Social Internet
Social media and college kids
Life has been kind to me. I’ve met some amazing people who have taken a chance in me and given me the kind of opportunities someone my age can only dream of. And I strongly believe in passing it on . So something I am very passionately involved in is trying to mentor college students. It is a two-way street really — I pass on what I know and they always end up surprising me.
This past spring, I voluneteered my Sunday evenings and weekday lunches to mentor a few super smart college students that were interested in advertising/ marketing. Rohit Bhargava, VP of Interactive Marketing at Ogilvy PR and his entire team were kind enough to extend us some real juicy assignments to work on. And that’s when I really began to pay attention to how college students use the internet. Simply based on my observations, I was a little surprised to learn that most college students are not as social-media savvy as we digital media practioners think them to be. The most startling discovery was that college kids do not blog. (This is an observation, so if you have a different experience, please share) In hindsight, this doesn’t surprise me because when I was in college, I was pretty much the only one blogging among the people I knew. (And it was not so long ago)
Last night, Annie (Social Media Director at GPTMC) and I spoke to bunch of curious college students at Temple Unversity’s Student Ad Club. And we both thought it was very interesting out of 20 some students present at the meet, not one blogged. And only a couple read blogs. I have questions about this — and I’m returning to this group next week to sit with them to really understand how they are using the internet and all it’s social application.
Some other observations:
- They didn’t use or know of twitter but used the facebook status update very often
- Almost all of them were familiar with perezhilton.com — or his show.
- They were curious and a common question was, "what do you blog about?"
What do you guys think? Any insights you can share? I’m putting together a survey to learn more about how college students use the internet — any ideas on what should be in the survey?
Discussion
6 comments for “Social media and college kids”
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Good point - I noticed the same thing coming out of our internship program. The interesting thing is that an experience on a social network as a user may not necessarily prepare you for thinking like a marketer about using the site. For me, the most interesting knowledge gap seemed to be how few college students see blogging as the ideal way to find their perfect job. There is lots of discussion about how employers might see your Facebook page or compromising pictures of you on Flickr (all negative aspects of living life through social media). Knowledge about the upside of using a blog for personal branding and to stand out from others as you go after that first job is strangely lacking.
I am a college student, grad student. I study advertising AND I blog. From more than 4 years now. Am I an exception then? I’d love to think so..
but I do know of a couple of college students who blog too..
also, Rohit, I think I got my current job on campus as a writer solely because of my blog and my articles on a metroblog. I did not start blogging for that, and never even thought of it in that sense, but my blog and my posts on them have helped me stand apart from the other applicants..
Pragni - I think and truly believe that you are an exception. My career has been like yours - where I got all jobs because of my blog but we are exceptions. I have to disagree with you. College students that blog, understand new media and really use social tools the way we do is by far lesser than we assume it to be. I have come to believe that we, the new media practioners, often live in a little bubble that is really cut off from the mainstream new media.
I’ve noticed this as well. I’m about 2 years out of school, and didn’t start blogging til I started at the agency I work for last year. Sometimes I’m caught off guard when students from my alma mater reach out to me, and yet they’re not on linkedin- yet almost my entire agency is.
I think it highlights a tendency sometimes to portray micro trends as societal shifts. Case in point- I got a TrendWatching email today that said one of the “big 5″ trends to watch for is that pets are “passe”- based on some obscure surveys in “former” pet havens like brazil. WTF??? Just rewriting it here makes me feel foolish…point being, sometimes the activities/attitudes/actions of the influentials get painted onto the masses when it may not be wholly accurate to do so.
Avin - Yes - I’m actually beginning to pay less and less attention to these trend agencies. And I think you said it just right. I think marketers use the trickle down effect and concentrate just on the influntials Perhaps, we should be thinking the other way round. The main challenge I think lies in how you can create compelling experiences for the masses - not just the influentials.
What do you think?
I think it’s somewhere in the middle. Trying to target the masses when media (and really, life) is so fragmented can prove to be an exercise in futility.
And really, I don’t know if anyone has “the answer”…at least not yet. With all the change going on around us, I think the bigger challenge is becoming comfortable with the fact that we’re living in a fluid times- and the title of your blog suggests you probably are