I Believe the Children Are Our (Social Media) Future

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 by Andy Beal

I Believe the Children Are Our (Social Media) Future

Image Credit: BBC Pssst. Hey kid! Want to earn a quarter? Tell your friends about this cool new video game, and it’s yours.

Silly? Not really. Not when you consider a new survey out of the UK that suggests 49% of kids aged between 8 and 17 have a social media profile.

The Ofcom report looks into the impact of social networks on people’s lives in the UK as part of a wider media literacy campaign and surveyed 5,000 adults and more than 3,000 children.

“Social networks are clearly a very important part of people’s lives and are having an impact on how people live their lives,” said James Thickett, director of market research at Ofcom.

Why is this important to internet marketers? It should be obvious, but I’ll spell it out. Think of all the 20+ years olds that grew-up using search engines such as Google. What do we have now? Millions of young men and women entering the workplace, all acutely aware of just how beneficial search engines can be.

Fast forward 10 years or so and those 8 to 17-year olds, who admit to having a social network profile, will hit the workforce. When they do, they’ll have a new mindset: valuable information can be found, not in a search engine, but in a network of people with similar interests.

If you’re strictly a search engine marketer, make hay while the sun’s still shining. I predict you’ve got about 10 years left to make the good money. After that, you’d better have a few social media marketing tricks up your sleeve, otherwise you could find you’re obsolete and back in that corporate job you worked so hard to escape–probably working for a 21-year old that does “get” social media.

(The report also looks at the real dangers kids face from revealing too much info on social networks. That doesn’t fit with our internet marketing focus, but go read it anyway!)

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10 comments on “I Believe the Children Are Our (Social Media) Future”

Prosperity Writer Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 11:04 am

is this the beginning of the end for such giants as google and yahoo? if they do not adapt, maybe it is.
Steven Bradley Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 2:59 pm

“otherwise you could find you’re obsolete and back in that corporate job you worked so hard to escape–probably working for a 21-year old that does “get” social media.”

Say it ain’t so.
Graham Jones - Internet Psychologist Says:

April 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm

Good post making a very good point. I made a similar point on my blog today. Banks, for instance, have all sorts of enticements for getting junior accounts. The idea is that if they can attract children to bank with them, they keep them for life. The problem is that banks haven’t yet worked out that children as young as eight want to engage with them online – not in their branches. And guess what, banks do not allow online access to children. Dumb or what? Big business really hasn’t got to grips with the Internet yet. You are right that people will be looking beyond search in 10 years. But just as we reach that change in online behaviour, big companies like the banks will be thinking of how they can capitalise on search. Ho hum.
Futon-Matt Says:

April 3rd, 2008 at 8:18 am

This post has really made me think about what to do with my business in years to come.
Seomotion Says:

April 3rd, 2008 at 2:10 pm

I am agree with this opinion.
Virtual Coach | Children the future of Social Media? Myspace, Facebook, Internet safety and more Says:

April 3rd, 2008 at 8:05 pm

[...] Silly? Not really. Not when you consider a new survey out of the UK that suggests 49% of kids aged between 8 and 17 have a social media profile….MORE…. [...]
Utah SEO Says:

April 5th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

I can easily foresee it being common for social networking to be brought up in many technology classes in high school.
Wii Tips Says:

April 12th, 2008 at 11:50 am

Yes I agree and the different social marketing networks will probably merge into eachother being one complete network place that combines the functions of facebook, twitter, youtube and search engines which will eventually make google and yahoo absolete.
Let’s Get Started…. « Juli Rybicki’s blog Says:

January 17th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

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January 23rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm

[...] out of the UK suggests 49% of kids aged between 8 and 17 have a social media profile. According to Andy Beal, these kids will have a competitive advantage when they hit the work force; “…they’ll have a [...]

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