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Tag Archive: smart phones

The “We” Economy

Written on November 16, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

Over 100 years ago, one of the most significant societal, economic and culture changes forever changed life around us. It created industry, populated urban areas, created the employee, introduced the theory of selling your time for monetary value and for better or worst, it, the Industrial Revolution, manifested and proliferated a ‘Me’ Economy. And until recently, that has remained relatively the same.

Over the past decade, a drastic shift has been occurring. Whether you dub it the Digital, Internet or most recently Social Media Revolution, this significant force is moving us into a completely new direction. One that moves us towards a group mentality. It gathers the crowd. It “benefits” us if we all choose to be a part of it. It creates a system of trade-offs that not only causes you to sell your time for some sort of value but one that asks you to sell your personal behaviour, privacy and information as well. This is the ‘We’ Economy.

The very foundations of Facebook, GroupOn, Twitter, Klout, LinkedIn, YouTube and everything that is social involves one, and the most important and underlying aspect, which is that we all choose to participate. This also extends into the current world of apps, smart phones and tablets. The reality is that it doesn’t take too much for us to participate. Who doesn’t want to see and follow their friends? Want a deal? Have a professional profile? Want to watch videos of all makes and kinds? Leverage their social activity of bragging rights, recognition or some sort of perk? Have a cool mobile product and useful apps? The We Economy needs us all to participate. And we are, willingly, participating.

Our participation validates this new business model and it validates the ideas behind it. It’s business and it’s personal. Your personal self is of significant value of which becomes quite lucrative and valuable when you and I and millions of others decide to opt-in. We are the fuel and sole purpose that moves a new world that is stepped in service. A service that is engulfed at satisfies our needs of self-gratification. Right now, we’re all consumed by this. And naturally so. From the effects of cool, new and exciting to peer and group mentalities, it’s in our human nature to pursue these endeavours. Regardless of them being deemed good or bad.

But if everything is based on business and selling a product or service, how true can our experiences really be? As Sam Fiorella points out in his blog post, I’m Taking Back My Influence; Opting Out of Klout, building your perceived online influence is ultimately a business venture based on tracking your social media information. It requires that we participate for both the sake of validity, it’s existence and business. Further, Google’s introduction of their new social network Google+ is suppose to have a direct correlation to your Google+ and search results. Not to mention it’s frequent algorithm changes, most recently, for “fresher” results. And then there is Apple’s Siri, who will ultimately change and decide things for us. Flipping many aspects like online search on it’s head.

The current mentality and one that propagates the We Economy is that we either choose to be a part of it or lose out. It is shaped by the information we provide and not the information that it is unaware of. It produces statistics, data, behaviours and algorithms that are suppose to be deemed real, relevant and accurate. It is one that unknowingly shapes us more than we know or acknowledge. It tells us and forces us to believe what we see is what we want. We do not care about or acknowledge the unknown. So we become biased to everything we see online, in our profiles, in searches, in conversations, et cetera. All encompassed by ‘we’.

To say this is good or bad will be truly unknown. Where one would argue that by participating in this social world we are entering an age of many issues that will inherently effect us, such as our misconception of free social media and apps (free = exposure to advertisements + our willingness to be monitored, participating and providing information). However, another would argue that based on everything we provide it will eventually lead to optimal experiences, and services, and products we truly want. And ones we didn’t know we wanted, yet.

Our human nature and intuition has become very much a participatory one, and the further intervention of business into our daily lives has created a series of circumstances that is both unfounded and unprecedented. Like anything else, the good comes with the bad and the opinions follow it. Though, what we know for certain is this, we are amidst a new-era in human history. A new way of behaving, living and thinking. One that is full of mobile devices, social networks, online activities and our ongoing participation by all of us in it. This is the We Economy.

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The Rise of Social Television

Written on April 19, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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A couple years ago, every indication pointed to social media being the killer of traditional media. Everyone was caught in the hype. En masse we all seemingly believed that life was going to change as we knew it. It was going to be the end of email. The end of print media. The end of TV. And the start of a new age. The age of online video. The age of free content. The age of social media. But what happened? What change really occurred?

Well, for one, the flames of traditional media are still burning. And buring bright. Yes, print media has taken a hit. And the music and film industries haven’t quite been the same. But social media and other new age media have hardly conquered the traditional medium. Or any medium for that matter other than their own. The new world is undeniably reshaping and redefining everything we knew before us, however much has to be said to the adaptations and manifestations that are occurring within the traditional media realm.

The writing itself is on the wall. If advertising dollars are an indication of anything, they are an indication of audience size. Although internet advertising is posed to grow over the coming years from $25.8 billion in 2010 to $44.5 billion in 2015, TV still leads by a significant margin and will continue to lead by a significant margin growing from $59 billion in 2010 to $68 billion in 2015. If you can understand where the advertising dollars are heading, you can ultimately understand where our eyes are, where we are, spending there fair share of time.

And though online content and social media are claiming their territory on daily life, TV still remains a fundamental aspect in our everyday activities and decisions. It’s power and influence is uncanny and profound. So much so that there is very notable deviations on the strength of impact that TV has on us versus that of our online behaviour. To paint a clearer picture, TV advertising has the most impact on buying decisions at 83% versus online at 47%. Those are numbers you simply can’t shy away from.

Much of this can be attributed to the fact that the TV viewing experience has advanced exponentially. Further, with a massive shift away from remote desktop internet access to mobile access in the form of laptops, smart phones, tablets and even onto television sets themselves, it has increased usage of multiple media channels and experience that occur at once. The fascinating correlation here is that although the internet age might have moved us away from our wood paneled TV-sets and meagre cable access in favour of the web, advances in technology have brought us all back into one room. Watching and accessing multiple screens at once.

The convergence of multiple media access points will have profound effects on who we are. The social media phenomena has made 1 out of every 11 people on this planet a Facebook user in just over half a decade. Twitter has become the impromptu information outlet and real-time opinion hub. And the usage, users and time spent in these mediums only seems to be on the rise. Social media has recharacterized the online world and established a growing social paradigm. One that is far reaching.

Television and social media have been always thought to be on course to collide, creating an impact that would deeply change everything as we know it. It was to be an impact so colossal that destruction of one or the other would be the only suitable and evident outcome. Mistakenly and blindly we believed this. Television and social media are not opposing forces. They are inherently drawn to one another. They harness an attraction that only further amplifies itself and recontextualizes what it is to be television and social media.

The attraction between the two has acted as a catalyst in creating something that is truly enlightening, social television. This emerging collaborative nature encompasses both the participation of real-time televised experiences while participating in real-time social conversations. Conversations that are not only directed at friends and family but ones that are open to a world of opinion, judgement and decision.

One is just as crucial as the other. Social television will continue to thrive simply because it feeds off of our behaviours to be part of something greater while at the same time creating a very active viewing experience. It provides the content and breaks the ice. And will grow to a greater influencer and facilitator capacity. It’s up to us to interpret, decipher and enjoy what it is at hand. Make no mistake, social media is not the TV killer nor will it ever be. They are two forces of nature that will further continue a very beneficial self-perpetuating cycle as they increasingly become drawn and attracted to each other.

The rise of social media and the enhancement of the TV experience has formulated an advanced dynamic. From the encouragement to use Twitter hashtags during live programming to the content focused Facebook status updates, social television will play a greater inclusive, integrated and real-time role. It was never really a matter of when one would overwhelm the other. It was about understanding the intricacies and impacts they have and will continue to have on each others relationships. It is about the harmoniousness existence between the two.

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The Prevailing Mobile Behaviour of Millennials

Written on April 11, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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The hyper-acceleration of mobile technologies and their on-going growth has created an environment of constant access. A sense of access that follows you and allows you to increasingly take part in anything, anywhere at anytime. As the automobile represented a sense of freedom for youth a generation before, the mobile phone represents that freedom for the youth of today. A freedom that is further justifying and entrenching who the Millennials are and who they are becoming.

Mobile has become synonymous with Millennials. It doesn’t simply represent who they. It is who they are. It has become an extension to the personal-self. It has become a primal aspect of their daily lives. It has become one of the most centralized components to just about anything they do. It should be no wonder to see that the Millennials mobile activity leads feature phone ownership, smart phone adoption, app usage, the mobile web and on and on. The mobile world, the mobile phone, being mobile encompasses who these individuals are.

With such significance and integration placed into this technology, it is very interesting to see the series of behaviours that are emerging and manifesting as a cause of it. When you combine that with the constant advancement of mobile technology and the move of market forces into affordability, we begin see profound decentralizing forces taking place here and the culmination of a crucial paradigm shift.

It’s something that began with the consumption and recreational use of featured phones, which quickly digressed into overwhelming text usage. The dawn of mainstream mobile data usage in combination with another unprecedented development, social media, evolved into the ever-growing Millennial and extreme usage dynamic. Something that is further transforming into something greater with the development of advanced real-time elements and increasing multi-media messaging in the forms of pictures and video.

The resulting impacts of this have created something evolutionary to our human behaviour and one that clearly manifests within the Millennials. Interestingly, it’s a series of behaviours that are easily considered untraditional and unconventional by our standards and notions. But ones that are becoming accepted and transformed back into tradition and convention.

Text messaging replaced the phone call. Its quick, to the point, none confrontational and allows you to have multiple conversations at once. It’s the reason why Millennials don’t knock on your door but text you to let you know that they’re outside waiting. Though text messaging itself is slowly being replaced by picture and video messaging. Our society and culture is increasingly being enamoured by images. A picture is worth a thousand words, so why bother texting an explanation of a meal or something funny when a picture will do it in one click.

Further, the mobile experience is hijacking and hacking into human activities that have remained steady and untouched for decades. Watching TV has turned into a collaborative and shared mobile experience mutually through texting, BBM, mobile tweeting and mobile Facebooking. So powerful in fact that a quick message could persuade you to change channels to see what all the messaging commotion is about. When’s the last time you didn’t “put it on” that channel?

The workplace itself has become a shared experience in real-time. You might be able to prevent internet usage and deter certain personal activities, but the smart phone empowers each Millennial employee to access and act as they please outside the eyes of the panopticon. It’s not at all about slacking or wasting time. Rather it enforces our humanistic nature and proximity to care about one another on a deeper level than previously understood or had the opportunity to experience.

The mobile phone has become so ingrained into our human essence and a growing aspect of our humanness that you will find those attending to their devices at the moments of greatest solitude and beautiful intimacy. Seems utterly strange and weird to be diverted from such powerful circumstances but that’s how much a part of us they have become. Intriguingly, nothing else would dissuade you from what you were doing like a notification from your BlackBerry or iPhone.

The lines and boundaries that once existed are not simply being blurred, they are being redefined. Our human nature, our human behaviour is being redefined. For better or worse. Whether we agree with it or not. It is becoming an aspect of our human essence regardless of how unnatural it truly is. It is recontextualizing tradition and convention. When’s the last time you saw a Millennial without their mobile phone? It is their dearest companion. It is everywhere they are.

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4 Strategies To Consider When Marketing to the Millennials

Written on March 11, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Trying to market in today’s environment has become quite an interesting task to say the least. With opportunities constantly opening up and new possibilities appearing everyday, figuring out what to do, what you need and what it would take to implement a successful marketing strategy has become increasingly complex and challenging.

Traditional marketing is still an aspect of the game. New-age methods and mediums are firmly gaining territory, while becoming obligatory and commonplace. Then you have the hybrid between the two. Traditional advertising combined with social media. Amplified social media activity during televised events. And the list goes on.

All this and more only makes the lucrative 18-34 year-old demographic trickier to reach. The digital natives, the Millennials, are everywhere but nowhere. Their environment, though unmistakably similar to those before them, functions in a vastly different manner thanks to the internet, social media, mobile technology and so on. As a result, we shouldn’t be applying the same standards, mindsets or thoughts to today’s youth. Here are 4 strategies to consider when marketing to the Millennials.

1. Content is not always king

“Content is king” is undoubtedly one of the most overused and clichéd phrases in the marketing and advertising industries. Don’t get me wrong, content is absolutely imperative when you’re dealing with visual, auditory and literary aspects. However, content is by no means the deal-marker when Millennials make a purchasing decision.

In fact, the phrase itself undermines many fundamentals Millennials undertake towards the products and brands they’re drawn to purchase. From the strategic values they hold towards brands, to the affordability and quality of the product, content is not always king by any means. The “Old Spice Guy” campaign is considered to be one of the best content campaigns in recent memory. Other than some minor growth, tens of millions of views have led to a few funny moments while leaving many, including the Millennials, unconvinced. Oh, and the purpose of the campaign was to rebrand Old Spice to something more youthful. How many Millennial men do you know that were convinced by this and switch to Old Spice?

2. “Join us on Facebook and Twitter.” Now what?

It’s evident that social media is everywhere. And if you’re a Millennial, this has been evident for the last 5 years. It’s a very natural place for us. So natural in fact that intrusion by marketing and advertising forces has only taken some significant shape recently, through events such as the brandification of your social presence.

Absolutely everyone wants your attention. And many have gone as far as bribing you with some incentive to get you there. But, then what? Nothing! The majority are just happy with the numbers game often resulting in the vast majority of actions starting and ending with the “like” and/or “follow”. When’s the last time you followed up on your own actions? Me – hardly ever. We gave you our attention. Do something creative, innovative and useful with it. Why bother asking us to join you then?

3. We’re savvy but we don’t like all technology, web or social media aspects

Millennials are easily the savviest individuals when it comes to technology, the web and social media. Leading a significant majority of the categories that make up these groupings, it’s incredibly rare to find a Millennial not in this dynamic. The stats speak for themselves. We LOVE our tech, web, socially savvy lifestyle and are not afraid to live it online.

But with all that being said, marketers and advertisers are constantly trying to find the next cool thing and miss the mark with Millennials. And the reason they miss the mark is due to the reason that we embrace our savviness on a level of simplicity, resulting in small minority of Millennials living this savvy lifestyle on an advanced level. QR codes are a very cool and interesting idea but even our love for our smart phones has hardly enticed many Millennials one bit.

4. Cultivating the relationship beyond the purchase

Without question, this is the age of the consumer. With growing competition and an increasing amount of options opening up courtesy of the easily accessible online world, one would think they would be vying for our dollars. Keeping us as their own. The current reality is that this is hardly the case to anything beyond some mediocre loyalty programs. But there never has been a time where you could keep such essential relationships with your customer base.

There is no denying that maintaining these relationships is easier said than actually being able to do it. But isn’t that the aspect of every relationship? To put some work into it to make it great? Well, Millennials, they want to have these relationships with you. Why not grow and cultivate something remarkable that would be beneficial for both sides? After all, we’re young and hardly set in our ways. Wouldn’t you rather have a lifetime relationship with us rather than a few random bump-ins?

These 4 strategies are hardly the only ones. Nor would they ring true in absolutely every circumstance. However, they do provide a mindset and outline to what it would take to give you an advantage when marketing to Millennials.

What are your thoughts? What would you add or change in these strategies?

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Taking the Millennial Leap from Student to Employee

Written on December 12, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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Over the last few years, our societies, cultures, environments and structures have seen some of the greatest shifts ever to have taken place. Rampant technological growth coupled with a massive introduction into social media have changed the way we act, think and behave. Life now is significantly different from life 5 years ago, simply based on these characteristics. And this couldn’t be more evident than within the spheres of education and employment.

One of the greatest events to take place within our lifetimes is the transition many of us make as students to employees. From the impacts of that lifestyle change to the maturation of aspects within each and every one of us, education historically has had a underlying correlation to prospective employment opportunities. Though, the same could hardly be said for a growing number of Millennials within this day and age.

Though education itself cannot be discounted as an attributor to gaining employment, rapid technological, social and online innovation has radically changed the dynamics of the education-employment relationship. So much so that the fundamental elements within this dynamic are increasingly experiencing a major shift of ideology.

This can all be attributed to the fact that as we as individuals continue to adopt smart phones, tablets and social media en masse, we have serious effects on characteristics of life around us. The effects here are essentially redefining everything. But most notably, they are seriously impacting industry around us.

The truly fascinating aspects here are the newly found paradigms that are creating a dividing point between education and employment. And interestingly, this is both effecting the graduating students and employers alike. What we are seeing here is the emergence of a skills gap that has left Millennials caught off guard, as well as the employers looking for employees that naturally don’t exist.

Industry adoption of technological and social innovation is not being grasped in the same manner by education. And as industry continually adapts to these dynamics they are further distancing themselves from education and education’s ability to provide the skill set necessary to coincide with these developments.

What you are beginning to find is a wanted skill set that education does not provide and one that can only be learned, at this moment, on the basis of each individual through constant involvement and practice. I doubt many had the foresight years ago to understand that your level of Twitter followers will inevitably impact your ability to gain some sort of employment. Your social influence will have greater consequences than any of us can currently comprehend.

Admittedly, this one characteristic does not span across all industries. However, there is a noteworthy upward trend that suggests in order for Millennials to gain access to internships or work within particular industries and fields, their understanding but more importantly, their presence in the technological and social worlds will most definitely be a key and defining factor.

As technology and social media continue to expand in an unprecedented manner, understanding everything from smart phones, apps to texting, social influence to social authority, to tweeting, sharing and blogging will have more of an impact effect than ever perceived before. Don’t be fooled here. I’m definitely not trying to scare anyone. Rather I see this as some insight and preparation to tackling and staying up to pace with industry innovation and demands of the skills gap. This is a leap many Millennials will be taking from student to employee in the coming years. One that is figurative but more literal than we truly realize.

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Is Gen-Y A Generation of Opposites?

Written on November 27, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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The more I read about Gen-Y and the more I observe my own actions and those of my fellow Millennials I can’t help but wonder how utterly different we are. Though everyone in a sense represents of a series of attitudes and actions and ways of life, it’s those minor and smaller factors that are having an extraordinary impact on just about everything that defines us as Gen-Y and Millennials.

Over the last week, 3 articles in particular stood out. And they stood out in a way that is quite opposite and contradictory to how this same age-group grew up within previous generations. “Opposite” itself might not be the best used word here, but it does allow us to take on an interesting viewpoint.

The reason why these 3 articles stood out will be more than self explanatory. And I’ll let the titles initially speak for themselves.

A Millennial Vintage: 7-Eleven Fills in Proprietary Wine Line-up with Cherrywood Cellars Varietals

There has been a significant surge and boom within the Millennial generation for the want of wines. Call this what you want, a sense of differentiation, sophistication, vintage elegance or nostalgic effect. The reality is Gen-Y is definitely purchasing wines in a continuing and growing trend. So much so that your local convenience store is specifically targeting them.

Survey: Half of Gen Y would rather text than drive

It’s nothing new to see that cars and Gen-Y don’t mix. It’s very much an oil and water relationship. Gen-Y are buying cars significantly later in life simply because cars don’t mean the same thing they once did in generations past. Aspects of environmentalism, financial circumstances, a different sense of freedom and a mindset that believes and wants to do more with their time are all imperative characteristics into why Gen-Y is choosing to drive less. For Gen-Y, cars are an item in their rear-view mirror. Yes, pun intended.

Opera: Gen Y screaming ‘encore’ for the mobile web

Gen-Y and the web are an ying and yang relationship. You won’t stray too far from one without encountering the other. What’s absolutely fascinating is the manner in which Gen-Y is accessing the web. The mobile web is increasingly becoming the starting point and main point when accessing the web. Though the article here is based on a global perspective where many other issues come into play, such as mobile web access being the cheapest and most accessible means to the internet simply because broadband, laptops and PCs are not a reality for many people around the world. The mobile web, in a reciprocating relationship with smart phones and tablets, are becoming Gen-Y’s preference.

The intriguing reality is that these are but a few examples. There is a plethora of characteristics and examples that define Gen-Y as a very different and unique set of individuals. Don’t get me wrong here, these actions are not exclusive to only Gen-Y. The most important factor here is the differentiation that exists within our wants, thought processes and beliefs of freedoms. In a sense, it’s all very much a sense of “opposites” to what it all once was.

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Introducing: User Marketing

Written on November 8, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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There’s no denying we’re in a time of great disruption. Our ways of life are changing. Newfound trends are emerging. All while many of us are trying to grasp what’s happening. And it’s something of which in large part is directly the effect of advanced technologies.

What’s great about this is that there is significant room for innovation. Everything we’ve ever known as traditional is becoming adapted, transformed and somehow altered to suit the times. Equally, new and non-traditional mediums are materializing at unprecedented rates. Amidst the real world we’ve always known, and the online world we’ve created over the last two decades, comes the rapidly growing and expanding social and mobile worlds.

From my own personal perspective, classifying things as such supplements the argument. To me, everything is in essence part of one real world. The perceived distinctions and differences will all undoubtedly become a part of real life as time wears on. Rather than simply being factors of the internet, Facebook, BlackBerry’s and the such.

The truly fascinating aspect here is the elements being forged as a result of our growing interconnectivity. Social media and mobile technology are amongst the greatest catalysts towards innovation that we’ve ever seen. However, disappointingly, there is an extreme hesitation to what could be possible and adopted.

I understand that the dynamics of business would like to have greater value returned than that exerted. The beloved ROI. So, yes, social media and mobile technology are difficult to measure on a return-on-investment basis. But in that same breathe, many are pursuing social media and mobile marketing methodologies. It’s at this point when I can’t help but wonder what is possible and what hasn’t been done or tried compared to what we all observe.

In any case, we are beginning to see and we will increasingly see the raise of something new, exciting and impacting. Enter, User Marketing. This is my take on innovation.

In an environment where the interaction and relationship between the people, the consumer, the individual has never been closer to the brand, the product and the company than ever before, the User will become the proponent to your either marketing scheme.

Not to be mistaken for a user of the product itself, User Marketing will come to represent the very users of social media and mobile technology. And I’m not referring to paid tweeters, bloggers, influencers and anything of that nature. Rather, and most importantly, the premise behind User Marketing will in fact be the average consumer, the individual, the everyday user of social media and mobile technology will be the main ingredients within this mix.

Groupon’s threshold couponing, location based service’s like shopkick and foursquare and Facebook strategies that entice “likes” in return for an offer are all examples of the path we are taking to User Marketing. But, what I’m waiting for and wanting to see is something beyond that.

The reality is that we still spend excessive amounts of time shopping at in-store retail locations. The reality is also the fact that in-store retail has yet too be optimized for the User, as shopkick and foursquare themselves are still taking on a company-centric approached as opposed to an user-centric one.

Not only are the proponents behind User Marketing user-centric, it’s really all about the user. It’s not about spending time within a location, or checking into that location, or having you do some kind of loyalty variation. It’s about the user receiving immediate and tangible offers. And in-return for receiving that offer, the User must be willing to spread the word to other users, by venture of using social and mobile means.

With all that being said, there are three underlying dynamics to User Marketing. It involves the socialization and technological expansion of the in-store retail space, the message element and the user element.

In-store socialization and technological expansion: The in-store retail space is a socially and technologically untouched area, in relative terms. Not only is there plenty of room for growth in this segment, it seems to be an inevitable occurrence. Live social capabilities that both allow you to update and watch updates is an avenue more than worth exploring. It’s all about the dialogue amongst the consumers. Along with this, there is a series of other social and technological possibilities that could be put into play.
The message element: With the unprecedented growth of smart phones and tablets, communication has become an increasingly imperative and diverse tool for everyone. As a result of these transpirings, we all have the capability to reach an growing audience of colleagues, friends, family and anyone else. User Marketing will dictate that communication channels will be measured differently. The offer value for a text or BBM message will be weighed differently compared to a tweet or a Facebook share tagged to the brand. Not to mention the many variations that exist within this.
The user element: Unfortunately, as users we all don’t carry the same network. But like anything else, size does not equate to value. User Marketing is not looking for the significant influencers to sell for them. Rather, it looks for the average consumer to connect with their average network. There are more than a few variables to these equations however they will not discriminate in a manner where users are out of reach for the offer. The idea here is to provide a tangible offering that is valued accordingly for everybody.

What’s great here is that User Marketing adds greater value to many elements that already exist with in the in-store retail space. What’s also great is that the current in-store retail space doesn’t represent the times. Not only would User Marketing change the way you market and advertise for better business, it’s absolutely a fantastic proposition for all the shoppers out there. Who wouldn’t like a pair of shoes for half price just because they sent a tweet or text. How about some dollars off some cool gadgets for a Facebook update. With prices hardly coming down, hard times remaining, social media expanding and mobile technology increasing, User Marketing could be that great innovation in these growing disruptive times.

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Gen-Y Moms Are Digital Moms

Written on October 14, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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I always and still wonder how digital we will be once we become parents. As parents, our lives will undoubtedly change as we alter and shift our priorities. But what does this mean for our digital nature? After all, Generation Y is a generation that has grown up and continues to grow digitally inclined. Will we carry on and evolve in our digital nature, creating families immersed in the digital world? Or will our smart phone and social media ways regress to be figments of our young adulthood?

Still in mainstream infancy, the social and mobile worlds have yet to be fully realized. With quick swings occurring and segment maturation being an unrecognizable reality at this moment, predicting what can happen next year, in 3 years, 5 years and in 10 is, frankly, impossible.

There has already been some debate over this last summer regarding the social media sharing characteristic of Gen-Y. But even then, I don’t see a future of sharing but rather one of growing connectivity. Trust me, there’s a significant difference between sharing and connecting.

Equally, I’ve brought up the idea that Gen-Y will unknowingly introduce to the world a series of Truman Show-esque children. Complete childhood’s will be recorded online for the world to see. And with friends, family and our long lost colleagues on Facebook, I’ve begun to see a strong influx of young mothers absolutely sharing everything about their young children. Whether this is positive, negative or meaningless remains to be seen. But it’s happening in a large series of circumstances where young Gen-Y mothers have had children. At least, in my experience of course.

All that being said, it’s common knowledge to know that mothers are affluent members of blog communities. Both as bloggers and readers. Commonly and most notably known as mommy bloggers. However, what is new and truly interesting is the findings behind how youth Gen-Y moms are communicating.

In pure Gen-Y fashion, these young mothers lead the way in phone, text and Facebook as methods of communicating with immediate family members. As a recent article via eMarketer reports, Gen-Y does them 21%, 14% and 10% of the time respectively. Further, their amount of in-person conversation with immediate family shows significant disparity from mothers older than them. In-person immediate family communication accounts for less than half of all Gen-Y mother communication at 48% in comparison to Gen-X at 58% and Baby Boomers at 62%.

So what does all this mean? Well, obviously, if the means are there we will use them, especially if they can instantaneously satisfy the situation at hand. Secondly, I can’t see dominating lifestyle factors, such as social media and mobile phones, which have been integrated into Gen-Y life, simply dissipating in a cold turkey like manner. And lastly, although there are clear privacy issues involved with the social and mobile worlds, we still trust these mediums enough to continually incorporate them into our lives.

I also understand that these characteristics aren’t necessarily exclusive to Gen-Y. Non Gen-Y mothers do the same things. I won’t deny that. The point here is not to indicate the similarities but rather, to show the notion that picking up a digital lifestyle is vastly different from growing up digital. And growing a digital family structure. And digitally grown parents parenting their digital children. We can hardly understand both the positive and negative implications here. Though, what is for certain here is Gen-Y moms are digital moms. Were we all really expecting everything to stay the same?

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The State of Millennial Smart Phone and Apps Culture

Written on October 13, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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The mobile explosion of recent years has been nothing short of extraordinary. Aside from the juggernaut of social media and networking, the mobile world has become an imperative and defining element to the reality of the Millennials. It’s how we maintain our relationships. It’s how we connect. It’s how we get our information. It’s how we pretty much do everything.

Smart Phoned Millennials

For Millennials, cell phones themselves have had an interesting trending shift. Once seen as objects for emergency use were then transformed to become one of recreational behaviour. Now, that recreational behaviour has made cell phones an object of necessity and an object prevalent to everyday Millennial life.

A recent report completed by Forrester has found that 88% of those aged 18-30 own a cell phone. Further, 23% of those aged 18-30 own a smart phone. The fascinating aspect here is not the fact that there is an overlap, which can be attributed to a variety of different reasons. Rather, it’s the fact that Millennials lead the mobile adoption curves across all demographics. They have also begun to use a new mobile mediums before the previous ones has even passed complete saturation.

Smart phones are not simply the future, they are now. They’re not simply for the privileged, they are for everyone. In general, as Nielsen predicts, smart phones will overtake cell phones by the end of 2011. Something of which has already had double digit growth over the last 2 years, and something that is expected to surge with the general population as a whole.

Even all that said, Millennials are already leading the smart phone wave and expect their smart phone numbers to grow exponentially in the coming years. With roughly 1 in 4 owning a smart phone, the question for many Millennials it’s not a matter of IF you’re going to buy a smart phone next but WHEN you’re going to buy that smart phone.

Millennials and mobile phones have always gone hand-in-hand. And smart phones have only amplified that relationship to great extents. They have become personal representations of who we are. They are the most personal extension of the Millennial self. They are and will continue to become the most used objects of our lives.

And how could they not have such a significant effect? The impressive capabilities smart phone represent absolutely cater to the lives of the Millennials. This is something that can most evidently be understood through the vastly growing apps culture. And one that can’t deny the value and significance apps bring to everyday life.

App Happy

Apps are allowing us to pretty much do anything. You can quite literally have access to and do everything you find necessary without more than a few movements of your thumbs and fingers. You want your news? Check. You want your shopping deals? Check. You want the weather, sports scores, games and local restaurants? Check. And how could I forget our beloved Facebook and Twitter. Check and check.

The reality of the situation, according to Pew Research, 79% of 18-29 years-olds use the apps they have on their phones, with the average Millennial having 22 apps. Further, app-usage skews towards men, representing 57%, and Millennials, disproportionately represent 44% of all app-usage.

Once we take a deeper look into these dynamics, we find that that those 29% aged 18-24 use apps multiple times a day compared to 44% of those aged 25-34. Equally, of those who downloaded Twitter and Facebook apps, 18-24 years-old use each 75% and 57% respectively each day. While 25-34 year-olds use the same social media apps 52% and 69% respectively. To dispel any confusion here, the reason why I mention these older demographics is due to the fact that Millennials arguably represent those currently as old as 29-31 years old, all depending on who you speak with.

Millennial Culture is a Smart Phone and Apps Culture

A world of smart phones and apps is quite apparent when you brake it down by strict research numbers. But it’s also more apparent that Millennials absolutely love their smart and apps as they lead a clear majority of many of the numbers represented. And this really shouldn’t be seen or interpreted as the new “it” thing.

Not only are they cool, they are functional and efficient. They are both time savers and time wasters. They not only represent who we are, they allow us to be who we are. I can hardly think of a moment when my BlackBerry isn’t in arms reach. And I’d highly doubt that this same closeness couldn’t be applied to all Millennials.

Even as smart phones and apps are still part of a very early and infant state, we are absolutely captivated by them. From our first glimpses in our waking minutes, through our daily activities and the final moments before we go to bed, smart phones and apps have become to exemplify, personify and present everything that is Millennial. Equally, Millennials in turn have humanized them. This is the state of smart phone and apps culture. This is the state of the Millennials.

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Embrace the Gen-Y Stereotypes

Written on October 8, 2010 by Josip Petrusa

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We’ve all heard the Gen-Y stereotypes. The typical argument suggests that many of these characteristics are negatively impacting these young individuals. And everywhere you turn, everyone seems to be yelling from the roof-tops that we’re too connected, too privileged, too entitled, we share too much, we’re too technologically savvy, we’re too young for anything.

Youthfulness often does imply ambition, optimism and a know-it-all attitude. However, with Gen-Y, like everything else, we’ve taken it to another level. As a result, we’re too impatient, we do too much multi-tasking, we’re too youthful and we’re told we’ll fail with these mindsets. And this sentiment is becoming widely common amongst the media and even professionals.

What I find truly fascinating here is that we are roaring-forward regardless of the situations we face. I think it’s safe to say most of us were promised the world as we were growing up. And even in these troublesome times we’re still looking to fulfill those promises. But then the arguments of being naivety come into play. The popular agenda seems to be a put-down agenda.

But I can’t help but wonder the absolutely positive and powerful elements these stereotypes carry with them. It’s not often that stereotypes actually have a significant plus-side to them. Rather than shy-away from these supposed weaknesses, embrace Gen-Y for who they are. Embrace the stereotypes for the strengths and opportunities they present.

So with out further hesitation, here are the characteristics you should be embracing.

Connecting: The emergence of social media, social networking and the advances in mobile technologies has made the world a seemingly smaller place. Not only have these elements become common place to Gen-Y, they’re imperative to our daily routine.

There has never been a time in history where this much individual-to-individual communication has taken place. That means if you’re not talking to us, we most likely won’t know you’re there. That also means we are very focused on our conversations. We get answers and responses quickly. We influence and are influenced faster than ever. 15% of 12-17 year olds and 18% of 18-24 year olds send over 6000 text messages a month. So are you a part of that relationship? Are you in their conversation?

Sharing: For anyone that has been truly paying attention to the sharing habits of Gen-Y you would have realized by now that it’s about being “status update worthy.” And as I so eloquently put it as when I introduced the idea, we, Gen-Y, are looking for something to share.

From those who barely use anything to share a thought, a moment and an experience to those who are as savvy as they come, the fact of the matter is we are sharing. I have a great friend who refuses to be part of the social media world but yet, even without him being part of Facebook, he is still inherently effected by all those around him who use Facebook. No matter which way you approach it, we all share. And we all share more than compared to pre-social media and pre-mobile times. The question is what are you giving us to share? Will we say it’s good or it’s bad?

Multi-tasking: Chances are members of Gen-Y are doing more at once than is truly conceivable by everyone else. And this has resulted in notions of being elusive, over-ambitious, and even the famed notion of entitlement. The reality is, we do many things at the same time and we do them well. The problem is everyone else believes in doing one thing at a time.

We simply don’t shop, work or walk. We compare, confirm, analyse, search, research, connect, share, respond, text, tweet, Facebook update, examine the mobile website, get answers from everywhere possible for the best situation possible. And it’s not a matter of having to, it’s simply because we just want to.

With that all being said, I can already picture the arguments of over-zealousness coming. Just face the facts. If it was up to me, I would have 3 computer screens in front of me instead of doing everything the hard way on a single laptop. I’ve never headed into a purchasing decision without knowing everything else first. If I don’t know, I’m, texting, BBMing and looking at everything I can find on the web. And when I walk, I don’t bump into things. But I do glance at a my BlackBerry and send off of messages if I can.

There is so much unused power in truly understanding who Gen-Y really are. No, we won’t become robotic drones. And our souls aren’t controlled by Facebook. Are their implications to these actions? Of course there are. Though, when aren’t there implications to a particular action. The power, effectiveness and significance of connecting, sharing and multi-tasking can’t be denied. It’s almost as if we all put Gen-Y down because we can’t embrace their great qualities and abilities in being, well, great. Imagine the productivity, free-marketing and advertising, heightened abilities and everything else they provide simply by being themselves. There is no room for negativity here. Embrace the stereotypes. Embrace Gen-Y.

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