All thingsMillennial

Newsletter 2 Q1, 2011

by Steven Conway, Consumer Strategist

As a professional career focus of mine, I have taken on the monumental task of learning, studying, and understanding the generation known as the Millennials – born between 1978-1992. In an effort to pass on this knowledge to you, I have created a newsletter called All Things Millennial. Each issue will be focused on different topics that personally relate to or have been affected by my Generation. My goal for A.T.M. is for you to become better educated about this consumer segment and to share with others who might be interested in learning more about this diverse generation.

WHY DON’T YOU “LIKE” ME? HOW BRANDS CAN BECOME BETTER FRIENDS TO MILLENNIALS IN SOCIAL MEDIA:

Over the past few years, social media and Millennials have become synonymous. This should not be surprising, as the 18-32 year old age range represents our prime “social animal” years, the time when our fundamental human need to connect emotionally with other people is at its peak.

For us, social media has become THE way to communicate and stay connected to other people, to make and maintain a network of friends, to share information, to entertain ourselves, and to bring us together around mutual interests. Social media also has become THE way for brands to try to capture a piece of our attention and tap into our significant buying power ($200 billion at last count). However, as brands jump headlong on to the social media bandwagon, many still lack the social skills necessary to fit appropriately in our space. The fact that only 44% of Millennials have friended or followed a brand they love on their social network (Edelman 8095 Global Study) is compelling evidence that many brands still have much to learn about being friends with us and maintaining these relationships over time.

This issue of All Things Millennial lays out some basic ways brands can develop to become more like a friend than a company voice through their social media efforts.

TO BE A FRIEND IS TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF FRIENDSHIP

The notion of “friend” in the context of social media has come to encompass a broad spectrum of people, from close friends, to friends of friends to friends-of-friends-of-friends who may have popped on for a variety of odd reasons to additional categories that could best be described as “other.” For many Millennial Facebook users, the accumulation of friends has become a competition over “he/she who dies with the most friends wins”; as indicated by the 387 average friends Millennials have on Facebook, twice the number of non-Millennial’s 178 average friends.

Despite the blurring of the word “friend” in social media, I believe my generation has not lost sight of the original definition of friend learned at an early age – “a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.” This concept of friend was practiced and reinforced throughout childhood through such experiences as play dates, school pals, being team members and lessons of sharing, to name a few. We also learned the real value of friendship through a code of conduct consistently demonstrated during childhood, which can be boiled down to five simple rules:

Rule #1: Mutual understanding and respect Rule #2: Honesty Rule #3: Sharing of like-minded interests Rule #4: Relationship based on equal give and take Rule #5: Trust

MILLENNIALS SOCIAL MEDIA BEHAVIORS PARALLEL THESE RULES OF FRIENDSHIP:

Millennials’ behaviors in social media suggest we are well attuned to these rules of friendship, and seem to be applying these same rules to our own social media behaviors. However, what makes these rules even more relevant is that we are applying them as a way to scale back on our social networking use.

Quality vs. Quantity of Social Media Friends:

Many social media behaviors parallel friendship rule #1 (mutual understanding and respect) and rule #4 (relationship based on equal give and take), as Millenials’ have been scaling back on the number of friends we keep AND “defriending” people – the process of removing a contact from your friend list. One survey reports that 81% of Millennials have defriended someone in their social network and on average have defriended 39 people, compared to just 14 people for the non-Millennial group (Digital Generation is Un-friendly, jimbernard.net). As the survey author states: “Millennials are much more casual about both accepting and removing friends; we have developed a more sophisticated and efficient method of managing our social networks,” a behavior that gets us back to our roots of what “real” friendships mean.

A Demand for Privacy:

Millennials have also been applying Friendship Rule #5 (Trust) as they have been displaying more privacy concerns about their personal online information as well as showing an increased desire for control. Millennials are more likely to monitor their privacy settings than older adults, as well as to delete comments or remove their names from photos so they cannot be identified (Pew Internet Project, May 2010). This behavior is a reaction to Facebook’s ever changing privacy policies and Millennials desire for more control of their online identities. This is largely due to Millennials’ suspicion that Facebook is looking to monetize their community by making much of people’s profile information public by default.

Social Networking goes Niche:

My recent discussion with Iconoculture’s Millennial strategist indicates our Generation is looking at social media (Facebook in particular) in more pragmatic terms. They are now leading the charge around the question

of utility of popular social networking sites and asking, “What’s the point?” and “What am I getting from this?” These questions are now leading to more considered usage

around with whom and what Millennials want to connect with. The resulting trend is a small but growing move away from mass audience sites onto smaller, more niche networks; a behavior that parallels friendship rule #3 (having like-minded interests). Path.com is a social media network that allows Millennials to become more connected to their passions and limits users to only 50 friends. Calling itself a personal network, it is the antithesis of sites like Facebook and Myspace. Path.com emphasizes the ability to control who you share your personal moments with only your closest friends. CollegeOnly.com was built as a response to the unwieldy nature of sites like Facebook which many Millennials now perceive to be a social media haven for every parent, employer, and company out there. CollegeOnly.com launched in August 2010 as a social network that has gone back to Facebook’s original roots as a social network only for college students. Joindiaspora.com has also made a big splash in 2010 as the anti-Facebook networking site designed as a way to give individuals control over their online information including friends’ lists, messages, photos, and profile details, without

40% OF 18-TO-24-YEAR-OLDS NOW VISIT SOCIAL NETWORKS BASED ON PARTICULAR INTERESTS, SUCH AS TV, MUSIC OR MOVIES, ACCORDING TO AN AUGUST 2009 SURVEY BY MINDSHARE.

being subjected to changing privacy policies and sell–outs to third parties; a hot topic in social media and a big concern for my generation.

So what does this all mean for brands and marketers looking to connect with Millennials through social media? Although brands have made strides in their social media efforts, why is it that only 40% of Millennials have “friended” a brand they love? Is it possible for brands to generate a higher acceptance of “friends”, “followers”, or “likes”?

WHY BRANDS INITIALLY MAKE POOR FRIENDS:

The biggest mistake brands make when it comes to social media is that they see the space as another marketing tactic or channel they have at their disposal to sell their product or see it as a way to shout their product/brand message. These social media efforts are not the best way for brands to win “friends’ among Millennials, as this group uses social media primarily to connect with other people, not brands. Regardless of what social media platform we use (Facebook, youtube, blogs, or texting), we are there to interact and engage with other people. This tends to be one of the biggest reasons why brands fail when trying to attract fans, followers, or “likes”. It’s not that brands are unwelcome, it just seems like they don’t belong. To get a better understanding of what my generation thought of brands trying to interact with them in social media, I conducted a recent survey to understand their perceptions of brand friendships. The box to the right represents some of the insightful comments I received from 18-34 year olds based off the question, “What do you think of brands that try to connect with you in social media?”

Brands that try to sell us something or spam us with irrelevant content are an automatic turnoff. Although marketers might have the right intentions, many of their efforts are falling on deaf ears. To win with Millennials, brands that start behaving more like a “friend” and less like an intruder tend to find themselves in a better position to win with their social media efforts.

“Brands that show up on facebook often look like your parents when

they (unsuccessfully) try to act cool. It feels like most brands are scamming you in some way when

they want to be your friend”

“There is a fine line between wanting to hear from them and

enjoying their communication and spamming. If I receive too much

communication, I delete”

“It depends on how (brands) approach the connection. If they are providing entertaining content

(e.g. revitalizing Detroit documentary from an urban boot company)

instead of just trying to sell you something or offer a discount I am

more likely to view it”

SURVEY RESPONSES FROM MILLENNIAL AGED ADULTS

BRANDS THAT FOLLOW THE RULES OF FRIENDSHIP WITH MILLENNIALS:

There is a lot of good advice from social media “experts” and companies that have given their two cents on how brands can succeed with Millennials and social media. As a member of the Millennial generation and a prime target of brands’ social media efforts, I believe brands must start acting more like a human being and levering these five simple rules of friendship in their own social media efforts.

Friendship Rule #1: To Have Mutual Understanding and Respect

Listening is key to any friendship and is the primary way brands can show they understand and respect their consumers. In general, our generation just wants to be heard. We use a number of different channels just to have a voice; we tweet, text, blog, IM, comment, and “like” things on Facebook because we want someone to listen. When a company does respond, it says “we hear you loud and clear”; similar to how we interact with our friends.

E.G. One brand that understands the power of listening has been Wheat Thins. The company recently began mining Twitter and Facebook to find customers who love its Wheat Thins crackers and gave a lucky few of them a surprise of their lives. One Wheat Thin Devotee was Tabitha Hancock (@fox_girl313) who tweeted, “AAAHHH Im outta Wheat Thins…My life is officially over.” Wheat Thins tracked Tabitha down , and in a style that mirrors publishers clearing house, made sure she had enough crackers to last her a very long time. Wheat Thins understood to be a good friend, they must listen first to have something to talk about. By doing so, they were able to solve a “friend’s” problem and were able to turn their social media stunt into a marketing campaign; the videos were used for TV ads and social/online media efforts that both entertained and effectively conveyed the brand’s “Crunch is Calling” message.

Friendship Rule #2: Honesty

Our closest friends typically are the people with whom we can be most open and honest. This same rule applies to brands that are looking to connect with my generation. Two ways brands can build an honest relationship with Millennials in social media is to be transparent and authentic. Transparency translates to being as honest and open as you can. It means owning up to your mistakes, responding to unflattering comments and providing access to your

company’s culture. If your brand is hiding behind a wall of secrecy and non-disclosures, then how are we able to trust you? Authenticity, while similar to transparency, focuses more specifically on being real and genuine. Social media is a prime place brands can show the people behind the company, rather than a way to push marketing, PR or a brand agendas. Millennials want to converse and relate to human beings – an actual person that is helpful, interesting, funny, and genuinely interested in building a relationship with them, not a corporate entity.

E.G. One Millennial-friendly company that has been the poster child for transparency and authenticity is Zappos. Tony Heish, Zappos CEO, uses Twitter to humanize the company and uses his personality to represent and bring the company to life; a personality that is friendly, helpful, funny, and trustworthy. Tony also tweets simply because he wants to. It never seems like you are listenting to the sales pitch of a CEO. In addition, the company urges all of its employees to blog and tweet on behalf of the company, allowing their employees to share the customer service interactions they undertake to provide Zappos’ legendary service. Very few, if any, other companies have the courage to put all the tweets that mention the company right on its own site. Authenticity and transparency are core values that guide how Zappos interacts as a company and are not seen as marketing tactics. A key reason why Zappos has gotten the Millennial seal of approval.

Friendship Rule #3: A relationship based on equal give and take

A mutually beneficial friendship is all about giving and receiving something of value. The same rules apply for brands looking to win over “friends” in social media. However, Millennials typically won’t just “friend” or follow a brand without reason. We are more likely to see our online information as currency and if we “like” your brand we want something of equal or greater value in return. Research shows that the top reasons Millennials fan or follow a brand is related to content. This includes “liking” or “fanning” a brand to get news or product updates (67%), having access to promotions (64%), or viewing/downloading music or video (41%), (The Participatory Marketing Network). Millennials are willing to give up their information to join brands that make it worth their while. Rewarding them with incentives and offers just gives them another reason to find you and keep coming back for more.

E.G. One brand that is getting it right in social media is Urban Outfitters. UO uses its social platforms for sharing various incentives with its loyal followers, which includes giving away 5 tracks from undiscovered/unsigned bands via its Twitter page for #musicmondays, using their Facebook page to offer fans discounts on items, highlight merchandise and share tips on clothing care as well as using their UO blog to run their sweepstakes initiatives.

To continue this conversation on the Millennial Generation or if you have any other questions on this cohort, please feel to contact me at steven.conway@tmsw.com or 630-693-1812.

Friendship Rule #4: Share Like-Minded Interests

Our generation wants to be friends with brands to which we have something in common. While offers and deals give us a reason to “like” or follow a brand, we also want to engage with brands that publish interesting and relevant content that relates to our lifestyle, interests, and needs. For brands that want to get their message noticed they must understand they are also competing with all of our other friends’ comments and status updates. Thus, a brand’s content must be unique, interesting or have a viral quality to it – because when we find content that is relevant to us, we are more likely to engage with it and share it with our friends.

E.G Redbull has always been a brand that has understood youth culture and their presence on social media is nothing different. Their Facebook fan page contains extreme sporting events, parties, creative contests and fun games. They created the “procrastination station” on their Facebook games page, which features engaging and interactive options for procrastinators, including a soapbox car racing game, a rock, paper, scissors game, and ‘Drunkish Dials’ recordings – recordings of Red Bull drinkers who called the company’s toll free number, leaving ‘drunkish’ messages. Red Bull also created a web TV program that is highlighted on their Facebook page. There are multiple segments, many spotlighting the lives of their sponsored athletes. Overall, Red Bull has successfully been able to create a community of fans with like-minded interests who can engage with the brand on a deeper level.

Friendship Rule #5: Trust

Good friendships typically are built on a strong level of trust. Brands need to act in the same way if they want to retain their

friends. One way brands can show trust is by collaborating and interacting with their Millennial fans or followers. Whether it’s helping craft a marketing message or helping the design of a new product, brands can achieve a higher level of trust when they allow their fans to participate in a company’s marketing initiative and advocate for the brand.

One Millennial friendly company that knows all about building trust and engagement with its customers is Levi’s. Currently in its third campaign, Levi’s is turning to its Facebook community to find the brand’s next online face and voice of their Levi’s Women’s wear a.k.a “Levi’s Girl.” The winner receives a six month paid position which involves reaching out and engaging with Levi’s fan base through the brand’s social media channels on a day-to-day basis, as well as working on Levi’s other social media initiatives. To further engage Levi’s fans, the brand is tapping into its Facebook community to help select the final candidates and winner. Overall, a smart campaign in which Levi’s built mutual trust among its community of fans and is certain to get a few more “likes” along the way.

As social media has changed the way people communicate, interact, and engage with one another, brands must also do the same. They can no longer behave like they have in the past when it comes to connecting with Millennials in these spaces. Once brands start acting more like a friend, start facilitating a relationship, and start treating us like we are important– they undoubtedly will find a lot more “likes” as well as Millennial praise.