As a marketing professional I am always trying to stay on top of new technologies or systems for clients to take advantage of. One great test market are teens and tweens. Today kids text more than they tweet, and they talk more than they post. However, parents are giving their children smart phones and tablets at a younger age each year and it is become harder and harder to stay on top of how quickly they adapt to new technologies.
So what are your kids on?
According to AdWeek (February 3, 2014), our kids are on their phones or tablets sending messages to their friends, using a variety of resources. This month. this includes:
- Texting
- Kik, Line, WeChat
- Social Sharing
- Jelly
- Whisper
- Photo
- Snapchat
- Voice & Video
- Tango
- Gaming
- QuizUp
With so many new technologies emerging and so many ways for our children to access them, it is important as parents to monitor our children's mobile, social and web activity. It is important for parents to talk with their children and set expectations for their use -- no matter their age, from 1-21. As parents we should have access to their apps and be able to monitor them on a regular, if not real time basis.
As a marketer, it is important to stay on top of these new technologies to advise companies on how to best manage their marketing budget. Just as people are starting to get comfortable with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, new sites and apps are popping up. For companies, it is important to know where your customers are and what they are reading and visiting so you know where to invest your marketing budget.
As parents and professionals it is important to stay on top of new and emerging trends, technologies and platforms to help broadcast our messages and protect our children.