Experience Manifesto

Conversations with Digital Natives - Teens Talk

Very excited that a panel we pitched got accepted at SXSW for next year. Called "Conversations with Digital Natives - Teens Talk," I'm bringing Sydney and a friend to talk about what teens are really doing today. As I recently wrote in Evernote as Social Media, I would've never thought about using Evernote as a social media. Some of the topics that we'll touch on, include:

• How are teens engaging the technologies around them?
• Are they really involved in the maker movement?
• Do they feel differently about content than older generations?
• What social media tools are they using and what are they staying away from? What different ways are they engaging their friends?
• What do they think are the most important trends that will impact them when they're older?

William and Sydney are classmates at MKA and they're both pretty excited to be attending their first SXSW program. And we're pretty proud of them to get picked, not that many 8th graders have the chance to speak at SXSW!

They will be creating a website for their session and looking for questions and input from folks as they build their content. I'll post again when it goes live. But if you have any questions to start them going, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

And, if you're going to be at SXSW next year, please come hear them speak!

Conversations with Digital Natives - Teens Talk at SXSW 2015.

BELWeather

Looking for some files on an older computer and came across one of the first newsletters that I did at the Brand Experience Lab. A number of good articles in it, most of which is still relevant today. For example, here's the opening:

It has been said that today’s consumer is pummeled with over 3,000 marketing messages per day. 3,000. Per day. And so, here you sit, contemplating how to best tell your brand message, build loyalty, drive revenues, connect with the consumer/customer/guest/ visitor. Ready to jump on the brandwagon and do what you do best–but how? How do you cut through that clutter? How do your stake a claim in the mind of your target audience? Better yet, how do you stake that claim in their heart, making the transition from just another product / place to a product or place with real meaning? Rather than simply filter information regarding all the attributes of a brand, today’s prospective purchasers want more. They now want a visceral interaction with your product. They want to connect with it, connect through it. They want to experience it.

Take a look and let me know what you think of what's there. Still valuable? Leave me a comment about what's still the same and what's different today.

Download BelwetherV1

Evernote as Social Media

Earlier this school year, I asked my 13 year old daughter if she wanted to have a Facebook page. Two of her school friends, people she had known for several years moved back to their home in England and I thought she might want to keep in touch through Facebook. Nope, she replied, she's fine. Her friends had set up an Evernote page as a way to keep in touch and share things with each other.

An Evernote page for social media? I would've never thought about that. But my daughter and her friends figured it out and use it every day. Kids using something in a way that it wasn't designed is nothing new. I'm sure I did that if I thought about it, I did that when I was a kid too.

Nothing against my daughter and her friends, but I just can't imagine they're the only teenagers who are using Evernote this way. Today, we look at specific channels as "social media," but my daughter is already proving that anything can be turned into a social media tool.