Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

A Winning Strategy for Instagram Marketing

Flashstock has put together a really good snapshot of how brands can use Instagram as part of a winning social marketing plan! It's definitely worth a read.

A Winning Strategy for Instagram Marketing by Derek E. Baird

Piper Jaffray: Instagram is the Top Social Network for Teens

According to the latest Piper Jaffray "Taking Stock with Teens" report, American youth are continuing to gravitate to Instagram and away from Facebook. 

Roughly three-quarters of respondents reported using the visual platform, up from 69% in the previous survey. By comparison, just 45% said they use Facebook, a significant drop from 72%.

Jaffray Piper also reports that friends and the Internet dominate teen influences and combine in social media environments. Instagram and Twitter are the two most used social media sites, implying teens are increasingly visual and sound bite communicators.

The Taking Stock With Teens survey is a semi-annual research project comprised of gathering input from approximately 7,200 teens with an average age of 16.0 years.

Teen spending patterns, fashion trends, and brand and media preferences were assessed through visits to a geographically diverse subset of high schools across 11 states and 14 schools, as well as an online survey that included 41 states. 

Piper Jaffray has also prepared an infographic that shows some of the key highlights from the Fall 2014 survey.

Taking Stock with Teens Fall 2014

Trend Watch: YouTuber Ben J. Pierce Takes on Gender Roles with 'Little Game'

Ben J. Pierce (aka "Benny") is a 15-year old singer-songwriter, and YouTuber has won the hearts of many Tumblr and Twitter users with his new video, “Little Game." At the time of this post, Ben's video, "Little Game" has garnered nearly 100,000 views on YouTube.

Fueled by his 20,000 fans, tumblr and Twitter, Ben has stormed the social web with his video that tackles gender roles. Even uber YouTuber Tyler Oakley is impressed with this budding young artists' effort---tweeting out out support for "Little Game."

While adults (aka 'old people') debate the merits of pink LEGO, Barbie and other pink-blue toy hot button issues, Ben has used YouTube to tackle the issue through a Gen Z perspective. And the end result is resonating with lots of tween and teens.

Ben's "Little Game" is part of a larger trend where young YouTubers like Troye Sivan (Becoming You) or Hannah Hart ("Coming Out Chapters") are using videos to promote individuality and positive body images.

 

 

7 Reasons Why Young People Think Your Brand Sucks [REPORT]

Building brands and running companies can be one of the most time-consuming and challenging undertakings someone can attempt, and there are plenty of ways it can go south quickly. Even for established brands with seasoned teams.

Do you think your brand or marketing campaign is failing to gain the momentum it deserves with young people?

7 Reasons Why Young People Think Your Brand Sucks from Gregg Witt

Level Up Learning: Using Game Based Learning in the Classroom [STUDY]

Digital games have the potential to transform K-12 education as we know it. But what has been the real experience among teachers who use games in the classroom? 

In 2013, the Games and Learning Publishing Council conducted a national survey among nearly 700 K-8 teachers.

The report reveals key findings from the survey, and looks at how often and why teachers use games in the classroom, as well as issues they encounter in their efforts to implement digital games into their practice.

This report was produced by the Games and Learning Publishing Council, a project of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.

Level Up Learning: National Survey on Teaching with Games by Derek E. Baird

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Taylor Swift 1989 Secret Sessions [VIDEO]

This is GENIUS. This is how you do fan marketing---build relationships, treat fans like friends, empower influencers to spread the word, support your brand ambassadors and, oh--bake them cookies.

No literally, Taylor made cookies for her fans. (Hopefully she will post the recipe for those chocolate chip coconut cookies on her tumblr.)

Taylor Swift took to the internet to find fans across the US and UK and invited them to hear her new album "1989" first! These sessions were top secret and became known as the #1989SecretSessions.

Her whole approach to marketing her new album has put the fans first. From her album launch party on Yahoo!, to the Secret Sessions, embrace of tumblr and even her Olivia Benson-dietCoke-kitten video has been geared to engage and celebrate her fans and reward their loyalty. 

Taylor Swift, marketing genius.

Related Links

• Buy 1989 on Amazon
• Buy 1989 on iTunes

Trend Watch: Tenth Grade Tech Trends

I ran across this really interesting essay over on Medium by Josh Miller, who interviewed his sister on the latest tech and social media trends at her high school.

Josh's findings dovetail with what I've heard in my own interviews with tweens and teens on the hows and why's of their social media habits.   

Take a peek into the mind of a teenager on social media to learn what's in (spoiler, not Facebook) and what's hot (rhymes with snap and cat).

Tenth Grade Tech Trends

Meet the Millennial Makers [INFOGRAPHIC]

In a recent MTV study entitled “Generation Innovation,” we set off to look at the resiliency of a Millennial generation that is pushing back against a system in need of repair… whether the economy, the environment, the education system and more.

What we found was counter to the often-charged caricature of today’s youth as “entitled” and “coddled.” Instead, we found a vibrant and strong fixer/maker/builder culture where nearly 3 in 4 of Millennials believe “our generation is starting a movement to change old, outdated systems.”

Put more broadly, if the American Dream isn’t working as promised, Millennials will take it upon themselves to iterate the next “version” of America.The heady mix of forces driving this generation is only partly due to their sense of needing to fix something broken.

The other even more potent side of the coin is the primacy they place on their own power of creativity. When asked “what word best defines the DNA of your generation?” the number one response was “Creative” and number two “Self-expressive.” A full 70% of Millennials in the study agreed “Creativity will save us!”

One of the first places we checked in on our journey was Detroit. We were fascinated by the “canary in the coal mine” dynamics at work with a younger generation busy appropriating, fixing and remixing the American Dream – whether transforming abandoned factories into hack spaces, disused cycle tracks into playgrounds, distressed storefronts into galleries for emerging artists or untangling arcane local government departments.

Millennials have the motivation and DNA to run wild with innovation, but they also have access to the tools, technologies and platforms to make a real difference. In fact, 92% of Millennials feel “empowered” by technology (versus just 11% feeling overwhelmed by it).

What the generation is busy fixing and making is interesting to watch, for sure. But perhaps most fascinating is HOW Millennials are going about innovation and what we can all learn from it about what form the next version of the American Dream may take.

Read the entire report over on the MTV Insight Research blog:

White House: "15 Economic Facts about Millennials" [REPORT]

Today the White House released a report entitled “15 Economic Facts about Millennials” (pdf). This report takes an early look at this generation’s adult lives so far, including how they are faring in the labor market and how they are organizing their personal lives.

This generation is marked by transformations at nearly every important milestone: from changes in parenting practices and schooling choices, to the condition of the U.S. economy they entered, to their own choices about home and family. 

Millennials “15 Economic Facts about Millennials”Report

Related: All--Yes, all!--the charts from the White House Report on Millennials!

Why Snapchat Is The Future of Social Media [VIDEO]

In his new video, fimmaker Casey Neistat makes the case for Snapchat being the future of social media, but in a fundamentally different way.

It's not like Facebook or MySpace, his argument goes, though it may be their natural evolutionary successor.

Snapchat is different, Neistat (and the gaggle of Snapchat teens he interviews) says, because it actually mirrors the way we interact in the real world.

"Snapchat is great because it's virile and vital. Because it's right now. Because there's no pressure to be produced or fake, because everything disappears in a few seconds anyway."  -David Pierce, The Verge

Snapchat is a way to let people live your life with you, a surprisingly close approximation of just running into someone for a few seconds at the store or on the subway platform. Neistat points particularly to Snapchat Stories, the public-facing part of Snapchat, as the feature that made Snapchat really move into the mainstream.

 

 

To illustrate the power of Snapchat, Neistat invites Jerome Jarre, the King of Snapchat with 1.2 million follwers, to send a Snap his fans asking them to meet him in Union Square----16 minutes later Jarre racked up 142,000 views on his Snap and several hundred screaming fans actually showed up in person.

Read more on The Verge