Forget the mall, teens are now hanging out online, according to a new white paper from Alloy Media + Marketing. The paper found that 81 percent of Internet-using 9- to 17-year-olds have visited a social networking Web site, such as MySpace or Facebook within the past three months, and 71 percent report visiting the sites at least weekly.

There's plenty to do on these sites, such as music and video sharing, blogging and member searching, according to Alloy, and it just takes a little know-how to figure out to use these forums to your advantage.

The study notes that creative site tools and special content offerings can enhance these Web spaces. In turn, if they can place your application (games, virtual characters) on their own personal page, they'll be doing the advertising for you to other networkers.

Tony Medlock, AIFD, PFCI, owner of PJ's Flowers and Gifts in Phoenix, saw the advantages the social networking site had to offer, and about nine months ago he and the shop's designer, Jeremy Trentleman, joined MySpace. "It's a great way to get in touch with the younger crowd, and it's becoming increasingly popular," Trentleman says.

The shop's MySpace page offers a free way to showcase PJ's offerings and contact information, and it extends networking opportunities with florists from around the world through message and community boards, Trentleman explains. By asking their MySpace friends to vote, the pair also is using the site to drum up votes for a "Best Florist" award through Arizona Business Magazine's "Ranking Arizona" business opinion poll running through July 31.

The shop's next step is to help educate and inform potential customers through a blog on its MySpace page -- a tactic the experts at Alloy Media recommend.

"Blogs are becoming another thing people are getting excited about," says Medlock, who plans to blog about care-and-handling topics, among other issues. "It's another free way to make our store more visible online."

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 

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