7 things I learned about Millennial Engagement from Mr. Youth
- Wed, June 22 2011
- Filed under: Social Media
Today, the Case Foundation is holding a virtual summit on millennial donors, and I’m covering it in several blog posts today. The best presentation of the morning was by Matt Britton of Mr. Youth, an expert in helping brands to use social media to engage with millennials.
Here are some of his most interesting ideas:
1. The art of engaging with millennials is a deeply human one. All brands need to remember this: they should act as a person, not a product. No one wants to be friends with a toothbrush.
2. To market to millennials, be useful to them. Help them do what they’re already on social media to accomplish. This is about their priorities, not our own.
3. Suit the pace of outreach to the culture. Twitter is a firehose, so feel free to Tweet all day. Facebook is a circle of friends, so post 3-4 times per week.
4. Connect around where millennials have passions: music, sports, technology and social responsibility.
5. Think along a continuum, moving from low to high degrees of engagement: spectator, sponsor, curator, producer, collaborator. The best results come from the far end of the continuum: collaboration. It’s not about telling millennials to support you; it’s about creating a vested interest in what you are doing with joint ownership. Let millennials manage your community, design your logo or otherwise be an active partner in what you seek to accomplish. (Vitamin Water does this)
6. Find creative leaders online and hire them as ambassadors. Marshalls did this with Kelly, a popular cross-dressing character on YouTube.
7. Cause marketing is changing. Causes generally tend to be too broad to work well in grabbing onto a consumer, so smart brands find a narrow, specific social aim and partner around that idea. Goldfish did this with Fishful Thinking, which focused on instilling optimism in the lives of children, which is in lockstep with their brand position.
Comments
I really resonate with the idea of targeting millennials to be part of the process. However, I’m not clear on #2. Are you referring to how easy it would be for them to share or re-tweet a link? Or are you thinking more along the lines of allowing them to sign in using Facebook credentials?
Hi Elizabeth and thanks for your question! Actually, neither. What the speaker was saying is that you need to understand why your audience is networking. Are they talking about stress? How to train their dog? The best city parks? How can you be helpful in the conversations they are already having—as opposed to randomly imposing your agenda onto a separate conversation. Where do you see openings relevant to your cause? Hope the clarifies!