How does Media Affect Teens?

It’s no longer necessary to ask IF media affects teens. The question to ask now is ‘HOW does it affect them?’

Of course many experts have refuted the idea that media has an effect on teens saying the studies are correlational in nature thus making it difficult to know if kids with a predisposition to violence are more likely to watch violent shows or if watching violence leads them to become more violent.

While the experts are busy debating it is up to you as a parent who spends every day with your child to notice how his behavioural and attitude patterns change as a result of watching particular content. Mimicking is a good clue.

A survey revealed that 75% of adults would like to see tighter enforcement of government rules on broadcast content. In Britain 78% of 18 to 24-year-olds also believe tougher restrictions are necessary to discourage adolescent sex. Who’s best to tell us how media affects teens’ behaviour than teens themselves!

In my opinion, media does influence our behaviour. If it didn’t, marketers wouldn’t be investing millions (billions?) of dollars every year into advertising. They know that if they portray their product or service as desirable and cool teens and adults will want it.

According to a study conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation (2005) teens spend about 44 hours a week on various forms of media (more time than they spend in school!). They are bound to absorb some of what they are exposed to.

Most people and parents know it has a negative effect, but are unable to pinpoint the specific consequences.

Here are 4 ways:

1. Sexuality: The sexual content has become more explicit in nature and is targeting younger and younger kids. Even the ratings of movies have become less strict. Media (music videos, movies, and sexualized advertising) is portraying sex as something that everyone does (even to the 10 year olds who are watching!). Confused but curious teens and preteens who engage in sexual behaviour are left feeling used, worthless, and emotionally detached as they are not psychologically ready for these experiences (not to mention the increased risk of pregnancy).


2. Violence: The violent content we see today has increased in frequency as well as in vividness. Young kids and teens are exposed to heroes who are ever more violent with cooler than ever tricks and moves (most of which are done by stuntmen or are computerized). After their aggressive performance they are victorious, praised and awarded. With regular exposure to violence, teens (especially boys) are more likely to practice the moves and incorporate them into daily life when interacting with peers. Because peers are exposed to the same content, they respond in kind and the behaviour is considered acceptable in the youth culture.


3. Substance abuse: There aren’t many movies that do not include alcohol and drugs in at least one of the scenes, particularly when teens are partying. Alcohol and drugs are consistently paired with the idea that these substances help teens have more fun. More importantly, media portrays these scenes as reflection of reality leaving teens believing that everyone does it. As soon as teens feel singled out, they are more likely to conform to what they think is normal.


4. Unrealistic fitness and beauty stereotypes: The bodies we see today in media are hardly realistic human bodies. Photoshopped bodies are not real! The standard of the ‘ideal body’ leaves many adults feeling inadequate, not to mention children and teens who are still using their appearance as clue to their identity. Unfortunately, media portrays these images as ideal and as something to be strived for, leaving teens to feel very dissatisfied with themselves when they fail to meet the standards. This unreachable goal leads to low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, and shame. These feelings and beliefs lead to unhealthy choices and behaviours.

Parents have the power to filter the content viewed and read about in the home. It takes times, patience, and communication with teens.

Best Wishes to You and Your Family!

Ivana Pejakovic, Life Coach in Toronto

Source by Ivana Pejakovic, B.Sc., MA

How does Media Affect Teens?

Pros And Cons Of Social Media When Applying To Grad School

Part of the holy grail of a good application to business school is to show why the particular nature of the b-school you are applying to fits with you and what you want out of your MBA. That is, each program has a slightly different ‘signature’ in terms of curriculum, type of students, faculty interest, clubs and extramurals, internship-recruitment opportunities, alumni network and so on, and the task is to show that you understand what that signature is and why it fits with you.

You won’t get a lot of help from looking at the glossy brochure or the school’s glamour Website. That won’t make you enough of an ‘insider.’ The only way to know enough about a program is to get inside it for a while — by interacting with people who are there, or visiting the campus and talking to people who are there.

Social media networking forums have created new options for doing this. You can connect with or ‘follow’ current students or clubs via their blogs or tweets, or their identities Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. If there is a Stanford club entertaining Steve Jobs, it will be on someone’s blog. If Wharton students are on a trek, someone will have uploaded video to YouTube, and so on. Following this assiduously and interacting (politely) where appropriate will give you a window into the nature and culture of the program you are targeting in a way that just was impossible to imagine a few years ago. Beware, quality is mixed to say the least. You will get many perspectives from parties with vested interests that are not aligned with yours. Use them wisely. But overall this is the way to go.

Some admissions officers blog too, and currently Adcoms in general are rapidly revamping their own marketing (seeking to find and attract great applicants) to include social media. More and more authentic and useful insight in each school from the school itself is being offered in this way. See, for example, Chicago Booth Adcom director Rose Martinelli’s very personable blog, The Rose Report. You can follow, interact, and absorb the school’s culture in this way. (Again, be appropriate. Don’t, for example, use a blog comment facility to ask about your own personal application…)

But the downside of social media is this: If you can find and know them in this way, they can find you. Be careful about what you say online and what you have said. I’m not saying that Adcoms “google” an applicant or routinely look them up on identity sites to find out more about them or corroborate what they put down on the forms. They probably don’t. But they very well might.

Expect Adcom to treat you in some ways like a potential employee or client. It’s well known that these days prospective employers or prospective clients, or anyone who wants to look you up on the Web, can and will do so. And when they do they may find that beery and not-altogether-clean bachelor party photo on MySpace. Or they may find a Doostang profile that doesn’t adequately match what you’ve told them. And it’s quite hard, once something is out there on the Web, to take it back.

So be smart about it. Use social networking to get inside a program to research and develop your ‘fit’ argument. Be scrupulous about what is out there under your name, make it consistent with your application platform, and try to take down unprofessional material where you can.

Source by Avi Gordon

Pros And Cons Of Social Media When Applying To Grad School

Know all about Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization is new buzz in the internet marketing industry, every company wants to apply Social Media strategy in its online marketing plan, before you decide to opt for Social Media Optimization, it is very important for you know details about Social Media Optimization and evaluate with your product to decide if its suitable for your business.

Internet is no more private, it’s all meeting people and connecting people online on several sites which help to connect to like minded people, says example facebook or twitter ( this is the most popular Social media site for 2010 )

It’s simple to create and post one page on the internet but making it popular is another major challenge, for which one has to establish its goal before starting any of social media campaigns, major brands have used Social Media to their advantage to increase their online presence and creating loyal customers to speak about their experience.

Human Physiology is they trust what they read, especially when bunch of people talk about any good service or brand, it makes you kind of convinced that it is good service or a product to buy, basically builds confidence and ignites urge to buy. Social Media uses this law and creates positive reputation, we call it perfectly planed marketing strategy to win minds and hearts of people, which converts into potential customers.

Social Media optimization can be done with using quality uniquely written article relevant to the topic of the product or services or can use pictures and videos to spread your word among set group of people, advantage of social media is you can address to specific group of people whom you thing would try your product, SMO results are not immediate, it takes time around one year to appear because this is purely influencing and convincing people about your product, if they read again and again human mind notices good values and gets convinced, several companies from Airline to Food chains use this carefully formulated SMO strategy, internet is become so popular that you will find several age group people hooked to social media sites like Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, there are several thousand sites which target specific geographic regions of the world.

Before betting on Social Media think how many of your customers really are on the internet, and do you have new products on and often which you can update them as well, another important thing is to hire experienced zoekmachine optimalisatie agency or zoekmachine marketing company who can help you to identify and plan your Social Media optimization campaign, one of the recent report by SEOmoz.org suggested that you should balance your budget between Search engine optimization and Social Media based on your priority.

Source by Randy Parter

Know all about Social Media Optimization

How Social Media Can Help Your Business Grow

With Facebook fast approaching the stellar mark of 200 million members, and Twitter boasting an online user cache touching on 8 million, the shear immensity and reach of online social media conjures images of total, uninterrupted vastness; like oceans stretching beyond horizons and mountains ranges reaching to the sky.

Online social media, it seems, is an untamable beast. But nothing could be further from the truth. To propel your name into strange lands; to the horizon; into the sky, the monolith that is social media must be lassoed and utilized to make your business an entity that has the potential to be bigger than the sum of its parts.

As social media spreads ever quicker, umbrella-like, around the world; your business association with it allows for ever new, ever exciting and ever expanding opportunity. Opportunities like brand recognition stretching past your normal demographic and increased opportunity to generate much needed traffic for your website. Through social media, your friendships and everyday acquaintances are propelled into new positions as potential vehicles for your business, providing free advertising and word-of-mouth promotion to your business; a service so powerful it has the ability to build your business even as you sleep at night.

Building a business presence on a social media website is vital to the expansion of your brand, or name, or organization. Reasons why social media is imperative to the growth of your business include:

Target Audience is easily tapped: The amazing thing about social media, and probably the attribute contributing most to its power, is its ability to be able to reach each anyone, anytime, anywhere. This type of exposure cannot be ignored and gearing your product to your specific target audience is now as easy as pointing, and clicking.

Consumer Feedback: Your presence online allows clients, buyers and potential investors confidence in the knowledge that they can contact you at anytime. Making yourself available at all times affords a peace of mind to all who engage with you and your business. This boils down to the ever-present and sensitive area of business-consumer trust and what better way to build that trust than to be available to question, at all times.

Marketing and Promotions: The online world provides a great platform to build customer relation through social media promotions and even discount and special offers. The internet can be used to propel incentive for site visits and purchases, by offering specific online gift cards, discounts and rewards. This type of service also increases pleasurable feelings toward your brand and will surely build your presence in the minds of your customers.

Content: Your content can be manipulated, molded and aimed at any demographic, at anytime and because of the internet’s vast stretch, can be exposed to numbers beyond comprehension. Keeping content relevant and timely is vital as once that content is out there, it’s out there. Minimize mistakes, maximize presence, and watch as your hit counter climbs into numbers unfathomable.

Online profiles: Creating online profiles for your business allows you to target specifically the audience you see as your primary demographic. Through aligning with various interests and preferences, you can expose your product or service to those who relate to the content the most. This amazing feature allows you to stand up proud amongst potential clients and almost shout to them, exclaiming that you have what they need; you are the solution to any given problem.

So, by no means can we become complacent when discussing the entity that is social media. Constant work and daily attention will catapult your name into the stratosphere but results may not immediately be seen and maintaining an online social presence is no mean feat. But it seems the beast can indeed, be tamed; controlled; calmed, for small periods of time, in between massive growth and runaway progression. If done correctly, and paid daily attention, you can use the leviathan that is social media, as a rolling juggernaut to a business presence and functioning that defies comprehension. The future of business growth and prosperity is now and it roams the corridors, byways and catacombs of the World Wide Web, and it’s growing bigger every day.

Source by Derek JJ

How Social Media Can Help Your Business Grow

Social Media and Wedding Planning Ideas

As I discussed in my last blog, the web is creating smaller and smaller worlds via social media and event planning companies. I met Noa Gafni of Webutantes by an article someone mentioned on either Twitter or Linkedin. I can’t remember it’s getting so confusing. Anyway, the article was about wedding planning ideas.

In particular, this article was a mini- wedding planning guide and provided wedding planning ideas and resources. What caught my eye though was the resource discussion because they were listed for people who are on a budget and cannot afford wedding coordinators.

I then used my acquired social media skills and tracked Noa down for the pitch. She loved the idea of budgets but instead of adding to the already mentioned wedding planning ideas she posted, she requested an article on how to throw a cocktail party on a budget. That topic was right up my alley and I sent her information that included advice and links for invitations, music and food. I even included a menu that was easy-to-make. Many of the helpful tips I used in the article are based upon my experience working for other event planning companies as well as my own.

A funny note here, I thought my social media skills were pretty up-to-date but paled in comparison to Noa’s. She edited my article and listed links to music and invitation websites that were more current. Then again, I am still learning this medium; she is well-versed and experienced in social media.

The menu I provided her also got me to venture out beyond my known sources since she requested recipes from various sites. I provided her with great easy-to-make appetizers such as the red-salmon dip, mushroom rolls, sun dried tomato and olive tapenade bruschetta, but also gave her some new recipes too. The honey lemon chicken skewers with vegetables and the mini-peppermint cheesecakes with chocolate chips were two new recipes I researched for her blog. What I liked about these two hors d’oeuvres were that they fit right into my mantra – make it simple, fast and delicious.

You can view the full article and get the recipes on Noa’s blog. Again, it all comes down to social media and event planning companies and how we are all connected via the web. The blog that acts as a mini- wedding planning guide for those brides searching for wedding planning ideas can also be found posted on the September 8, 2009 Webutantes blog.

Until next time, remember to have fun and be a guest at your own event!

Source by Andrea Wyn

Social Media and Wedding Planning Ideas

To Promote Your Brand Use Social Media

You’re missing out on valuable and free marketing platforms for your brand (book, business or product) if you think Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media communities are only for teens.

Further, if you’re not on social media, you’re risking losing your own potential clients/customers to those smart businesses people who are utilizing social media.

Which social media platforms you focus on depends a great deal on what your brand is. Here are seven excellent reasons why you must use social media no matter what you are promoting:

Reason 1: It’s the most cost-effective online advertising.

The current most popular social media platforms being used for business are free: Twitter.com, Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com. (LinkedIn does have an upgrade that costs, but it’s not necessary to get this upgrade.) And this is “relationship” marketing to targeted markets. “Free” is definitely more cost-effective than spending money on online advertising techniques such as Pay Per Click or banner ads.

Reason 2: You can have global reach with social media.

The world is now a global marketplace. Why not reach this global market? Many of the most popular social media platforms have this global reach, and you can see this clearly illustrated on Twitter. At any time of day or night you can see real-time “tweets” from people in Japan, England, the U.S., India and many other countries.

For example, if you have a book that might appeal to anyone in the world who reads in English, why limit yourself to just promoting in the U.S.? Thanks to Amazon these people outside the U.S. can buy your book even if it is only available in U.S. stores.

Reason 3: You can attract targeted groups of people as potential clients/customers for your brand.

Social media enables you to join groups of people with the same interests and goals. On LinkedIn and Facebook you can join groups as varied as Children’s Book Writers to eMarketing. If you choose groups to join based on your brand, you’ll be putting yourself in front of the exact groups of people you want to reach as potential clients/customers. This can pay off in increased sales for you.

Reason 4: You can use the community aspect of social media to form your own community.

Once you are active on social media platforms and have people who are your followers (Twitter), your friends (Facebook) and/or your connections (LinkedIn), you can start your own groups of highly targeted interests. You can create a niche market in your brand, book or business and share your knowledge with others who join your community.

These people can become your loyal followers, friends and connections – and they can help spread your marketing message to their followers, friends and connections.

Reason 5: You can use social media to establish your expertise.

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. By sharing your knowledge for free online with the people in the social media groups you belong to, you can establish yourself as an expert. This can pay off in increasing potential clients/customers’ trust in you.

And you can also receive invitations for blog “interviews” or BlogTalkRadio show interviews or podcasts. And these interviews lead to more free exposure for your brand and more free promotion for your expertise.

Reason 6: You can use social media to find cross-promotional partners.

Amazingly in the world of social media, people who would be considered competitors in the off-line world are teaming up to provide products and services to their combined clients/customers.

And these clients/customers are very responsive to these cross-promotions (often called joint ventures) – especially when introduced to a second expert by a first expert they already know, like and trust.

You and your cross-promotion partner can each get access to the other person’s “list” (the names of interested clients/customers collected at a website) and thus you’ve greatly expanded your potential client/customer pool.

Reason 7: With a few keystrokes you can announce new updates of your activities.

Your updates on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn take seconds – and you’ve announced to your followers, friends and connections what you’re doing or what you’re offering or what you’re speaking on. And there are even online applications that allow you to update your status across several of your social media accounts at one time. So it is as easy as 1-2-3 to keep in front of your potential clients/customers.

In conclusion, once you become active yourself on social media platforms, you’ll find many more reasons to promote your brand, book or business on social media in order to attract targeted potential clients/customers. And you’ll look back at your pre-social media days and wonder how you ever did marketing without using online social media.

Source by Phyllis Zimbler Miller

To Promote Your Brand Use Social Media

What is a social media strategy, anyway?

A Marketing Framework for Social Media

There are unique characteristics for planning and executing a social media marketing strategy, but the most important thing to understand is that a social media marketing strategy involves the same business requirements as any marketing strategy. You should start with a business framework before you spend any time considering how you will customize your company’s facebook fan page.

It takes time and resources which means that there are costs associated with your social program. To move forward with your social strategy, you will have to add it to your plate or stop something else. It also takes commitment. A single campaign is unlikely to generate any meaningful results. Embracing a social strategy means creating a new culture for your company and your customers.

What are some of the benefits of social media marketing?

1. Transform your customers into passionate marketers that promote your brand.


2. Engage your brand’s stakeholders where they prefer to interact with your company.


3. Make it easy for your passionate customers to influence others


4. Create closer, more “human” connection (people to people) with your brand


5. Source new ideas for product enhancements or even new products


6. Reduce costs to service your customers


7. Improve search rankings


8. Improve overall sentiment about your brand

If you’re not listening, you’re not participating

Listening is a critical component of any conversation. Listening is an analytical and diagnostic process of researching how your organization interacts with its customers on and offline. Your strategy should include understanding the wants and needs of different stakeholders and the number of current, relevant and potential conversations in your competitive industry.

You need to define your goals and business intent

What are the trends and needs in your business that need to be addressed and how will your social strategy fit in to these overall objectives?

1. Generate leads


2. Introduce a new product


3. Transform public opinion


4. Improve customer satisfaction


5. Improve customer service


6. Be recognized as a knowledge leader within your industry

Set Benchmarks for Comparison and Measurement

The only way that you will know if you are successful or not is to understand how you are performing today or how other advertising channels are performing. Ultimately, the question you want to answer is — How have things changed since I started my social media strategy? Without benchmarks, you have no basis for comparison and little ability to estimate a return on investment.

• Current rate of new leads


• Costs of aquiring a new customer


• Number of customers you lose (churn) every month


• Number of referrals, by channel


• Average transaction value


• Number of transactions


• Number of current customers

You can compare how you are performing today and tomorrow and have an objective measure of the difference your social strategy is making.

Match Intent to the right social media platform

You need to select the right content, customization and social media platform integration strategy based on your business objectives and the opportunities to engage specific groups of users. All social media channels are not created equal.

Focus on Soft (Media) and Hard (Financial) Metrics

There are 4 strategic categories that can be measured by social platform. Your objectives should be tied to these categories of potential interactions. For each category you can measure media (how many followers) and financial measures (cost per lead). If you would like more comprehensive information about all of the potential measures, please contact me.

• Awareness: Are your users aware of your social platform? There’s no point even moving forward if they’re not aware that you exist.


• Action: Call-to-action responses such as clicking through to your website or reqesting marketing information.


• Advocacy: Are they telling others about you through social media?


• Appreciation: Are they commenting and engaging with your social experience?

Apply the same business scrutiny that you would for any other marketing investment

By investing in a structured and measurable marketing framework for your social strategy, you increase the likelihood that you will be successful without taking resources away from other positively-performing programs.

Credits: IAB Framework

Source by Peter Wyro

What is a social media strategy, anyway?