Teens and Social Media: Coming of Age Together

Today’s adolescents can neither recall nor relate to a pre-internet world, much less a world devoid of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

So, is social media marketing a surefire way for businesses to reach this age group? And, perhaps more importantly, how might social media factor into teens’ buying habits as they enter adulthood?

To answer those questions, we need to understand the role technology plays in teenage lives—particularly in terms of how they use it to relate to their friends, family and the world around them.  A recent study conducted by Ericsson ConsumerLab provides some provocative insights.

Among the findings:

Many Businesses Still Slow to Embrace Social Media Strategies

While more companies are planning to incorporate social media usage into their 2012 strategic plans, many are still far from clear on exactly what they want to accomplish with it.

At least that’s the impression I came away with after seeing the results from a recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.

The study, analyzed in the report  An Examination of How Social Media Is Embedded in Business Strategy and Operations Survey Findings, was the final component of a four-part series of surveys examining various aspects of social media use in the workplace.  While the emphasis of this survey centered on the human resource aspects of social media, the findings did include some broader business implications, as well.

For example, on the plus side, more than half (55 percent) of the companies surveyed indicated that social media activities would play a greater role in their overall business strategies.  Conversely, however, less than one-third (28 percent) have developed any form of social media strategy, and only four in 10 reported having established social media policies.  Of those organizations that do have policies for social media use:

Social Media and Ethical Workplace Behavior May Not Mix

Recently, I wrote about a study which found that the more people rely on technology to communicate, the greater the potential there is for them to be, let’s say, less than forthcoming.

Taking this concept a step further, could those little white lies lead to other questionable ethical practices by active users of social media?  Are technologically savvy communicators more prone to exhibit less than ethical behaviors, and if so, what could that mean for businesses?

According to new research presented by the Ethics Resource Center, the answers to those questions have some troubling implications, both from the employer and employee perspective.  In the ERC’s most recent National Business Ethics Survey (NBES), which is conducted every other year and is recognized nationwide as a “barometer” of workplace ethics, those who say they are actively engaging in social media also tend towards  somewhat unethical behaviors.

For example, based on responses to the most recent NBES:

Do Law Firms Object to Using Social Media?

It’s always worthwhile to watch and gauge how quickly (or not) various sectors and professions embrace new technology and resources, and in the past, I have written about how journalists, retailers, small business owners, IT decision makers, the travel industry and others are using social media platforms to gain competitive advantage.

But, not all organizations are responding the same way.

For instance, when it comes to social media marketing by law firms around the globe, apparently, the jury is still out.

Results of a study commissioned by LexisNexis and conducted by the global PR and communications firm Burson-Marsteller show that law firms are using social media –but not nearly as well as they could.

In fact, comparing the legal community’s current social media reticence with its initial reluctance to create websites in the early dot-com years, the study found that, although law firms do register business accounts on the top social media sites, a majority do not actually use these accounts in any strategic way—if they use them at all. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Years ago, I remember many companies that secured URLs long before they developed compelling websites.)

Here are a few additional highlights from the study:

Is It Easier to Lie By Text Than By Video?

Here’s a question for you: Let’s say you wanted to take a sick day from work, but you’re not really sick.  Would you find it easier to do so by telephone, or by sending an email or text message?

Chances are, if you could, you would choose the latter option.

Or . . . at least that’s what researchers at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business concluded during a recent study of 170 students.

In short, it seems that the more impersonal the method of communication people use, the easier it is to be less than truthful.

The study divided students into two groups: “brokers” versus “buyers” of stock.

To encourage participation, the researchers offered cash incentives to those who played brokers based on how much they sold, and to those playing buyers based on the end value of any “stocks” they purchased.  Then, the researchers thickened the plot by giving the brokers inside information that the stock they were selling would soon lose half of its value.  The buyers would remain completely unaware of this until after the fact.

The student brokers and buyers conducted stock transactions in four ways—face-to-face, via video, by audio and through text messaging.

Once the role play concluded, the buyers were informed about the deception and asked whether they felt deceived by their brokers.