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Tweens, Teens Willing to Welcome Brands to Social Networks

Some 71 percent of online teens and tweens visit social-networking sites weekly, and more than half of all teens - and nearly half of all online 9-17 year olds - reported participation in advertiser-branded interactive activities in the previous month, according to findings from an Alloy Media + Marketing whitepaper, reports MarketingCharts.

The whitepaper, commissioned from a national social networking and advertising study conducted by Grunwald Associates, delves into tween and teen behaviors and attitudes about advertising within the social-networking environment.

Some findings from the study:

• The study validates that social networking is now an embedded component in the lifestyles of online teens and tweens:
  • 81 percent of online 9-17 year olds say that they have visited a social networking website within the past 3 months.
  • 71 percent of online 9-17 year olds visit these sites at least weekly.
  • More broadly, 96 percent of online teens/tweens report ever having used any type of social networking technology, including IM/chat, text messaging and email.

• Social networking use is approaching near parity with TV time among online 9-17 year olds that use SN.
• When asked where their mindshare goes while they multitask between TV and online, by more than 4:1 teens say they focus mainly on online.
• Teens are vigorously creating and maintaining their online personal spaces - 60 percent have created profiles or personal sites and almost 20 percent update their sites or profiles at least once a day.
• Some 64 percent of teens upload photos and 42 percent of teens create characters, avatars, such as Meez, or anime to express themselves across their personal profiles.

Findings on branding opportunity:

• Nearly half (47 percent) of 9-17 year olds, including more than half (55 percent) of teens, report participation in one or more advertiser-branded activity types in the last month.
• More than 90 percent of tweens and teens say they’d like to hear about one or more types of entertainment products in social-networking sites.
• Close to half (45 percent) say they’d like to hear about enthusiast or special interest products, such as technology, sports, and automotive.

(MarketingCharts offers more findings from the study here.)

Grunwald also makes suggestions to marketers that wish to reach kids on social networks:

• Be sensitive: Marketers must respect social network user’s feelings of ownership and emotional attachment to their profile pages.
• Be useful: Marketers will be welcomed if they help kids reach their online goals - kids want useful content and tools, parents want skillset-building and educational activities.
• Be fun: Marketers must appeal to young social network users’ need to be entertained with music, games, and video.
• Be interested: Marketers should treat young people as their partners to benefit from their ideas and gain valuable information.
• Be innovative: Marketers must help supply kids with new tools that make kids stand out among their peers.