10 tips for engaging young people:
1. Adults Don’t Get Kids
We might think we understand kids, but we don’t! We might remember being young ourselves and may understand where they are at psychologically and developmentally but we don’t get them. There is nothing more tragic than an adult (over 25) who thinks that they can commune as an equal with teenagers. Forget it. Of course, there are exceptions. We can all relate to young farmers whose average age is about 42 and young Liberals seem to have an average mental age of 68 but apart from that it’s best to drop the ‘awesome’ ‘rad’ ‘wicked’ ‘sick’ and ‘squee’ from our vocabulary because you are probably some years out of date anyway and at risk of looking like a try hard.
2. You Can’t Buy Kid’s Engagement
Young people are similar to the rest of us in that they hate pop-ups and intrusive advertising. If you were thinking of getting to them via sidebar ads on Facebook then forget it.
3. Kids Like To Design Their Online Spaces
Young people want to design the environment in which they are online. They like to be able to make their own backgrounds. That’s why they favour sites that allow them some design control over the online space they inhabit.
4. Kids Like To Be Creative
There seems to have been a genuine move towards creativity. Video and photo sharing, fan fiction, role-playing and other creative pursuits including programming all seem popular. So perhaps your kids aren’t just wasting their time on the web. Rather they are growing their skills for future jobs that don’t yet exist.
5. Kids Want A Platform With An Instant Audience
Young people love micro-blogging and instant gratification – particularly when there might be a member of their favourite band reading their comments. That is why they gravitate to visual and easy-to-use platforms such as SnapChat, Vine and Tumblr.