Companies quit blogging. How about targeting Millennials?

Recently I have read an article in USA Today “More companies quit blogging, go with Facebook instead”[1]. The article revealed that more and more companies tend to quit using blogs as one of their marketing tools at the favor of traditional social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

As indicated in the research of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth[2] the number of top companies being involved in blogging activities dropped from 50% in 2010 to 37% in 2011. The study further reveals that only 23% of Fortune 500 companies kept up with a blogging in 2011. On the contrary, this number was steadily rising in previous years. 2011 was, thereby, the first year when the figure remained flat. The reasons why blogging does not seem to appeal as a useful marketing tool to businesses include dropping consumers’ interest in blogging at a favor of social media sites.

The Pew Research Center[3] revealed in their study that in 2010 the percentage of adults between 18 and 33 (Millennials!) interested in blogging dropped by 2 points in comparison to 2008. OkCupid, for instance, whose blog has been graded as one of the 25 top ones by Times magazine[4] stopped updating its content in April 2011. Thus, companies tend to shift from blogging towards social media sites as they believe they can reach more customers there. For instance, a spokesperson of Bank of America, T.J. Crawford stated that they stopped using blogs as marketing tools since they preferred to focus on their social media strategies as the company “(…) want to be where our [Bank of America] customers are”. Customers are reached faster there and more data on them is obtained.

Companies have a tendency to fail making blogs attractive to consumers as, as indicated by Lou Hoffman, CEO of the Hoffmann Agency, and information displayed there tends to be dull as they attempt to use blogs for informative purposes rather to create a band community. Such an approach is a missed opportunity for some companies who could use blogging for (1) generating leads or (1) creating more brand loyal consumers especially from the Millennial Generation.

Millennial Generation, called by Nick Shore[5]  in his 2012 MTV study “Generation Innovation”, are people born between 1980s and 2000s. Born with the presence of the Internet, these are creators, entrepreneurs and innovators that have a deep desire to connect with their fellows through forums, festivals, happenings, co-working spaces and others to fulfill their relatively strong need of belonging and sharing ideas. They are tech-savvy and impatient. In the interview, Shore mentioned that they “have a lot of emotional heft”. The way to market them is to create messages which are “meaningful, quick and shiny”[6]. Indeed, social media addresses all these aspects. Since the Millennials are aging, they are likely to get jobs with higher disposable income which makes them more affluent and more valuable to businesses as they can spend more on their goods[7]. With Millennials of being a part of a group, blogs pose opportunity for marketers. This is as blogging could further feed these consumers with emotional data (emotional marketing, so e.g. anything related to causes) to create a brand community which they would value and become loyal to. This, however, could be of a benefit if the content of such blogs would be indeed meaningful and shiny to them.

References:

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[1] Yu, R., 2012. More companies quit blogging, go with Facebook instead. USA Today. Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-04-19/corporate-blogging/54419982/1 [Accessed on May 5, 2012]

[2] University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 2012. Latest news. Available at: http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/University+of+Massachusetts+Dartmouth [Accessed on May 5, 2012]

[3] Keeter, S., Taylor, P., 2010. Millennials: A portrait of Generation Next. Paw Research Centre. Available at: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change.pdf [Accessed on May 5, 2012]

[4] McCracken, H., 2011. The Best Blogs of 2011. Time. Available at: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2075431_2075447_2075478,00.html [Accessed on May 6, 2012]

[5] Katz, J., 2012. Exclusive Interview with MTV Insights on Generation Innovation with Nick Shore, Future Trends LinkedIn Group. Post from April 24, 2012. Full interview available at: http://megamashup.tumblr.com/post/21713959127/exclusive-interview-generation-innovation-with?utm_source=LI&utm_medium=NMM&utm_content=BL&utm_campaign=MMMFT04242012 [Accessed on April 24, 2012]

[6] Millennial Marketing, 2012. To engage Millennials, Be Meaningful, Quick and Shiny. Available at: http://millennialmarketing.com/ [Accessed on May 5, 2012]

[7] Brand Amplitude LLC, 2012. Look Who’s A Millennial Now. Marketing to Millennials. Available at: http://www.brandamplitude.com/blog/item/look-who-s-a-millennial-now?category_id=18 [Accessed on May 5, 2012]