MySpace, Facebook and the rest of the social media world tends to conjure up visions of teens, tweens and hipsters exchanging nonsense and silliness after school and late at night. Right? Well, maybe once upon a time. But just earlier this week WIReD, a web intelligence division of J.D. Powers was in our office showing us some very sophisticated methodologies using social media and blogs to do all kinds of consumer research. It was impressive and I think our research division, Yaffe/Deutser, will be able to take J.D. Powers ideas and what we’re already doing and put together some exciting new programs that give our clients new insights.
Social Media isn’t just for kids any more. According to a recent report, over 50% of bloggers are over 30. And there are social media sites strictly for professional networking and problem solving. LinkedIn is probably one of the most popular. You can use the “Ask Questions” feature to get ideas and solutions to whatever you’re trying to work out. And make new contacts in the process. I myself am almost 50 and I have a LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter account that I’m active in daily. We plan to roll out social media pages for our company soon. And in today’s world it just makes sense. Take a look at my earlier post on Twitter for one example.
Marketers have taken notice of these trends. At Yaffe we’re working on a number of projects that take advantage new social media marketing opportunities. Of course, some of those are still targeted at the younger set. One program we’ve developed puts viral videos we’ve developed on social media pages where high school students are to attract them to the community colleges or universities we’re marketing.
So, how about you? What are you doing personally in social media? What are you doing to market yourself, your company or your clients?
Mike McClure, Executive Creative Director
