Leading up to our Future M session on How the Class of 2016 Will Change the World of Marketing, we conducted a mini-focus group with our college interns to better understand their mindsets. In this post, we asked our interns about the similarities and differences in millennials' on-line and off-line personalities? Are your online + offline identities the same? 'The omnipresence of social media caters to our multifaceted personalities, allowing us to compartmentalize our lives online just like we do offline. My friends can have private and work Facebook accounts, remove vowels from their last names to avoid being searched and secretly follow Justin Bieber on Twitter without ever breathing a word of their secret obsession.'? Proma Huq, PR & Social Media Intern 'My online and offline identities are different, but it is also important to remember that these identities are not mutually exclusive. We all take on different personalities when cheap cialis online interacting with our bosses vs. co-workers vs. friends vs. family. Online, my Facebook personality (which is nearly nonexistent, with a private Facebook wall, and the tightest privacy settings on my photos, etc) is vastly different from my Twitter voice (much more outgoing, open to connecting and conversing with strangers), which is also different from my LinkedIn persona (just friendly enough, but much more professional). It's natural this way. Human beings are complex, multi-faceted creatures, and I would expect that social networks reflect these traits.'? Angelina Zhou, Brand Strategy Intern 'I don't see my online personality different from my offline personality, but I don't think that's always the case. There are some crazy stories about people online vs. what they are like in real life.'? Shandi Mahan-Fortunato, Brand Strategy Intern
Leading up to our Future M session on How the Class of 2016 Will Change the World of Marketing, we conducted a mini-focus group with our college interns to better understand their mindsets. In this post, we asked our interns about the similarities and differences in millennials' on-line and off-line personalities? Are your online + offline identities the same? 'The omnipresence of social media caters to our multifaceted personalities, allowing us to compartmentalize our lives online just like we do offline. My friends can have private and work Facebook accounts, remove vowels from their last names to avoid being searched and secretly follow Justin Bieber on Twitter without ever breathing a word of their secret obsession.'? Proma Huq, PR & Social Media Intern 'My online and offline identities are different, but it is also important to remember that these identities are not mutually exclusive. We all take on different personalities when cheap cialis online interacting with our bosses vs. co-workers vs. friends vs. family. Online, my Facebook personality (which is nearly nonexistent, with a private Facebook wall, and the tightest privacy settings on my photos, etc) is vastly different from my Twitter voice (much more outgoing, open to connecting and conversing with strangers), which is also different from my LinkedIn persona (just friendly enough, but much more professional). It's natural this way. Human beings are complex, multi-faceted creatures, and I would expect that social networks reflect these traits.'? Angelina Zhou, Brand Strategy Intern 'I don't see my online personality different from my offline personality, but I don't think that's always the case. There are some crazy stories about people online vs. what they are like in real life.'? Shandi Mahan-Fortunato, Brand Strategy Intern
Leading up to our Future M session on How the Class of 2016 Will Change the World of Marketing, we conducted a mini-focus group with our college interns to better understand their mindsets. In this post, we asked our interns to provide advice to advertisers. What's your advice to advertisers in order to reach and connect with your generation? 'Stay on top of trends and when in doubt, just ask us. So many young people are so, so eager to share their opinions (we have a lot of them, apparently). Once you get us talking, you've got access to all the insights in the world. Don't treat us like we're stupid just because we're young. We definitely know about all the hip fashion trends, the indie music, obscure pop culture references, Internet memes, etc before you will even catch wind of what is going on. Get us on your side, and we'll be invaluable to your advertising campaign.'? - Angelina Zhou, Brand Strategy Intern 'Be where your consumer is! People are becoming brands and brands are becoming people, so have a brand personality that is impossible to forget and augment it with social content.'? Proma Huq, PR & Social Media Intern 'I think the best advice I can give to advertisers is to engage in a meaningful way through social media. A brand can gain a lot of respect from young people by taking the time to learn how we interact and be willing to interact with us in that way.'? - Shandi Mahan-Fortunato, Brand Strategy Intern 'My advice to advertisers would be to stop screaming. I understand (as a student of the advertising industry) the desire for a brand to be as visible as possible. However, on the other side as a consumer if I see a brand all over Facebook, Twitter and on the T, I feel like I can't escape them, and then I start to view the brand as annoying.'? - Karol Mendieta, Account Management Intern Interested in learning more, register for our upcoming Future M session on How the Class of 2016 Will Change the World of Marketing.
Leading up to our Future M session on How the Class of 2016 Will Change the World of Marketing, we conducted a mini-focus group with our college interns to better understand their mindsets. The next few posts will include millennials responses to a few topical prompts. Prompt #1: Do you think the way you learn will be different for the Class of 2020? 'Technology has been changing my education in incredible new ways. Last year for example, I took a class on remix methods at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts with the conceptual artist Steve Lambert. The course was titled 'Free as in Freedom, Not as in Free Beer'?, a quotation from Richard Stallman, American software programmer and freedom activist. Throughout the course, we had a working syllabus on a Google doc, so that students could contribute comments, web links, YouTube videos, etc to the syllabus as they came up. We could also simply delete topics that did not interest us (no permission needed from the instructor), and add topics that we really wanted to learn about in class. So with this new crowd-sourced syllabus supplemented by multi-media tools, our entire class found a more organic and engaging method of learning. It proved to be more effective in the long run; at least, no one dropped the course the entire semester.'? - Angelina Zhou, Brand Strategy Intern 'I believe that learning for the Class of 2020 will be more interactive. In some of my classes (with younger professors) there is already a change in how much engagement is expected from the student. For example, in one of my classes my professor requires that we use lore.com, a Facebook type of site for students and teachers. On the site, the class has a stream where we are expected to post "interesting" things we find from commercials to new apps. If this is happening in 2012, I can only imagine the amount that this type of participation will rise.'? - Karol Mendieta, Account Management Intern 'I definitely think that I will learn differently from the Class of 2020. I graduated college in 2010 - so that's a 10 year difference. My class obviously learned differently than the Class of 2000, with the internet being huge. Sitting in libraries for hours was no longer was necessary (every resource was at our fingertips). We also connect with each other in numerous ways (texting, facebook, twitter, etc.). I can only imagine that the Class of 2020 will have opportunities I only dreamed of when I was in college. They'll definitely be more efficient." - Shandi Mahan-Fortunato, Brand Strategy Intern 'Much like the ever-changing world of technology, the way we learn and absorb information is also constantly evolving. With the technological influences that permeate our everyday lives (some of which didn't even exist five years ago), the Class of 2020 will undoubtedly have access to a world of new resources to augment their learning.'? Proma Huq, PR & Social Media Intern Interested in learning more, register for our upcoming Future M session on How the Class of 2016 Will Change the World of Marketing.
A generation ago you were popular if you had 20 friends. You had 'influence'? if you started fashion trends or were able to get a last minute reservation at the latest "it" restaurant. And while one could argue that those definitions still hold true, today's Millennials have completely redefined the framework of social identity. As documented in AMP Agency's recent Psychology of Social study, the age-old human desires of connection, attachment and identity establishment have not changed since the stone age - but the process and manner in which they are achieved has shifted significantly with the rise of social media. We're now enabled to fulfill these basic human needs via our technological capacity to connect through social channels and communities. And it's become a part of everyday identity. Tomorrow's consumer will define him/herself by the brands they like on Facebook, the songs they stream via Spotify, the places they check-in on FourSquare, the people they follow on Twitter, the photos they upload to Instagram and the online identity that they establish early on in life. Someone's social footprint is already a factor in how online daters find their mates, how employers screen potential employees, how universities evaluate applicants and how record companies scan for the next Justin Bieber. So what does it mean for brands? Social is no longer a vertical channel. It must be considered, and likely implemented, across everything a brand does. It is no longer enough to simply create a positive brand experience (a challenge in its own right). It's now about creating positive, shareable brand experiences for consumers while simultaneously helping to facilitate the social sharing of those experiences. As brand identity continues to become an integral part of consumers' individual identities, brands should look for ways to facilitate evangelism and provide on- and off-line status perks to your customers. American Express has done a fantastic job via their Amex Sync programming by offering an incentive to members to link their credit cards with their Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare profiles in return for offers, content and experiences. Not only does it provide their members with immediate savings and the status bump associated with exclusive access but it provides an entry point for the brand to access the valuable real estate of status updates and implied (or in this case, actual) endorsement. Another brand that's done a great job extending social across all consumer touch points and engagements is Nike with their Nike+ Ecosystem. The Nike+ Running app allows users to sync and share their fitness goals and achievements with their social communities, helping to not only track their performance, but also helping to keep them motivated. Nike+ Fuelband's recent integration into Path takes things a step further by allowing Path users to map their progress against their daily activity goals. If you have trouble keeping yourself accountable, now you can rely on the motivation of shared competition (your mom ran more miles than you today?!?) or the pressure of public workout tracking (my girlfriend will know if I skip that workout today). There is tremendous opportunity to further integrate your brand into shared social experiences. Look for opportunities to provide consumers with "status building" status updates and other public badges that can help them build social cache. Allow your brand to help consumers build their individual brand identities.
A generation ago you were popular if you had 20 friends. You had 'influence'? if you started fashion trends or were able to get a last minute reservation at the latest "it" restaurant. And while one could argue that those definitions still hold true, today's Millennials have completely redefined the framework of social identity. As documented in AMP Agency's recent Psychology of Social study, the age-old human desires of connection, attachment and identity establishment have not changed since the stone age - but the process and manner in which they are achieved has shifted significantly with the rise of social media. We're now enabled to fulfill these basic human needs via our technological capacity to connect through social channels and communities. And it's become a part of everyday identity. Tomorrow's consumer will define him/herself by the brands they like on Facebook, the songs they stream via Spotify, the places they check-in on FourSquare, the people they follow on Twitter, the photos they upload to Instagram and the online identity that they establish early on in life. Someone's social footprint is already a factor in how online daters find their mates, how employers screen potential employees, how universities evaluate applicants and how record companies scan for the next Justin Bieber. So what does it mean for brands? Social is no longer a vertical channel. It must be considered, and likely implemented, across everything a brand does. It is no longer enough to simply create a positive brand experience (a challenge in its own right). It's now about creating positive, shareable brand experiences for consumers while simultaneously helping to facilitate the social sharing of those experiences. As brand identity continues to become an integral part of consumers' individual identities, brands should look for ways to facilitate evangelism and provide on- and off-line status perks to your customers. American Express has done a fantastic job via their Amex Sync programming by offering an incentive to members to link their credit cards with their Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare profiles in return for offers, content and experiences. Not only does it provide their members with immediate savings and the status bump associated with exclusive access but it provides an entry point for the brand to access the valuable real estate of status updates and implied (or in this case, actual) endorsement. Another brand that's done a great job extending social across all consumer touch points and engagements is Nike with their Nike+ Ecosystem. The Nike+ Running app allows users to sync and share their fitness goals and achievements with their social communities, helping to not only track their performance, but also helping to keep them motivated. Nike+ Fuelband's recent integration into Path takes things a step further by allowing Path users to map their progress against their daily activity goals. If you have trouble keeping yourself accountable, now you can rely on the motivation of shared competition (your mom ran more miles than you today?!?) or the pressure of public workout tracking (my girlfriend will know if I skip that workout today). There is tremendous opportunity to further integrate your brand into shared social experiences. Look for opportunities to provide consumers with "status building" status updates and other public badges that can help them build social cache. Allow your brand to help consumers build their individual brand identities.
