Why Social Media Matters (in Less than 3 minutes)

This video by Tampa Bay agency, 22squared, is the cleverest explanation I have seen on how social media helps consumers find brands -- and how brands find consumers. While this post (my 200th!) isn't strictly about Millennials, it expresses an essential truth of Millennial marketing - what your friends think matters, and now it's far easier to know what your friends think.

What Are the Cool Kids Doing Online?

Millennials spend 12-14 hours a week online searching for information, watching video, updating their profiles and messaging their friends. They are confident "neti-zens" who have never known a time when up-to-date info about friends, grades, tonight's biology homework, favorite political candidates and the latest SNL episode wasn't instantly and freely available. It's worth understanding what they like online now, because Millennial's online tastes are very influential. According to Deloitte's 2007 State of the Media Democracy Survey, word of mouth is the most common reason for Millennials to visit a website. When they find a particular television show or website that they enjoy, they tell an average of 18 people, compared with only 10 people for all age groups. So what online brands are hot with Millennials today? New research from Outlaw Consulting among 100 hand selected Gen Y Trendsetters sheds some light. The biggest surprise here is that there are no real surprises here. Facebook is number one, even among trendsetters, who at the beginning were vaguely uncomfortable doing something so, well, popular. It just seemed so vain. That apparently has changed however, due to the ubiquity and ease of use.

>"Facebook has become more of a fact of life, a way to communicate and schedule events—consider it this generation’s version of Microsoft Outlook, but with an emotional side. “There is an entire army of friends who I don’t see regularly but still care about. It means a lot to automatically be able to see their photos from time to time, and keep abreast of who’s where. Facebook provides a warm blanket for me. It makes me feel more connected, less alienated.”

In our research with recent college graduates, we learned Facebook has become essential for remaining in touch with newly scattered friends. While the Facebook habit is strongest among those who actually used it in college (those who graduated less than 4 years ago), we expect the trend to continue.

Other popular trendsetter sites pose similar paradoxes. Ironically, trendsetters want to tap into the 'wisdom of crowds' available, where else, on EBay, Yelp, Wikipedia, Craigslist.

“There are tons of different opinions on there, but you can sift through and get a feel for the truth. I don’t know what I did before Yelp.” “Whenever I have an item in mind, I check eBay. It standardizes the pricing. If you want to know what the public thinks an item is worth, eBay will tell you.Gen Y trendsetters will gladly sacrifice 100% accuracy for direct access to the public’s version of reality, whatever it may be. They believe they know when to trust sites, and when to seek another source. In the meantime, they credit these sites with doing no less than changing their lives. The model of the open platform giving voice to a crowd will be close to their hearts as this generation comes to power.

The rest of the list is equally unsurprising. CNN, NYT, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Flickr and Pandora round out the list. Where are the obscure, the trendy, the not on the map ideas? Perhaps that is the big finding. The Internet, arbiter of every personal whim and taste, may be more mass than we even suspected.

Big News! Millennials Disproportionately Influential

Okay, so it's not big news. The Obama win shows how influential young voters are in politics. Research from Rubicon Consulting group shows how influential they are in marketing. Rubicon's report, "Online Communities and their Impact on Business: Ignore at Your Peril" provides these statistics on just how important they are:

About 80% of the user-generated content on the web, including comments and questions, is created by less than 10% of web users, a group we refer to as the most frequent contributors (MFCs). The rest of the web community sits back and watches the interactions as a mostly-passive audience that only occasionally injects a few comments"

Half of all MFCs are under the age of 22.

MFC's look a lot like Millennials: They're more ethnically diverse; more technically skilled; more likely to be single; more likely to work in technology, entertainment, or communication companies; and more likely to be Democrats.

The Rubicon report emphasizes that far from being a problem to be solved, the fact that most web communities are dominated by a few active voices and a lot more 'voyeurs' is something marketers can leverage by targeting MFC's. There really are influencers - a lot of people are reading the opinions of MFC's and using them in their purchasing decisions across a variety of product categories, especially electronics, vacations, movies, restaurants and jobs. The chart below shows that this is especially true for Millennials. For nearly every category, the influence of online word of mouth is strongest for those 18-22.