Teens on MySpace

Whether or not MySpace accounts are mainly teens to twenty somethings is highly debatable. One school of thought is that MySpace registered users skew much older than the demographics suggest, because they may lie about their self-reported demographic info.

But this TRU research survey mentioned below specifically sampled teens about their destination choices. Those participants indicated MySpace as one of their top destinations. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really suggest what the up and coming new alternatives to MySpace will be.

For further information:
TEENAGE RESEARCH UNLIMITED
Rob Callender
707 Skokie Blvd., 7th Floor
Northbrook, IL 60062
(847) 564-3440

Dec. 13, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TEENS’ SPACE: MYSPACE TOPS TEENS’ LIST OF ONLINE DESTINATIONS

Northbrook, Ill. – Six months after achieving a major upset over more-established websites, MySpace (http://www.myspace.com) continues to solidify its position as teens’ most-visited web destination.

According to a new TRU survey of more than 2,000 teens aged 12 to 19, more than one-third of respondents (34%) listed MySpace as one of their two most-visited websites. Runner-up Yahoo collected 19% of teens’ votes, while third-place Google claimed 14%.

MySpace’s achievement is even more impressive than the numbers suggest because the responses resulted from a write-in question, TRU Trend Director Rob Callender said.

“The internet offers virtually unlimited content,” Callender said. “So the fact that more than one-third of teens were able to agree on a single web destination—without the benefit of a list of choices—speaks volumes about the impression MySpace has made on teen life.”

And MySpace has been able to build this consensus with impressive speed, Callender said.

“MySpace made its TRU Study debut one year ago. At that time, nine percent of teens listed it as a favorite—good enough for third place. Six months later, it vaulted to first place with mentions from 24% of teens. This fall’s results show MySpace consolidating its lead even further.”

The TRU Study reveals some interesting demographic differences:

» MySpace takes top honors among each age group (12- to 15-year-olds, 16- and 17-year-olds, and 18- and 19-year-olds) but significantly more of the oldest teens say it’s one of their most-frequented destinations compared to other age groups.
» MySpace takes first place among both guys and girls, but significantly more girls say they visit the site most often.
» MySpace is the most-visited website among African-American teens, Hispanic teens, and white teens. Interestingly, significantly more Hispanic teens claim MySpace is one of their most-visited sites compared to the other ethnic groups.

The Fall 2006 TRU Study also reveals that nearly six teens in 10 (58%) say they’ve checked out someone’s profile on a virtual-networking site. Nearly half of teens (49%) say they themselves have profiles on a virtual-networking site. MySpace again leads: 40% of teens say they have a MySpace profile, compared to 10% for Xanga and nine percent for Facebook.

This research data is part of The TRU Study. The largest study of its type, The TRU Study provides a twice-annual profile of teen attitudes, values, lifestyles, consumer behaviors, and trends. The research is based upon responses from more than 2,000 teens nationwide. The sample is representative of the overall U.S. teen population in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and region of residence.

TRU, based in Chicago, is the nation’s pre-eminent market-research firm specializing on the teen market. Last year, TRU conducted 1,000 qualitative-research sessions, in addition to many in-depth interviews and customized quantitative studies. Over the past 24 years, TRU has interviewed nearly one million teenagers.

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Visualization example

Here’s another interesting example of visualizing information for users. In this example, News.com fits top 15 headlines into a square area. The color of the box demonstrates how recent the article is, while the size demonstrates the popularity of the article.

Article about sites for users to share self-produced videos

Taking the YouTube.com concept to the next level, a new class of video sites allow users to share their self-produced videos and offer simple tools for stringing together video clips and then adding soundtracks, titles, transitions and unusual visual effects.

Checkout these sites:
Jumpcut.com
Eyespot.com
Grouper.com
Videoegg.com
Motionbox.com

Check this video out “Chip Powers”

Pretty low key, but suspiciously ever present is a Helmann’s Mayonaise bottle/branding. At end of the movie is a cliff hanger, and directs viewer to provide feedback at www.myspace.com/chippowers.

Enjoy.
-Roland

Give free services to non-profit groups for the holidays

DM News reports:

“E-mail marketing services firm Emma is giving away 25 free accounts to charitable groups around the world as part of its annual Emma 25 initiative.

That’s an interesting concept – give away B2B services to non-profit groups for the holidays.

Article: A brief history of the virtual world

This is an interesting article you might enjoy: “A brief history of the virtual world”

A few excerpts:

“Fully 3D social spaces have been around at least since the mid-1980s, and some would argue even longer than that.”

“So what can Second Life and There and other virtual worlds offer that all that real-life stuff can’t? That’s simple: All the cognitive stuff like flying, wild dress, different modes of communications.”

“Some criticize the environments by saying they take people away from “real” contact. But for several decades “real” contact has become a complex recipe that includes phone, telex, messages/letters/memos, media, etc. Face-to-face conversation is a smaller and smaller fraction of our communications. I see virtual worlds as bringing us a bit back toward embodied person-to-person conversation but also allowing people to have a creative element–”come visit my cool place, see my cool garb”–so it is more engaging, colorful and expressive.”

Tips for planning a mobile marketing campaign

If you’re planning a mobile marketing promotion, take the time to plan carefully. Mobile marketing is still relatively new in the U.S. In contrast to Europe, Americans have not experienced the cool potential of mobile devices (micropayments, bluetooth data downloads, etc.), nor are they as tolerant to the concept of receiving promotional messages delivered to hand held devices (phone, PDA, smartphone).

Based on real experience over multiple projects, I suggest the following:

• Get multiple project bids from mobile promotion providers and scrutinize the differences carefully.
• Decide whether a vanity short code is worth the extra cost, or will a random short code suffice? Vanity codes typically cost twice as much per month to rent. You can use either the numbers or the letter equivalents. Examples of useful vanity codes:
• Tie the vanity short code to an event date:
  “Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with us. Text FUN to 50505 for details.”
  (50505 = May 5th, 2005)
• Tie the vanity short code to a related topic:
  “Try Brand X Contact Lenses. Text TRY to MYEYE for free trial details.
• Short codes can be 5 or 6 letters or numbers long. You can lookup available short codes yourself. Or ask your provider if they maintain a portfolio of easy to remember short codes (e.g. “212121″) they’ve reserved for use.
• Test whatever you can. If you have consumers text a keyword to a short code, set up different keywords to appear in promotional messaging. For example:
• For TV spot: text TRY to 12345 to get your free trial of brand X.
• For print ad: text GET to 12345 to get your free trial of brand X.
• For outdoor: text GO to 12345 to get your free trial of brand X.
• Decide whether you will pay all the transmission charges (Mobile Originating “MO” and Mobile Terminated “MT”) or will the consumer possibly be charged? Clearly communicate that in your offer.
• Confirm that your promotion will work through all the major carriers. Some carriers might not permit downloads (e.g. ringtones, wallpapers) over their proprietary networks.
• Make sure you understand the reporting data you’ll get from the mobile provider.
• What specifically will the mobile provider give you access to?
• Is the data real-time?
• What data wont you get?
• What exactly does geographic reporting data represent? (The phone number’s area code is not useful considering that someone with a New York area code might have moved to Florida and kept the number.)
• If you are driving to a Web site for offer registration, consider the following:
• Be clear about whether you intend to contact consumers again via SMS to set their expectations. Get their opt-in consent for future contact.
• Make sure you have sufficient lead time. Promotions and offer details often need to be complete and submitted to various carriers for their formal review and approval. Allow time for that and a buffer in case you need to make some significant last minute change.
• Make sure opt-out messaging, process and policy are in place and reviewed by your legal counsel before a campaign begins.
• Find out what phone/carriers your clients use so you can make sure they will all work. Maybe collect them now under the impression that you are building a small group of exclusive testers prior to consumer launch.

The Mobile Marketing Association publishes best practices and conduct guidelines you should read. They have periodic Webinar on various topics and often showcase examples of work being done beyond ringtone and wallpaper downloads.

I hope you found this useful.
Good luck!
-Roland

Filed Under: All, Mobile Marketing
Tagged: mobile, tip