The Social Media Marketing Blog: 09/01/2010

From the Not Necessarily the News department: "Teens text more than adults" - or so went a headline from an e-newsletter from MarketingCharts that hit my inbox recently.

Okayyyyy....

The actual article stated that overall, teens text five times more than adults according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Again, not all that surprising, but at least we're getting somewhere. It seems that most adults text between 1-10 times a day, both groups are pretty similar in the 11-20 times a day and 21-50 times a day categories. But teens are twice as likely to text 51-100 times a day and more than three times as likely to text over 100 times a day.

Check out the graph of the number of texts per day, adults vs. teens:

One other bit of information about texting: 57% noted that they received unwanted or spammy text messages.

What conclusions can marketers draw from this for the future?
First, this is the next generation of consumers, so we need to be prepared for them. While email may become more important to them in the workforce, they're still going to be tied to texting. The challenge is that texting is necessarily a one-to-one (or in some cases one-to-few) experience. There's very little room for interruptive ads.

Second, as you can see from that 57% figure, opting in is going to be extremely important; but even so, I believe that if we're taking up their valuable texting time by shooting them an SMS message, then it should be something that is worth their attention. Some categories or ideas to consider:

Funny
Entertaining
Breaking news about your brand or company
Exclusive content
Discounts or coupons
Contest or sweeps
For local businesses: a digital version of "leave your business card"
Get them off mobile-only interaction - cross-pollinate to your other properties

Probably one of my most favorite examples of this last category is the Facebook Sign Maker (and its Twitter counterpart) from the good folks at Blue Sky Factory. Text a simple phrase to a number and - voila! - you're a fan of a Facebook page.

They've brought users from text messaging to Facebook fans via an outdoor/experiential sign. Remarkably effective and stunningly simple. Companies that begin to adopt this thinking understand how different marketing practices can leverage each other and that this is how life works - it's not about how we interact with the world around us, not how we simply focus on a single channel.

Here's one final nugget found in the Pew report: breaking some long-held stereotypes, men actually use the phone slightly more than women. Of the women surveyed, 53% make or receive five or fewer calls a day, while only 43% of men could say the same.

Maybe there are still a few surprises around after all.

Image credit: SarahDeer (Flickr)

Labels: Marketing, mobile, news, Pew

About Scott

For hi-res, click here

Ranked by Forbes as one of the top 10 influencers in social media, he has been called "an unstoppable force of nature," "the best corporate social media lead on the planet," and Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford Motor Company, called him "a visionary."

At Ford, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.

Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog and cohosts I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, two literary undertakings. Scott has been featured in hundreds of news and business publications in print and on the web, in nearly dozens of books, and on a variety of mainstream media, including NBC, NPR, CNN and The Wall Street Journal. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.

Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.

Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the Oxford Dictionary of English-accepted term "tweetup."

You may download a headshot here, courtesy of Rosh Sillars; a PDF version of Scott's bio is here .

Books in which Scott or his work is featured:

The Social Media Strategist

Social Business by Design

Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications

Social Media Marketing for Dummies

Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now

Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business

Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements

Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead

MicroMarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small

Spend Shift: How the Post-Crisis Values Revolution Is Changing the Way We Buy, Sell and Live

Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business

The New Rules of Marketing & PR

by David Meerman Scott

Twitterville
by Shel Israel

Six Pixels of Separation
by Mitch Joel

Monkeys with Typewriters
by Jemima Gibbons

Read This First
by Ron Ploof

World Wide Rave
by David Meerman Scott

Get Seen
by Steve Garfield

Disclosures/Relationships

Scott is on the board of the Social Media Advertising Consortium

Scott has been named to the Advisory boards of Pivot, SavvyAuntie, Business Smart Tools, The Hive Awards,
Scott is a judge for the SAMMY Awards

Named one of iMedia's 25 Top Internet Marketing Leaders & Innovators

Humongo occasionally does web work for me and designed this site

No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

Scott Monty Bio

Speaking Events

Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please click here to submit a speaking request for Ford-related purposes or email me at speaking [AT] this site's URL (if you know what I mean) to send a general email request.. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.

Who is Scott Monty?

Hi, I'm Scott. I'm the global head of social media for Ford Motor Company. This is my personal blog, where I share my perspectives on social media - the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web - for marketers, agencies, the enterprise and the individual. This blog contains my personal views. My bio is available here and my headshots can be found here.