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Write Queen Writes About Teens - Pt 2 of 3
by Freda Douglas Freda Douglas is an accomplished writer. She has extensive self written articles posted on the Internet, including www.faithwriters.com. She had a book "Cherish the Past", still available at Amazon.com, published in 2002, and her second book "Winds of Change" due to be released soon. ____________________________________________ Last time we talked about where teen-agers get the money to spend and where they spend it. This session will show you something why teen-agers think (and spend) the way they do. Even if you are a parent(s) with teen-agers this writer invites you to tune in. What you read might strengthen familial ties. Three out of five (61.4 percent) respondents in the Burst Media study had visited a social networking website. Of those, 60.7 percent joined the site and created a profile. Teen females are significantly more likely than teen males to say they have visited and joined a social networking site (67.5 percent versus 53.7 percent). And MySpace leads the pack when it comes to social networking. From April 2005 to April 2006, the overall number of teen visitors (between the ages of 12 and 17) to MySpace grew from roughly 3 million to 7.8 million. That was up 162 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix. MySpace currently has approximately 85 million members. Like Google, MySpace has spawned a cottage industry of sites that provide support and services to teen subscribers. Sites like MyGen.com.uk, Coshed.com and Poqbum.com, help kids create profiles, layouts, graphics, games, icons and quizzes for MySpace blogs. But once something gains popularity there is usually some backlash MySpace has drawn fire from parents and teachers and now many teens are looking to newer, edgier social networks, such as Bebo.com, Tagged.com and MyYearbook.com. Tagged.com grew to half a million teen visitors in April 2006, from a virtual unknown, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Also a newcomer, MyYearbook.com blossomed to 1 million visitors over the last year. Marketers value these virtual communities for a number of reasons: They attract a very specific target audience; visitors return again and again; they provide a place to promote and sell products; it's fairly easy to collect demographic and product-use information; and they provide a place to interact one-on-one with teens. That same study from Pew also reports nearly half (49.3 percent) of the respondents play online games, which provide marketers with a great vehicle for keeping kids in the marketing loop with integrated product promotions called "advergames". Another thing that teens love to do is talk, and online communication reigns as the preferred method of chat. A recent Lycos survey showed that once the school day ends, 45 percent of the teens surveyed preferred to communicate via Instant Messenger (IM) outside of school. Although public teenage chat rooms have become stomping ground for spammers and other unscrupulous prowlers, legitimate marketers can still be heard above the din. And when they are not chatting online, teens are talking on their cell phones. In fact, 70 percent of teens own a cell phone. Many claim that creating online branded content for teens or reaching young buyers through their cell phones is the way of the future. "Seen as the next frontier, mobile marketing appears to infiltrate teens at a rate much higher than adults," a Forrester report says. In addition to buying ring tones, Web-enabled phones will make it possible to watch video clips and shop via cell phone. And while the average teen spends seven hours a week on the Net, they spend 10 hours a week watching TV, a difference more pronounced than for online adults, according to JupiterResearch. Many suggest that a multichannel mix of online and television would likely reach the teen population. Blogging is also something that has captured the attention of teens. More than half of all teens and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet have created a blog or Web page, according to Pew Internet & American Life Project. The most active segment among teenage bloggers is girls aged 15 to 17. One-quarter of online girls in that age group blog, compared to 15 percent of online boys of the same age, the study says. Have you readers learned anything yet? .Even though I am in the grandmother age I wish I had known as much about teen-agers as I have learned researching these articles when dealing with teen-agers in my pizza shop back in the 60's and 70's. Stay tuned for the last article of this series when I reveal more startling facts you'll be glad to know. _____________________________________________________________________________ If you are a successful entrepreneur looking for a Plan B to increase your residual income visit http://createmysuccess.com/fredabd.and then call toll free 800-294-8654, ext 5758 If you are looking for a home business and are coachable, trainable, and have $400.00 to invest, visit http://mymangosteen.com/fredabd and then call toll free 800-294-8654,ext 5764 ___________________________________________ Freda Douglas is a published author. Her first book "Cherish the Past", still available on Amazon.com, was published in 2004. Her second book "Winds of Change" is now available at your local book store by using this ISBN # 978-1-60145-367-9 Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |