Teen, Tween and in-Between

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Understanding Teenage Behaviour Will Enable Successful Teenage Online Marketing Campaigns

If you want to advertise to teens, it is important to understand their habits online and off. As a parent to three children (one of whom is a teenager), , I have learned a lot about the role technology plays on influencing our kids wants and needs. As a member of the Schmooz Team, I know how important it is to understand the demographic you are trying to reach.

Have you ever tried to have a meaningful conversation with a teenager? The first secret is to getting their undivided attention. If they are on their phone, you might try texting them to let them know you would like some face-to-face live conversation time. But that’s just in person…How do you reach a teenager and get their attention online?

Teenagers will get engaged with a campaign they really believe in! Check out this link: http://huff.to/1f1XFRc

Location, location, location!

Whether online or offline, where you advertise your products or services makes a difference. When you take a teenager to the mall, they pay attention to new or exciting products that are displayed in their direct pathway. My teenage daughter loves looking in the windows of clothing stores, because she thinks that the store’s best items are featured there. If nothing catches her eye, she concludes that the store is probably not worth entering.

Similarly, if she is on Facebook or Instagram and a intriguing notification comes up about a promotion or new initiative at a store she likes, she is likely to share or draw attention to the posting that she likes with her friends or followers. On Social Media, graphics, stories and videos are great tools for sharing information about trends. Without even realizing it, the clothing and music in the media that surround teenagers are subconsciously informing their wants. They feel the need to purchase these and they tend to require immediate satisfaction.

Even in the vast world of food, social media plays a huge role for teenagers. Like adults, teenagers today have varied tastes and they want to show-off their good taste using Instagram or Facebook. Teenagers take pictures of themselves in restaurants eating a delicious burger, in a video game store holding the latest game they purchased or in a sports store wearing the newest basketball shoes that that everybody wants to buy! Those pictures are posted on Instagram and the trends travel!

When my teenage daughter finds a brand she likes, she tends to follow it religiously…that is until a better brand comes along, or until they have a bad experience with the brand. This is true offline and it is true online. A negative post on social media can cause someone to unlike your page, to change their opinion about your brand, your product and your service which ultimately affecting your bottom line.

So why try to do online marketing? Why take the risk? Humans (and teenagers) are social creatures, and it is in our nature to want to be part of a group. Teenagers love to follow whatever their friends like and follow. If a couple of them like something and tell their friends, text or Tweet about it, or post pictures on Instagram or Facebook… your brand can potentially become very popular in a short period of time. Moreover, if you're doing what you love and can express it with passion and creativity, you have a great attitude to get started with a meaningful social media campaign!

If you ever having any questions about how you can build a successful campaign for a teenager or young adult demographic, we'd love to hear from you! Let's get Schmoozing!