It's New Years Eve here in South Natick. Like the holiday or hate it, you'll probably agree it is at least a time to take stock and make pledges to yourself about the coming year, both personally and professionally. Maybe in the time it takes the clock to transition from 2007 to 2008, you'll consider whether or not to make 2008 the year in which you'll make some wholesale changes in the way you market your products and services.

To evaluate that possibility, here's a column by Michelle Richard who is the co-owner of Coalesce Marketing & Design Inc. in Appleton, Wisconsin. It's all about a market target that in a recent survey was at the top of the list for more than 80% of marketing executives polled: Generation Y, which they say happens to be twice the size of Gen X.

The column is worth reading from beginning to end if you're interested in learning why traditional media isn't going to reach this audience; if you want to better understand how and why this group is becoming increasingly immune to old advertising formulas.

Happy New Year?

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News releases announcing new web sites are becoming quite rare. Why? Because practically nobody cares about a new web site, really. That's why I was surprised this morning to see this release via PRWeb about a new website, and even more surprised to read such unabashedly gushing quotes from the people responsible for it. The new website is for and by 'nationally recognized Tax Lady Roni Deutch.' Here's a brief excerpt from the release:

"I am so pleased with how beautiful my new website looks. Every single page looks fresh and inviting to people looking for help with IRS tax debt relief," claims Ms. Deutch. "My web team is comprised of talented individuals who have put together an amazing new website that I am proud to associate my name with."

Well, you know I had to go there and see for myself. You can, too. Well? Hey, I'm no website expert. In my opinion it looks a lot like a lot of other websites. I don't know that it rises to the definition of 'amazing.' But guess what? Roni Deutch has a blog, and you can access it via the website. That's probably the best and more important feature of the whole development project to date, and yet there's no mention of it until paragraph nine of the news release, way down in the About Roni Lynn Deutch motherhood paragraph!

The blog's not bad. There seems to be some fascination with new cars sprinkled in among the mainstream posts, but there's fresh content about tax issues and problems, IRS news and so forth. One problem is it uses the Google blog platform which doesn't enable trackbacks, but you can leave comments. A truly amazing development team might have used WordPress perhaps?

Last comments: when was the last time you read a news release that included the word 'vibe?' Pretty hip, yes?

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The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a new report you should scan if you still think marketing the old fashioned way to the new and next generation is going to work. It's about the use of social media among teenagers in America, with a focus on how boys' and girls' online preferences differ in some ways. But for me, that's the side story. Of more importance I think is that television, radio and newspapers aren't even mentioned in the report (not totally surprising since this is Internet research), and that the numbers are staggering.

For example, see if this doesn't give you reason for pause:

Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation… There is a subset of teens who are super-communicators — teens who have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends, including traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and email. They represent about 28% of the entire teen population and they are more likely to be older girls…

There's an old saying where I come from. It is "Fish where the fish are." To that, I would append the phrase, "…and use good bait." Want to reach the online generation? Go online, and stop thinking that your static website full of polished, vetted phrases rises to the definition of social media. It isn't going to attract or compel the new supercommunicators.

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