Livingston

Oct
02
2008

Demographics Impact Social Media

Following yesterday’s post on the Behavioral Characteristics of the Digerati…

Yesterday I gave a presentation on Generations Y and Z, and by its very nature demographics came up. But is social media generational or just a result of the ubiquitous easy-to-use social technology on all of our many electronic devices? Yesterday, I concluded this demographic approach is not accurate.

Generationv
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

The need to classify by generation, by sex, by sub-generation, age groups, etcetera, is corporate communications reality. All marketers want the demographics so they can intelligently target their stakeholders…

Soul demographics - or behavioral patterns as Gartner argues — will become an important measure of new studies. But no matter how you slice and dice people, the reality of socialized communications is that we are people. Social marketing begins with understanding how people interact, and the dynamics of relationship building online.

Often, companies want to know what they will get for $xxx,000 of social media engagement. What’s the ROI?!?!? And we play the game because we have to justify corporate expenditures in this era. But somewhere the soul of social media gets lost in these discussions.

Companies like Zappos get it, they understand the power of relationships, of people. People care about themselves, and how the company will sere them. “Give me what I want, Jobs!”

I just wonder if most companies will ever get it, that organizational social media really is about peering with their customers, partners and employees, rather than broadcasting a cleverly disguised ad or white paper in the form “user generated content” or a “blog post.”

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by Geoff Livingston | Geoff, Social Networks, social media |

8 Responses to “Demographics Impact Social Media”

  • Freddie Laker Says:

    October 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    Great article. Good luck with getting your clients/corporate america to figure this out quickly. It’s the same battle I have every day… The good news is that some of them actually listen.

  • Steve Spalding Says:

    October 2nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm

    Fantastic article mate and great presentation.

  • Rich Becker Says:

    October 2nd, 2008 at 6:31 pm

    Geoff,

    I always think you give the “R” in ROI a bad wrap. Sure, some people want to talk about hard dollars but sometimes the “R” is customer engagement and increased brand loyalty. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, that’s why Southwest Airlines had five times as many of loyal customers as United in 2001 (even before social media).

    Sure, demographic intel is frequently wrong. And, a lot of business peeps only care about the bottom line (which is funny, because fully engaged customers generate more revenue anyway). But so much of this stuff really depends on the intent of the communication.

    Most importantly though, I think, is rather than sell soul demos to business people who want to see cash, simply pinpoint outcomes that meet them halfway. After all, it’s always easier to become the trusted adviser after the performance model proves it’s worth.

    Best,
    Rich

  • Liz Strauss Says:

    October 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm

    People are still people. Yes, and companies still need to make a return to survive. Now that they can’t contain or keep the conversation consisten. It seems their choice is to participate or risk what’s when their not there. Relationships have always been part of business. Even customer service has been about relationships in every good business and at companies like Southwest and Zappos the return follows. :)

    Great Geoff. Thanks for the love. :)

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    October 2nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    Yeah, I hear you Rich, but I think the tool set is inherently relationship oriented, not transaction oriented. You can get transactions from social media, but the word is social for a reason. Compromise is necessary, yet at the same time, the purpose of the media form gets lost sometimes.

  • Rich Becker Says:

    October 3rd, 2008 at 8:39 am

    Well said. I think we can agree that customer engagement is inherently relationship oriented too.

    Best,
    Rich

  • Beth Kanter Says:

    October 9th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

    This is a great presentation - thanks. Adding it my collection of social media research/demographic information.

    ROI thinking is not just math … it’s a mirror - to improve what you’re doing and better understand relationships.

    That’s gist of a presentation I’m doing on ROI of blogging
    http://www.slideshare.net/kanter/emetrics-followers-friends-and-fans-expanding-your-online-community-presentation

  • Beth Kanter Says:

    October 10th, 2008 at 7:57 pm

    this may or not be a connected pattern but thought I’d drop it here
    http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/10/matthew_yglesias_and_garrett_m.html
    http://www.kstreetcafe.com/vint-cerf-young-people-will-switch-online-channels-as-they-age/

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