This is a guest post from Ainslie Hunter who publishes a great blog called Study Skill Mentor where she gives support and ideas to help parents and students with home organization, homework, assignments and study revision. I love the niche she is blogging about and her banner is awesome too. To top it all off, she has entered her blog in a competition over at Fresh eVenture for new blogs using WordPress.
The teenage market is very important to me. You see, I write a blog specifically aimed at teenagers and helping them develop effective study skills. In my research I found that teenagers are prolific users of the internet, they just use it differently to us. Thus I had to change my approach and expectations.
How Teenagers Consume Media
About two months ago I came across a report called “How Teenagers Consume Media” by Matthew Robson, aged 15 and 7 months. Matthew was completing work experience at Morgan Bank and was asked to write a paper. His report went viral and was discussed on media sites around the world. His findings were:
- Teenagers don’t like reading newspapers; they prefer free information summarised on internet
- Teenagers are active on social networking sites such as Facebook
- Primary uses for internet are information gathering, social networking, viewing You Tube and downloading illegal content
- Twittering is for old people and there is no point writing a tweet that your friends won’t read
- Pop up and banner advertising on websites are ‘annoying and pointless’. Viral marketing is enjoyable and supported
If you believe the hype, this report ended up being discussed at the “Allen and Co” conference where Google, Twitter and Facebook founders met and discussed New Media. Major players who should be caring about how teens use social media.
This report reinforced what other researchers are saying about teen internet usage. If you want more comprehensive information on this topic then I suggest heading to Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Twittering is for old people
This seems to be the only point people are commenting on when discussing teen usage of blogs and the internet. But we shouldn’t be surprised. As a teacher of teenagers, it makes perfect sense. Twittering involves reading and interacting with strangers, people who have no obvious popularity amongst a teenagers peer group. This has little to do with ‘the dangers of the internet’ and more to do with peer pressure. Teenagers are not interested in what the world thinks, just their friends and frenemies.
Teenagers are more likely to use Facebook of MySpace. These two social network sites seem to have more appeal because of the depth of knowledge teens can communicate about themselves and others.
Finding ways to create communication channels with teens.
This information has major implications for my blog. At the moment it has little social interaction. I think I only have 3 comments. From research and interviewing my RSS subscribers and students I know that twitter or a Facebook page would be useless on my site and that I will receive very little comments on posts. I understand. What teenager would want to let the world know that they are reading a study schools blog. In the words of a student “It’s just lame miss”
But a lack of social interaction does not mean a lack of audience. The internet is just mirroring real life. At the moment if just means that I do a lot of talking (content production) and when my audience is ready to respond (comment) I will be ready to listen. Just like in real life, teens will communicate on the internet in their own time, and on their own terms.
Look at the bigger picture.
I believe that business bloggers need to think about teenagers and how they do, or could potentially, interact with your site. Key questions you need to ask yourself are:
- Do you really know the age of your audience?
In the faceless internet market, most of our audience knowledge comes from an occasional survey and responses in comments sections. The only specific information we have on our readers is a username, email address, and maybe a photo or avatar. Sure, we may send out the occasional survey, and we gain valuable information from their comments.
I have never been asked my age when I sign up to a new RSS feed or before submitting a post. Have you?
- Are you missing out on a future market?
Teenagers today embrace blogs. They interact daily with social networking site. Blogs are now common assessment tasks in schools. By not tapping into their interests, and targeting them, you will be missing out on your future market.
In fact, take a look around the blogosphere. There are some great teen blogs. Blogussion, Asnio and Teenius are my favourites. These are serious players and may even be your competition.
Is Blogging your business?
If blogging is your business, then you should be thinking about your future audience, as well as your current consumer base.
You future audience will involve teenagers so why not start thinking about them now. It will be brutal but I suggest you ask a teenager to check out your site or product.
Give it a try.
