Three Reasons Gen Y Doesn't Get Twitter

I love Twitter, but, my 18-year old daughter still insists she doesn't "get it". She explained it to me yesterday this way: for her, Facebook functions as a general organizing tool, much as Outlook does for me. Facebook is her calendar, contact book, and primary messaging platform. Any communication gaps are filled by GoogleTalk, text messaging, and if all else fails, dialing. Twitter adds nothing meaningful to this mix -- especially since her friends don't use it. Twitter is a hard sell, and I have finally given up.

The data has consistently shown 18-24 year olds lagging in Twitter adoption. Earlier this year we did focus groups among Millennials on Social Media usage ("The Millennial View of Social Media: Why Should I Be Your Friend?". We were especially interested in talking to Twitter users - but they were hard to find. I suspect if we repeated the study today, they would be equally hard to find.

A CNN article by an intern, Sharon Vaknin, titled "Generation Y: We're Just Not That Into Twitter" provides another view. Vaknin agrees with my daughter that Twitter has nothing to add over Facebook, but suggests a second theory for the lack of interest. Picking up on the Theory of Millennial Narcissism, Vaknin says Twitter offers little opportunity for 'self-branding':

Twitter's microblogging platform is what many Gen Y's may describe as "like Facebook, but just the status update." What is the point of that? We like to consolidate, so Nemeth explains that he doesn't "want to join another community, just tell people what (he's) doing." We have everything we need on Facebook. Based on Twenge's theory, a good explanation of my generation's lag in joining the Twitter mania is that there isn't an obvious way to achieve a self-brand on Twitter.Participating on Twitter requires a fan base that knows why you are unique, special, and deserve attention. Fan base aside, the Web site's interface paves a short path for cyberstalking--there is nothing to find past a user's status.

For example, Sally went to a great party last weekend, but where are the photos? Who went with her? These features, which Gen Y's value so much, are missing. As much as I like to know what my friends are doing, updates on Twitter happen so fast there really isn't time to react. More importantly, my friends don't have time to react to my activities.

Largely as a result of the digital communication tools on which we were raised, a big part of my generation wants to know what the cyberworld thinks of us, and we want its inhabitants to pay attention to us. How can they do this if they're following 300 other people? For the Millennials to make the move, Twitter will have to find a way to integrate the self-branding features MySpace gave birth to and Facebook nurtured. Even if they're packaged in 140 characters or less.

I have a third theory for Millennial disinterest. Millennials aren't accustomed to making online friends. For years, parents warned kids and teens against talking to strangers online. The origins of Facebook were that unlike MySpace, you could only have one identity on Facebook and it required a .edu email address. That meant it was 'safer'. The very idea that I am sharing my email address and phone number with people I only know from their 'tweets' is a little creepy to those who were warned from an early age of online predators. How do you know they are who they say they are? Suddenly, it's okay to make friends with people you don't know?

I have no answer for this, and I am a little surprised at the personal risks I have taken. But in my defense, unlike email and online chat rooms, Twitter seems spam-free and offers an unusually civil level of discourse. After all you have control over who you follow and block others from following you (although I have had no real need to do this yet).

Whatever the reason, it is clear that until Twitter offers a compelling value proposition, it is not going to attract younger users. Long live Facebook!

Perfect Pairing: Social Media and Millennial Wine Enthusiasts

Social media creates communities of interest, so what could be more natural than reaching young wine enthusiasts through Twitter? Wine is inherently social - you drink it with other people. It's also inherently discussable and recommendations are a form of social currency.

Given the affinities, it's no great surprise that it's pretty easy to find young wine marketers on Twitter. Yesterday I spoke with Shana Ray (@sharayray), an ex-ad agency strategic planning professional and social media strategist who works with the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau to help wineries with their social media strategies. Shana says there is a lot of interest in Millennials among wine marketers. She is considering doing some of her own ethnographic research to help them get insight into young wine enthusiasts.

Other fascinating Millennial wine marketers I've friended online include Sasha Kadey, (@skadey, King Estate Winery), and Leah Hennessey (@millennier).

Most of the tweeting is around books, wine news, wines tasted. But there has already been at least one real time 'Twitter wine tastings', sponsored by Project Vino. (This technique was first used by bloggers has been going strong for over a year at WinebloggingWednesday.org).

As more Millennials join Twitter, I suspect wine marketers will be among the first to engage them with real social currency -- knowledge of and news of wine, where to find it, and connections to real wine authorities. What makes these conversations so powerful is that they can happen right in the store or restaurant. Mike McGowan, aka @WineGuyMike is creating in-store kiosks and a few months ago I blogged about Drync Wine, a cool mobile app for easy access to wine recommendations. Mintel data suggests that it will be worth the effort: adults 18-24 are more likely than average to say they 'stick with the brands they know' and more decided based on brand than on price.

Millennials' love affair with wine is part of a larger relationship wtih gourmet foods. Millennials think of food and wine as an 'art form', and eating and drinking with discrimination as another means of self-expression. Although it may seem counter intuitive, a love for gourmet actually decreases with age. 22% of young people 18-24 agree with the statement "I try to eat gourmet food whenever I can", a figure that is 20% higher than that of all U.S. adults. Their love of fine food extends to wine. Unlike French Millennials, young adults in North America are increasing their wine consumption. A Gen Y blogger who calls himself 'The VinoBandito' describes the appeal this way:

I’d like to let you in on a little secret about young people. Just around the time we reach legal drinking age we also start to have a desire for sophistication or a desire to be seen as an adult. We’ve done a lot of moving on from our teenage years and, contrary to popular belief, the majority of us are not a bunch of binge drinking, hard partying, pierced, and tattooed hooligans as we are portrayed in the press. The majority of young people today are smart, ambitious, inquisitive, and above all we’re sophisticated and discerning consumers (even if we’re not yet, we like to think so). This is where wine can compete. Make us feel sophisticated, after all this is one of the ways it is marketed to adults. Wine is a complex and beautiful drink with a great history and a great culture. This is something a lot of the Millennial Generation would love to learn about but the marketers don’t think we want to learn the story. Sure we have our idiosyncrasies and like cool stores, but most of all we want to be treated like the adults that we are.

Why Brands Make Poor 'Friends'

Millennials use social media -- broadly defined as Facebook, text messages, Twitter, and blogs -- to connect with other people. Each is characterized by a different degree of intimacy, with texting the most personal and Twitter the least. But they are all about people interacting with other people.

Brands and social media are not natural partners. It's not that brands are unwelcome, they just don't seem to belong. That makes them easy to ignore, like a guest who has stumbled into the wrong wedding reception. Here's how young adults described their feelings about friending brands on Twitter and Facebook in two online focus groups March 5:

"Brands that show up on facebook often look like your parents when they (unsuccessfully) try to act cool."

"Seeing a brand on facebook makes me just think is spam mail or a scam.” - Bree

“Yeah I don't really pay attention to the ads on the side of facebook. A lot of them aren’t even accurate.” – Kelsey L

“I've never clicked on the ads on the side on fbook or gmail - not out of principle, but they've just never grabbed me.” – Chris S

“I mean, I think people use it as a user-to-user network. I mean, you call your connections "friends." I don't think I've ever joined a brand's FB group -- unless you count maybe a sports teams, though those are usually fan generated …There's something really offputting about a big brand sending you a facebook group invite. I'd never accept it.” – Mike G

“I think there is a sniff test people give brands when they use such tactics. And I'm not sure what the formula is for passing it” – Courtney S

“I really enjoy being able to "friend" indie rock bands for their music, but I don't really friend any product company, or brand. I always feel like most brands are scamming you in some way when they want to be your friend.”—Andrew A

Brands are working hard to find a place on social networks. And social networks drive a lot of traffic to branded sites. According to Forrester, (Ad Age, 3.17.09) PerezHilton.com and Dlisted get more traffic from social media than from Google. But this traffic has little to do with paid marketing campaigns, and everything to do with the personalities behind them. In contrast, brands seem to have little of value to give back. Millennials are keenly aware of the motivation behind brand communication is to 'sell shit', which is an automatic turnoff.

"If it looks like you’re getting an ad, it’s a turn-off."

"I don’t need incentives … I see that as a front … I want to see that they are run by humans and I can relate to them."

I don’t think I’d friend one unless there was some explicit benefit to being its friend.

“I would want added value from a brand if they are going to connect with me. It has to be worth it. If they added value that they normally didn't because they were on social media then it would make sense.”

There is evidence that Millennials do want to connect with brands as long as the connections are genuine and of value. One study even suggested Millennials would welcome a separate channel for 'friending' brands. Research by Pace University indicates 51% of Gen Y respondents saying they’d "join a separate social network dedicated to managing brand interactions." Until such a channel comes along, marketers will continue to try to find ways to connect with Millennials and Facebook and Twitter. Here is our advice:

1. Act and Sound like a Real Person

"They need to surprise me with their content or genuine nature or candor."

"I think a possibility for twitter posts and facebook pages for companies would be to have actual people doing them – to have entertaining personalities or something."

"If you get the stars of the shows doing it it would work."

2. Interact.

"One cool use of Twitter is with starbucks where they have a person at corporate who will communicate back to you."

"Yeah Comcast has their customer service reps on twitter actually helping people."

3. Make it worth my while.

"Make me feel special."

"Yeah exclusive deals are always good, makes you feel special, get you more engaged."

"Good deals catch my attention too, especially for stories I like!"

"Two for one tickets to events always grab my attention, but again, that’s more locally oriented.

"Yea if products and brands to be my friend I want something like … 89 percent off everything."

"Make me feel smart for buying your shit."

Word of Mouth: Millennials Talk About Social Media

Over past few weeks the buzz about social media, and especially Twitter, has outbuzzed the loudest of buzz campaigns. Much of the noise seems to originate from marketers. According to Pete Blackshaw (Ad Age, 3.11.09), “nearly 30,000 Twitter users self-identify as marketers. Nearly 8,500 use the term "PR," and another 8,000 use the term "social media."

With so many marketers talking about marketing to other marketers, we wondered, ‘is anyone else really listening?’ To get beyond the marketing hype, we conducted two online focus groups to see what Millennials think of social media. We confirmed that they are not as gaga for Twitter as marketers -- just half use Twitter despite our efforts to include tweeters in the groups. And those that do were still figuring it out, although we had one enthusiast.

“I have yet to get a twitter, but I'm on the fence with it”.—Andrew A

“Twitter for news and deals, facebook for friends, I read digg to laugh at what people think is an important news article. Though I don't tweet enough.” – Dustin H

“I haven't gotten into twitter yet. I'm afraid of it. I am afraid it will consume me.” – Justin D

“I have not ventured into the land of twitter yet.” – Courtney S

“I'm a little frightened to use Twitter... it's like, should everyone know exactly what I'm doing all the time?” – Mike G

Millennials define social media very broadly as anyting where you interact with other people. That includes message boards, text messaging, Skype, and blogs in addition to Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. It even includes Amazon Reviews and video games.

“Social media is that media that connects you socially with friends mainly and some family. it makes it social because a large percentage of your friends relative and colleagues use it too.” – Courtney S

“facebook - friends, twitter - interesting people/networking, linkedin - ponzi scheme (I don't think real networking happens this way)… I agree with Chris--amazon reviews are def social media and have big pull on influencing my purchase decisions – Dan S

“Facebook, it's learning about culture and stuff through visiting the personal profiles of people in your area, or who you know.” – Kelsey L

“When I think of social media I think of points of view… social media is media that illicits me to talk, not just take in info.” – Ben T

Instant messaging seems to have fallen into disuse, a victim of text messaging.

“I used to use AIM all the time, but I don't know very many people who use it anymore.” – Holly H

“I can't believe Yahoo! is even up there. Does anyone even use Yahoo! anymore?" – Justin D

In fact text messaging appears to be the preferred way to connect personally, relegating Facebook to the place to maintain less immediate or personal ties with distant or long ago friends.

“I also text, but only my close friends....my casual friends I message facebook.” – Bree

“Well facebook keeps me updated on their lives, but it doesn't feel very personal. I'm more of a texting person when it comes to that - Kelsey L

“Yeah, I’m with Kelsey. The internet is a tool I'm likely to use to reach old friends or casual acquaintances. People that I don't see on the day-to-day.”- Mike G “I'm also much more connected now with old friends than I ever was before e-mail and now with facebook (which seems to have replaced e-mail as the stay-in-touch-with-friends application.” – Chris S

“If I want to be more connected I call or text.” – Natalie B

While it’s theoretically possible to be ‘too’ closely connected online with friends, in practice Millennials feel they have it under control. Most Millennials say they are as connected online as they want to be -- about a 6 on a 10 point scale. Control appears to underly some of the appeal of Facebook.

“prob a 6, which is where I want to be--we have the choice to be less connected if we want--every once in a while I check out for a week or two and go on a subconscious Facebook fast and read a book or two.” – Dan S

“A 5 - not too connected, except with some who have bad facebook habits but I can turn their exposure down if I want.” - Chris S

“Yeah, I think online can keep you disconnected sometimes. It lets you keep a "safe distance" that's not there if you have to pick up the phone. – Mike G

“It's fine because I can set the terms.”- Scott K

What Would a Millennial Do? A Millennial Designed Campaign

As Millennial marketers struggle to create social media campaigns for Millennials, it is worth taking a moment to look at Millennial designed efforts.

Jen Corbett is studying creative advertising at the axis adschool, part of Media Design School in Auckland NZ. I was intrigued by her blog post today which features a team-created campaign responding to a brief to "enhance brand recognition by promoting the unique aspects of Google's “i’m feeling lucky” button. Here's Jen's description of the assignment and the team did to bring it to life:

"The brief required us to develop a film, attach a product and then amplify using strategies to invite involvement. This entire project evolved from a “secret word” brief we were given on Monday afternoon of Day 1. We were asked to develop an idea, storyboard, film, edit and present it that Friday. The emotional theme needed to be concise and effective to deliver the “word” to the viewer within the commercial time limit of 30 seconds. This had to be done without written communication of the word. We then needed to attach a product or service to it and come up with ways to generate interest in the video through amplification. We came up with “I’m Feeling lucky” and created otherbutton.com. The final edit of the video can be viewed below. At 3 weeks since conception, we’re about to wrap up the first segment of this project; but I expect we’ll be called on to evolved and adapt it throughout the year."

As part of this we created:

a youtube account with a channel for related videos

a blog where we posted various images and stories

a live auction on NZ auction site trademe

a strategy to place “I’m feeling Lucky” stickers placed near buttons (lift, pedestrian, atm etc) in the CBD

a facebook group set up to attract followers to website / video

a profile on twitter set up to attract followers to website / video

a concept for flyers “not this button” / “this button”

What I love about this campaign is how it leverages social media to get the message out. I visited each of these sites and the whole effort is striking in several ways:

1. Highly Integrated and Cross referenced: The Twitter feed appears on the blog, the Facebook group invites you to join the twitter feed. Twitter posts feature YouTube videos.

2. Invitational: The blog and facebook group invite you to submit stories of getting lucky, research on luck, adventures inspired by the campaign. I love this story:

"Dear team, after 12 long years, I have been reunited with my first love via the "I'm feeling lucky" button. If it were not for trying my luck with this other button, I would not have found him so easily. He moved all the way to Germany, and I was googling his name about a month ago. He's got a website, and it took me directly to him. If it was not for the button, we would have never reconnected - Rebecca Hobson"

3. Non-commercial: Other than a few pitches to buy "I Feel Lucky merchandise" or stickers, there is no overt sales pitch other than to use the I feel lucky button.

4. Video: Video is integral to the campaign.

5. Upbeat and Fun: The idea is happy and so is the campaign.

Social Media: Why Twitter Matters to Marketers

One of my Twitter buddies, Stuart Robertson (aka 'designmeme'), tweeted me this bit of wisdom yesterday:

@carol_phillips Facebook is the backyard BBQ, Twitter is the Convention, MySpace is the NightClub, LinkedIN is the Job Finding Club. :)

I promptly 'retweeted' his idea to my 179 'followers'. That ended an exchange that started like this yesterday morning:

designmeme: How To Turn Twitter Followers Into Friends http://tr.im/gQmg

carol_phillips: @designmeme Not sure I want followers as 'friends'. That's what I have Facebook for. Twitter brings me acquaintances with common interests.

This exchange illustrates what I have discovered to be Twitter's primary attraction, which is to have "conversations" with people you would otherwise never meet. designmeme is on the faculty and web manager for University of Guelph-Humber. We are unlikely to have met anywhere other than cyberspace. We don't care about what each of us had for lunch or even want to know any details of each other's lives. I didn't even know or care what his real name was until I started writing this post. But I like what Stuart has to say, and I must have said something that caught his attention, as well. And this is precisely the reason I think Twitter will be more important than Facebook: Twitter is not about friends, it's about strangers.

The first lesson I learned about Twitter is to refrain from answering the prompt,what you are doing? No one, outside of those who love you, cares two tweets about what you are doing. But acquaintances and your larger network just might care about what you are reading, thinking and talking about. And that's where Twitter comes in. Twitter is about ideas; you don't need to be 'friends' to want to share ideas. In that sense, designmeme is right, Twitter is a convention, a virtual watercooler where interesting conversations are happening day and night. The conversations are easy to find and make little demands. You can just listen, or you can chime in.

In contrast, Facebook is the backyard BBQ. You can't stand silent on Facebook you have to participate; Facebook is where you connect with people you know and like, aka, your friends. The in-house sociologist at Facebook, Cameron Marlow, revealed that most users actually communicate with a relatively small circle of friends. While many people have hundreds friends on Facebook, they still only actively communicate with a few.

The average male Facebook user with 120 friends: Leaves comments on 7 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 4 friends

The average female Facebook user with 120 friends: Leaves comments on 10 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 6 friends

The average male Facebook user with 500 friends: Leaves comments on 17 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 10 friends

The average female Facebook user with 500 friends: Leaves comments on 26 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 16 friends

I prefer Twitter to Facebook because I have other ways to connect with friends.

Most Millennials I know have yet to use Twitter. They prefer to talk to their friends online and Facebook is perfectly designed to do just that.It therefore comes as no surprise that the average Twitter user (Twitterer?) is older than the average Facebook user.

Which brings me to my point (yes, I have one): While they are lumped together as 'social media', LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are fundamentally different in ways that will be increasingly important for marketers to understand.

Because Facebook is intimate, it is inherently unfriendly to commercialization and marketers will continue to struggle to find a way to leverage it effectively. (The exception will be 'events, such as Starbucks 'Red' event in December. Advertising a specific event (party) on a specific day makes perfect sense.) Because Twitter is about anonymity and connecting with people you don't know very well, it is inherently much more friendly to breaking news, self-promotional messages, causes and ideas. I predict Twitter will surpass Facebook fairly quickly as a marketing medium.

Marketers: Start your tweeters.

Twitter & Bourbon: What do they have in common?

Multiple choice question: Who is Evan Williams?

a) the name of Twitter's CEO

b) the name of a fast-growing 120-year old bourbon brand

c) inventor of the term 'blog'

d) all of the above.

Answer: d.

Let's start with bourbon. According to Mintel (2005), overall incidence of bourbon drinking is 11%, but it peaks among 21-24 year olds (16%). Evan Williams is the 5th most popular brand of bourbon among 21-24 year olds. By far the most popular is Jack Daniels (87% incidence among 21-24 year olds),87%). While whiskey overall has barely grown since 2001, bourbon is growing fast. Maker's Mark was up 8% in 2007, and Wild Turkey and Evan Williams each grew 5%. (USA Today, “Bourbon Producers see Amber Colored Future”, July 3, 2008) Unlike most distilled spirits, bourbon is more than twice as likely to be drunk by guys, so it's a fair assumption that young men are driving the trend. Why bourbon? I have no idea, really, but it may have to do with overall shift to more sophisticated tastes among Millennials. Beer is down, wine is up.

Now for the man. Evan Williams, 36, is CEO of Twitter and, according to Wikipedia, coined the word 'blogging'. In fact, he invented Blogger and sold it to Google. (His profile says Evan has been on blogger since August 1999 and has had more than 226,000 views.) He describes himself as 'an American entrepreneur, originally a farm boy from Nebraska, who's been very lucky in business.'

In addition to rapid growth rates and the uncanny coincidence of the name 'Evan Williams', Twitter and bourbon may have even more in common..

As bourbon is dwarfed by beer, wine and vodka, Twitter remains tiny relative to Facebook. Hubspot puts Twitter usage at 4-5 million users, about 30% of which are 'new or unengaged'. For perspective, Facebook has over 140 million users, and a very high level of engagement. As bourbon is unlikely to approach the popularity of beer, Twitter is probably never going to catch up to Facebook as a social medium. Twitter sees between five and ten thousand new accounts opened each day, far below Facebook's 600k daily registrations and 140 million active users. "If Facebook stopped growing right now and Twitter's numbers were at the upper end of Hubspot's estimates (10k per day) - it would take 36 years for Twitter to catch up."

I confess I prefer beer to bourbon. I also prefer Facebook to Twitter. I find Twitter hard to understand, it has its own rules, syntax and rhythms. It's hard to dabble, with much of its power coming from frequency. I also find it a challenge to find something I think my 100 or so followers, mostly strangers, would find interesting to read. In contrast, my Facebook page is not as demanding and I know my friends on Facebook really are interested in what I'm doing. I also haven't seen Millennials embrace Twitter, at least not yet. Like bourbon, Twitter may prove to be a 'step up' taste.

Trouble in River City (Hint: It Rhymes with 'T')

And all week long your River City Youth'll be frittern' away, I say your young men'll be frittern'! Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!

-- Professor Harold Hill, aka, The Music Man

Substitute "Twittern'" for "frittern'" and you'll see "either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do now wish to acknowledge or you are not aware" of the impact of the 24/7 media world Millennials inhabit. Ever wonder why Millennials always seem so tired? It's because they are nocturnal, surrounded by what the New York Times last week described as 'ambient social awareness'("Brave New World of Social Intimacy" 9.5.08). Facebook, MySpace, YouTube are ways to extend the social conversation beyond the hours when most face-to-face social conversations take place. The party continues -- online.

I admit I have dabbled in this world. I have strangers following me on Twitter and I am following strangers. I use LinkedIn and Facebook. But I feel like a stranger in a strange land; it is not my natural habitat and I see them as time stealers, not productivity enhancers. That is one of the main differences between my generation and Millennials. Millennials, and those who share the digital mindset, find the blurring of online and offline realities completely natural--and productive.

Marketers are starting to catch on. Last week, I noted several hefty articles on ways to leverage Twitter as a business building tool. My favorite is by Steve Mulder, ("Five Marketing Tips for Attacking Twitter", Mediapost, 9.1.08). He explains why this is important:

Numbers are hard to come by, but TechCrunch reports that Twitter has more than 1 million users (200,000 of which are active every week), and about 3 million messages are posted every day. These are still relatively small numbers, but the activity comes from an early-adopter segment that can be hard to reach using traditional marketing channels.

Mulder points out that brands that use Twitter as a way to extend a brand's personality have an edge over those who are just pushing information. He points to Zappos as a good example.

Will I ever get it? I am not sure. But I plan to try. Now it's time to get some sleep!