading blogs, playing games and being connected online. Marketers need to engage in the activities and behaviors of Gen Y to effectively market to this internet savvy group. One way marketers can better understand the interests and values of Gen Y are through social networks. So, what are these social networks all about?
According to Wikipedia, a social network focuses on building online communities for people to share interests and activities, and for those who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. A social network helps engage individuals in new forms of communication on the internet. People can add friends, send messages, update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves and build new relationships among the other users in the networks.
Think of a marketer’s role… they are driven to increase sales, need an excellent customer chain, and need a great amount of product and service exposure. Marketers who use social networks are given the opportunity to learn about people and have the ability to promote their products to different target markets. They can read your profiles to better understand what you like, who you know, what you support, what activities you participate in and much more. Because of this, social networks are an excellent way to find people who may be using your products or to find new people who may be interested in using your merchandise. Once marketers build their relationships with Gen Y, Gen Y is more likely to refer a friend through word of mouth or by sending a bulletin or posting information to all their friends through a social network. In turn, social networks help a marketer increase their customer base and potentially increasing their overall sales.
Advertising on social networks is rapidly growing. Because Gen Y is the main social network user, a marketer can directly target their products. Along with this advertising, several benefits are also present when advertising on these social networks; lower costs, a wider audience, credibility and trust. Lower costs exist when the marketer prescreens the potential consumers within the targeted social network. This will help the marketer to properly aim their ads at the correct audience or audiences. To post an ad for everyone to view and is assumed to fit everyone, will not work for social network advertising. When a marketer includes an advertisement on a social network, their ads could often times be construed as spam or unwanted advertisements. It is important for the marketer to spend time targeting the intended segments so the advertisements reach individuals interested in those specific products.