Over the weekend, I received a very cool Email from one of our clients. It was an invitation to be part of our client’s Facebook community.
On one level, it’s cool to get an invitation…on another level, it’s even cooler that a client invites their consultant to be part of their intimate circle of web-friends.
I cannot give away too much information about this client…but I will at least say, she happens to be leading the lifestage journey of the Baby Boom generation.
She is also the CMO of a very significant academic healthcare brand that does very innovative things.
Our client’s daughter recently got married and she is using Facebook as a distribution and sharing forum for photographs of the wedding.
How many of the folks reading this blog have even been to Facebook?
Chances are that at least a few will answer yes to that question.
Facebook has over 100 million members and is growing at 3% PER WEEK.
I spent this past week working on a report for one of our clients on new media…like anything trend-wise that we do, the work makes your head spin.
It’s a study of the impact of the changing dynamics of media. We immersed ourselves in a lot of articles about it and also immersed ourselves in the new channels themselves.
Here are some numbers from Yankelovich that are startling!
• 26% of Adults 16+ participate at least 3-5 times per week in social networking…that is up from 18% just 12 months ago
• 58% of Millenniums participate in social networking
• 53% of Adults 16+ claim that online social networking makes them feel more connected with other people
• 64% of Millenniums believe that they are more connected with people online that physically in-person
Some of the development research studies coming out of the academic healthcare community are suggesting that Generation ZOOM…the next generation coming up behind the Millenniums now age 0-8…will have longer, more flexible thumbs because of how they have been weaned on digital text communications.
This week, the BrandVenture team is going to be hitting the road with our digital video cameras and interviewing high school juniors and seniors.
We are going to be exploring the whole thinking set about colleges, careers and aspirations.
We are also going into Facebook, MySpace and Bebo and checking out what kids are talking about and posting relative to college aspirations and experiences.
Next week, I head over to Alabama to meet up with some of the faculty at Auburn University at Montgomery. We are going to be talking about new media and how it is changing business dynamics.
And change is not theory; it’s plain simple fact.
I remember a couple of years back, when this client who now has her Facebook page told me that she was going to be facing budget constraints and was going to concentrate on the web instead.
Shortly thereafter, she got promoted to CMO for the university as well as the academic healthcare arm!
Here is perhaps the most telling of the Yankelovich new media stats…
Five years ago more than half of those surveyed voiced that they were “overwhelmed by all the sources of information available.” Today, that percentage has dropped 10 points to less than half.
Five years ago only two-thirds of the population could agree with the statement; “I always know how to get the information I need to make decisions.” Today, more than three-quarters of the population agree.
Hey…It’s a new world out there…come, let’s journey!
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