There are plenty of 2011 social media predictions coming out this time of year, but I, unlike many, only have one prediction and it’s for us Millennials. This prediction may not be anything special or exciting but I feel like it holds some form of truth and an honest reality that social media marketers may not be taking into account.
Millennials will start to use Social Media beyond our personal networking. Yeah, not exactly *shocking* news. But, let me dig into this a bit more.
Right now, the stats for Twitter in the millennial age range are quite different than the baby-boomers or Gen-X. In a study back in 2009, 99% of 18-24 year olds had a social media profile, and I doubt that has changed in the past year. Not long ago either, Read Write Web showed that Gen-Y was moving away from Facebook and towards Twitter. My point though, is that “we millennials” have a strong affiliation with Social Networks and Media because of its ability to let us interact with our friends. Now, finally though, Gen-Y is seeing the benefits of these platforms for our personal branding and professional networking.
As these networks keep aging, the same people who used them for a small personal benefit, are seeing the larger picture. We were focused too long on Twitter’s original message, which was, “What are you doing?” We got caught up in this message and didn’t see the benefit of Twitter, until it was able to populate into something that millennials could use for a personal benefit.
On the other hand, though, we want our networks to be our networks. Places for our friends, photos, etc. without the constant interruption of the “professional network”. Take this article TechCrunch wrote about Facebook taking over our Social Space. And to me it makes sense. We’ll use what we want for our benefit, but the more you push us, the more we will try to push back. We keep being shown all these new “opportunities” with social media, but someone always just wants to make a buck off of it. What happened to doing something just for the benefit of others…?
In the end, get ready to start seeing more college-aged or recent grads, using more social media more productively and definitely more targeted.
Thoughts? Comments? Leave them below, I’d love to know what you think!
Image Credit - Eustaquio Santimano
