How 20-something year olds think

I was riding my bike on Sunday with Marcia White and her son Isaac, who just graduated from the University of Maine. He received recognition at graduation for being a real innovator, and now I know why.

We were talking about the Sugarloaf Golf Club and how the number of golfers has been down this spring.  We talked about how they have been running some full-page ads in the newspapers but they don’t seem to be drawing large numbers of people.

Then Isaac said, “I’ll put together a campaign for them.  I’ll go online and do it cheap. I would create online communities and find existing communities of golfers. I’ll get the information about the golf course out to golfers through social networks.” 

These words just spilled out of his mouth as naturally as if he were talking about what to have for lunch.  Isaac had no idea that I am totally into social media these days. He didn’t even know about my maineprmaven blog!  So his thoughts were totally unsolicited.

I thought it was interesting. Obviously this is how 20-somethings think when faced with a marketing or communications problem. Instantly they think about social networking online.

Of course I had to take the opportunity to tell Isaac about my blog and about how my agency is focusing on strategic social media programs for our clients. I told him how I am using social media to help improve clients’ standings in the search engines. He laughed because he said he tries to stay ‘low key’ on the web so you can’t find him.  However I found the graduation speech where he was specifically mentioned as being a real innovator! 

Isaac drives home the fact that the marketers of the future will need to be thinking about social media rather than full page ads in the newspaper.