Is Social Media for the Young… Or Is It More of a Lifestyle?
Written by Paul Dunay on July 28, 2008 – 8:03 am -
Sitting in on a PR meeting last week I was pondering the thought of my internal consulting teams starting to blog and participate in social media when someone from across the room said Social Media is more relative to the younger demographics we have in our organization.
Of course the more seasoned veterans of my team all pointed to me as the NON example of Social Media being age related (don’t go asking me my age now). When I remarked – “Social media isn’t an age thing it’s a lifestyle.”
And I do believe that is true – I think the adoption or lack thereof in some companies is because the more senior folks have now adopted the internet and social media rather than growing up IN the internet with social media all around them.
What’s your view and how is the adoption of social media going in your organization? I would love to hear about it.
Tags: Social Media
Posted in conversational marketing, marketing 2.0 |
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July 28th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Interesting question, Paul.
I think the adoption of social media has more to do with where a company is in its maturation, rather than the age of its management or employees.
For instance, among Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic)set of emerging growth clients we are seeing funding move towards social media led PR/communications program. Security software vendor Epok is the most recent example.
The interest in social media among our larger, brand clients continues to accelerate. However, they are more cautious in their adoption and typically take a pilot program approach.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Recent research by AIIM regarding demographics and innovation in enterprises using web 2.0 technologies points to no significant differences among age groups. I wrote about this over at Skilful Minds
http://skilfulminds.com/2008/06/30/demographics-innovation-and-enterprise-20
July 28th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Thankfully our organization has created an internal social media platform that promotes the sharing of ideas from product enhancement to vending machine options. Every employee, ages from 20’s to 60’s, is encouraged to participate. It’s with fresh, interesting, and even humorous content that keeps us all coming back for more.
July 28th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Glad to see some responses to this post
Marc - I liked your viewpoint on the adoption in larger brand clients - glad to hear it is picking up some
Larry - thanks for the research I will download it now and check it out
Nicola - I think you make a good point that in order for better adoption it needs to start at home (like inside the workplace where it can be more forgiving)
July 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Although participation in the social web may not be driven by age, how we participate is definitely influenced by age. Following Forrester’s Social Technographics analysis from Groundswell, http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
it seems that younger people are more active participants (creators and critics) than older ones. So we all may participate equally, but probably not in the same way. This probably influences the participation of companies on the social web as well.