Article Marketing / Communications 2 min read
Pew Study: Millennials Love Reading Text
New research from Pew pokes a hole in a line of traditional thinking about the written word. Also: How one truly animated band is using Instagram effectively.
Heads up: this content is over 5 years old, so some information may be out of date.
It’s taken as a given these days that if you want young adults to listen to you, you have to communicate with them visually—through photos or video.
But what if that’s not the case? What if millennials still like text as a medium? That’s the assertion that new data from Pew Research (opens in a new tab) makes. In fact, the research finds that adults ages 18 to 29 are more likely to read news than older adults, who prefer watching it.
Among adults over age 65, according to Pew, 89 percent prefer to receive their news on television, compared to 3 percent who prefer to get it via online means; 18- to 29-year-olds also prefer television over the internet, but by a much closer 57 percent to 37 percent gap, respectively.
The difference is most dramatic when it comes to reading news. Just 10 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds and 13 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds prefer reading news in a newspaper, compared with 63 percent of adults over age 65. Online news is strongly preferred by younger adults (81 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds, 72 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds).
“To be sure, younger adults consistently demonstrate less interest in the news overall,” writes Pew’s Amy Mitchell (opens in a new tab). “But our research also reveals that, in the digital realm, they often get news at equal or higher rates than older Americans, whether intentionally or not.”
Gorillaz Marketing
Running late to the Instagram game? Need to catch up quickly? Take some cues from Gorillaz, the cartoon rock band that’s a collaboration between Blur frontman Damon Albarn and illustrator Jamie Hewlett. Last month (opens in a new tab), the band joined Instagram with a lengthy retrospective (opens in a new tab)—from successes to failures, and everything in between.
In the past few days, they’ve started posting stories about band members (they’re a little on the violent side (opens in a new tab), just an FYI). It all seems to be leading up to something. Whatever it is, who knows? But the effort shows that it’s possible to get momentum on Instagram, even if you’re joining six years late.
Other Links of Note
Don’t get defensive, get smart. In a post on The Muse, Kat Boogaard of Inc. highlights a few ways (opens in a new tab) to better respond to criticism.
One CEO has this as his auto-response: “I am currently checking email before 9am and after 5pm EST so there will be a delayed response. If this is urgent please call or text.” In a LinkedIn blog post, Betty Liu of Radiate highlights how the technique is working (opens in a new tab) for Tom Patterson of Tommy John undershirts.
We often hear that nonprofits should learn from for-profit companies. What if it’s the other way around? Michelle Kedem of the the executive search firm On-Ramps makes the case on Fast Company Exist (opens in a new tab).
(iStock/Thinkstock)
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