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Why You Should Care if Teens are Using Twitter
09/01/09
Why You Should Care if Teens are Using Twitter
You should be listening to teens if you want to win at long term marketing.
This afternoon I saw an interesting tweet come flying in that immediately caught my attention.
@SharonMcP RT @remarkablogger: Why I don't care if teens aren't using Twitter: Link to full post
I of course had to go read the post to see if it was a joke.
My interpretation -
Nope the guy really believes that there is no reason for teens to be on Twitter. He basically says that they are not a customer. He says adults have money and teens don?t.
(you can read his post in full from the link above).
Ignoring teens is just bad planning on a business level.
Cait is 15 and she certainly tweets, along with several of her friends.
She has a few blogs and she is also learning other ways to make money online.
She does not want to flip burgers for a living. In fact she would like to be paying her own bills by working online when she is older.
I doubt that there will come a time when she is not involved online even if all she does is shop. Hmmm, shop! That means spending money!
Where is this leading?
To that fact that even though Cait is a teen now she will be more of a buyer soon.
Who will she buy from?
People she trust.
Who will she trust?
The people that are helping her now (as a teen).
People like Ed Dale that encourage kids to be part of the 30 Day Challenge are smart.
The ladies at the Secret Women?s Business Network that are willing to help her with what ever they can.
The presenters at LaunchTreeLive that had 2 teenage girls in the audience, gave them advice, and treated them as young business people (not as ?no money to spend? kids).
These are just a FEW of the people that Cait respects in online business and marketing.
She has people on email and skype that she goes to when she needs an honest answer. Each person has encouraged or given advice to her. These are the people she TRUST!
These are the people that are going to have a strong advocate in their corner when all those other teens are grown up and looking for opportunities, mentoring, a web site built, SEO?.
We all know that young people will listen to others their own age long before they listen to a parent or other ?old? person. Cait could have a great deal of influence with others her age.
Who is she going to refer her group of young friends to when they need something?
The people that have already built her trust.
If you are going to ignore people until you think they have money to spend, then you have already lost the battle.
The teens of today will be the innovators of many online programs within the next few years.
Look at:
Mark Zuckerberg he launched Facebook at age 19.
Bill Gates was 20 when he started Microsoft along with
Paul Allen who was 23.
Sean Belnick is 19 and a multi millionaire with BizChair.com
Leanna Archer age 13 CEO of Leanna's Inc
I am sure my readers can come up with more young entrepreneurs.
You have no way of knowing who will be the creator of something great. It would be a shame if you were not involved because you were to busy worrying about who has what in their wallet.
When you start eliminating people because of how they look, their age, or any other reason, YOU are ultimately the looser. That is a fact!
Sheryl Loch
I used Cait as an example in this post because I can, I also know the most about her.
There are MANY teens out there that are looking at their future and it involves the internet. Start listening to them!
Twitter is an easy way to hear what teens are talking about!
4 comments
That's right Sheryl, you said it! I agree 100% so we don't get to slap each other around this time but there's always tomorrow :)Big business doesn't specifically market to a younger audience because it's a long shot, they spend millions to 'know' how effective their advertising will be. We don't have the resources for that kind of market research but that doesn't mean we have to ignore the influence teenagers, and even young children, have on Mom and Dad.
I will acknowledge that many teens don't tweet. At least not like facebook or myspace. I'm not sure why but I do think it's great that teens like Cait are using the web for more than a chat box. Cait is ahead of the crowd and will more than likely skip the whole employee role and own her own successful business very early in life.
Oh, congratulations on making Kristi's Fetching Friday today :)
Recently (08/25/09) Brian D. Hawkins wrote Get Featured With Our Promotional Buttons. Check it out!
How could you not consider today's teens as tomorrows consumers? That is commercial suicide. Heck, especially women, who have no idea how to control money, who will go shopping on a whim buying anything with a special tag on it. :evil grin:Hey Sheryl, just living up to my bad ass Aussie rep that you're spreading around :D
Recently (09/04/09) Sire wrote Why I Don’t Comment On Blogger Blogs. Check it out!
@Brian,We have not got to slap each other for awhile. Would you please say something wrong so, I'll get that out of my system.
I think that many bigger companies have the chance to use TV, magazines...to get their brand planted in teens heads long before a teen is the acctuall buyer.
Without a huge brand name or the mass commercials then we as online marketers have to work a bit harder to make sure that the next generation is looking for us. ;)
@Sire,
Yes, some teens are not learning how to manage money.
As for it being females or males that spend more - I bet it is about split in half.
In fact just ask Cait if you can barrow money sometime. She might say yes. She would also tell you that you will need to pay back more than you borrowed. God forbid if you are late paying her back, she in a ruthless debt collector. ;)
As for your 'Bad ass' reputation - you don't need any help from me! mmwaaaa
Recently (09/11/09) Sheryl Loch wrote Get More Backlinks Indexed Faster. Check it out!
Hi Sheryl. I agree, and my plan is to market towards teenagers the most when I take my business marketing offline and into the streets. It's just not good business to be snobby about who you are talking to. People pick up on that, and they will most likely decide that they don't want to do business with a snob. Just because someone doesn't have money doesn't mean that they won't in the future, or that they don't know someone who has money. You NEVER know who will help you out in the future, so you should be nice to everyone.
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