What is popular Internet culture, and how can it help your social media strategies?
Popular internet culture differentiates itself from popular culture in that its audience, well, uses the Internet more. Much more. This has more important implications than it may seem: high usage of the Internet makes people smarter, improving both their decision-making and complex reasoning skills. On the other hand, it also unsurprisingly reduces social skills, as people are running errands, getting their news, and even meeting potential dates on the Internet.
However, this typically high-intelligence, low-sociability group may be a key audience for many of today's startups. It serves a dual purpose: consumers and possible employee recruits. Many of these startups focus on innovative technology. It's well known that young people are the most immersed in technology and therefore the most receptive to new technology. Also, as the younger generation, they're a prime target to become lifelong customers and brand advocates.
On the business side of things, the Internet group tends to have the skill set and interest in technology - engineering, computer science, web design - that make a great tech startup worker in the future. Many hobbyist Internet adventurers have an incredible amount of computer knowledge - just by tinkering around by themselves. And of course, these people will eventually be looking for a job, and anyone familiar with startups knows that their most important asset is their people.
One further point is that the people who spend the most time on the internet make the best brand advocates. Why? They're well-connected, so their word carries more weight when they recommend a brand online. They're knowledgeable, so they're able to back up their claims about a topic when asked, adding credibility. They're web-savvy, so they know which sites have the most reliable and thorough reviews, and where they can get the most hits on their recommendations.
Getting connected with those who are connected to the rest of the Internet can be one of the most successful strategies in social media - we all knew the geeks were the most powerful in the end!