Generation Nerd

Intro

I recently attended the Engage Collaborate Commune seminar. In a breakout session, I got into a conversation about followers to following on Twitter. There is a large divide between those who believe in follow-backs, and the picky party. I fall into the latter category. For now, we will address them as Party A, and Party B respectively. Here is the reasoning behind each…

Party A

“My philosophy is to follow everyone who follows me. If someone takes the time to follow me, I’m going to honor that by following them and attempting a relationship and conversation,” argued Cindy Ratzlaff from the Engage Collaborate Commune breakout session.”
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It’s rare to recognize change while it’s happening. With the New Year fast approaching, it’s a great time to reminisce on the past year and see how things have progressed, or in some cases, regressed. So join me for a walk down memory lane, and let me show you what happened in 2010… in social media that is…

Facebook

Here are the top 10 most popular brands on Facebook. While fans clearly aren’t everything in Facebook, the important thing to note is the shift in fan numbers this year as compared to last year. This shift is an opportunity to challenge the notion that a page with one million fans is better than one with 100,000 fans. This clearly isn’t the case. When it comes to social media, especially Facebook, engagement is everything. I would much rather have more close-knit, engaged page than one with high population.
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I was talking with a friend today who claimed he was “quitting” Facebook. I was inspired to tell him, “Don’t worry, I know you’ll be back, like the prodigal son returning home. Lucky for you, Facebook loves unconditionally.” While he’s still confident of never returning, I give it two months. This conversation inspired me to list the top 5 quotes about social media.

1. “Social media is like teen sex. Everybody wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better.” − Avinash Kaushik, Google

2. “If content is king, then conversion is queen.” – John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka

3. “I hear YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging to form a super-social media site – YouTwitFace.” − Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show, June 2nd, 2009.

4. “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” − Seth Godin
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I love this entry for two reasons.

1. I get to feature George Michael Bluth (Michael Cera) as the poster child for awkward teens.
2. I get to show that the so called “experts” in social media got it wrong when they thought Twitter would take off with the teen market.

To this point, maybe we don’t know the elusive teens as well as we think. Our understanding is surprisingly limited, and our predictions of their behavior are proving to be inaccurate.

Although Generation Y is tech savvy, they don’t embrace all the technology that we imagine them to. Just because new technology is available doesn’t mean they will use it. For instance, Twitter is becoming increasingly popular with older generations, but teens are resisting the urge to micro-blog.

Given the practices of this age group, I can’t help thinking Twitter will go the way of the 8-track and laser discs.

Why don’t kids use Twitter?

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