Week 7 (Post 6)

Title: What Would Madison Avenue Do? Marketing to Teens
Author: Anastasia Goodstein
Retrieved From: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/technology/web20/859046-359/what_would_madison_avenue_do.html.csp

I found this article on the School Library Journal website and found it very relevant to last week's topic of marketing to teens. It is even written by Anastasia Goodstein the author of our text book Totally Wired.

The article presents some issues or obstacles that corporations and libraries have creating media campaigns to snag their attention. One of the problems is that this generation (aka, Generation M) are big on multi tasking. They can text, do homework, watch TV, and IM all at the same time. This also results in the need to create ads that are very short in content. "Bytesize" as it is referred to in the article.

Other issues that the media needs to address are that teens want their content and they want it now. With DVR's and ipods, they are able to look up TV shows or movies at their convenience. They also want to participate whenever possible, that is why American Idol is such a big hit and other similar reality shows.

With this in mind here are some tips that Goodstein suggests when marketing to teens:

1. Enlist teens to manage your social media-have them set up a MySpace or Facebook account for the library. This empowers them to be a part of something big.

2. Don't try too hard to be cool-be yourself and don't dumb things down for them.

3. Know your audience-check up on how teens use technology and what sites they are using online.

4. Don't sweat the design-just make sure it addresses their needs.

5. Support causes that kids care about-find out what kids care about and how they can help.

6. Use text messaging and IM appropriately-give them options they are comfortable with using with an adult.

and finally . . . just ask them what they are interested in! You can learn a lot about teens when you just open the lines of communication and talk to them.

This article is a great resource for librarians or anyone interested in reaching out to tweens and teens. They are a wonderful group to work with and serve and the best way to do so is simply by learning what they like and building on that interest. Goodstein uses her own research and teen input to address media outreach to teens and her tips are very practical. I enjoyed how easy her article was read and how she includes examples for implementation in the library. She covers all tweens and teens younger and older. She also has a great website to use as a resource, YPulse, which covers many topics on this age group. I found this article to be very helpful, especially to those working with young adults.