Kids and Social Media

Posted by Rahna on October 30, 2008 under Social Media | Be the First to Comment

I read an article the other day from MediaPost’s Engage: Kids 6-12 entitled, “Born to Blog?  Meet the New Social Networking Sites for Kids” which can be found here:  http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/engage_kids/?p=4 

Because I am a youth marketer and need to stay on top of trends with kids, I was quite interested in reading it.  I was highly disappointed in the article, though, for several reasons:  

1)    the headline is totally misleading.  The article is not about kids blogging; it’s about blogs for moms of kids.  Big difference.

2)    “Networking” for kids is absurd.  It is not an activity that kids are actively seeking: “Mom, I’d like to go to a networking meeting.  See you later.”  It brings to mind images of kids passing out business cards and mingling near the juice bar.

3)     the information was only mildly interesting, as mommy bloggers have been around a long time.  This is not new news.  Any good social media company should be able to get exposure for a brand within the mom community; it’s the kids themselves that my clients want to reach.  I have studied kids marketing for the past six years, and I can tell you that kids6-12 are not ”networking.”  They are playing….Because that is what kids do.  The modern-day, ‘virtual’ version of social media sites for kids are somewhat limited due a variety of reasons, most prominent of which is the necessity for kid sites to be COPPA compliant and for parents to feel safety for their kids.  The sites they are visiting are addictinggames.com, pixiehollow.com, lego.com, webkinz.com, miniclip.com, Disney.com, clubpenguin.com, runescape.com, nickelodeon.com, and yes, YouTube.com.  I know this because of my research, but also because of my three children (ages 11, 10, and 8).   

Any parent will tell you that there are several ways that kids are getting to kid websites: 

The Power of TelevisionThis traditional mass media vehicle has Disney encouraging young girls to connect with other fairies on pixiehollow.com, and Nickelodeon viewers casting their votes on nick.com for the President of the United States or the Kid’s Choice Awards. 

Toys Webkinz took the world by storm two years ago, building upon kids ever-appealing desire to collect things and engaging kids with constantly changing, fun on-line games. My Littlest Pet Shop and others also have tried (and continue to try) to replicate that success. 

Schoolyard BuzzWord of mouth plays a big role as well, especially for sites like miniclip and ClubPenguin. 

However, all of these sites have somewhat limited interaction, with pre-determined phrases that kids can choose from to “talk” with others on the site.  While it is giving them a sense of social interaction, it’s not nearly as rich and free as an adult social media site would be.   

I know that I am biased (because I used to be in the marketing department there), but to me, LEGO has one of the most robust sites out there.  If anyone is looking for a site to emulate, that is one that should provide lots of inspiration.  Anyone engaged in the digital world of kids will tell you that lego.com stays on the cutting edge.  On LEGO.com, kids can freely post their comments about the new sets that come out, build a profile based on the product lines they most passionately identify (and believe me, LEGO kids are passionate), and of course, engage in on-line gaming that further immerses these kids in the LEGO worlds.  As one managing the brand, I visited the site often, really listening to what the kids had to say about the products and the marketing efforts that we put forth. 

Based on what I have seen, if you really want to encourage on-line engagement, you need to do what lego.com did: build your own.  It takes resources– commitment, time, and money–but it is worth it.    Because of the (highly necessary) COPPA constraints, kids social interactions are always going to be somewhat limited for this young an age-group when compared to adult networking sites (as they should be!), but that doesn’t mean you can’t get them to interact and engage in meaningful ways.   Look at the LEGO example, or call me if you’d like to investigate developing something richer!

Jump in the Fray

Posted by Rahna on October 27, 2008 under Social Media | Be the First to Comment

I have many opportunities to talk to a lot of social media experts and digital marketers, and the common trend among them all is no matter what industry, whether it’s children’s marketer or the insurance industry, everybody’s just trying to keep up. The landscapes for digital marketing are changing so rapidly with new opportunities and new applications coming all the time. Even the “experts” are having a hard time keeping up.  

My recommendation: jump in. You may not be perfect. You may not do it “right,” just the first time you do it, but that’s the great thing about this venue.  There is no one right or wrong way to do it.  The field is so new and ever-evolving, which means that you could become a pioneer in developing clever uses for this incredible technology.  See it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.  One thing I know for certain: you can’t really understand, really know what the power of social media is unless you are participating.  

You can start by responding to this blog post.  What do you think about social networking?