Having teenagers is an enlightening experience in today's digital world. It makes it both easier as a parent at times and also more difficult. It also provides an interesting look at how the next generation coming up is going to use social media. Both of my teenagers have Facebook (as I am told, so yesterday), a Twitter account, an Instagram account and for my daughter, Pinterest and she uses the Wannelo app. I made the mistake any father would make and asked, why do you need all of these?
What proceeded was a short, but detailed analysis of the importance of each of these tools to her personal and social well-being. After our conversation, I was left with the impression that she used all of these social media tools and apps much like back in the day when we all had our favorite radio stations on the presets depending upon our mood or who was in the car with us. There is no one go to place for the coming generation. Is that going to be the same for their financial needs? She is quite happy to have multiple access points so will she be okay with multiple financial institutions for her financial needs?
The lessen was driven even further home a few days later when my son coming up with a creative way to ask his girlfriend to the prom. (Unbeknown to this naive dad, you don't just ask anymore, it has to be an event.) My daughter whips out her Ipad, goes to Pinterest, and searches for cool ways to ask people to the prom. Her search yielded several hundred ideas pinned to that topic. No Google or Yahoo or Bing for this. Then we talked about clothing and off to her Wannelo app for ideas on clothing. I asked why not Pinterest and the response was a facial expression of what kind of question is that. I decided to not press further for the reasoning.
Okay, so maybe social media isn't like the radio but how much of the younger generation is using all of their apps and social media just like the presets on a radio station? I venture to say most do and that is why I don't think you have a social media strategy. You have to have a marketing strategy that includes social media and a host of other channels and a specific tactic for each.
