5 important facts about college students you need to know when campaigning for office

 The Presidential Election of 2012 could go down in history as one of the closest.  That's why I feel it is important to find out what makes certain segments of the electorate tick.  If you know what brands they like, what social media sights they like, and what apps they are downloading, you may have the upper hand when it comes to getting out the vote.  A very important class of voters are the college-age voters.  Folks many college students are first time voters and it is imperative that every political campaign learns how to target them, how to get them out to vote, and how to listen to them.  I recently ran across this study below that outlines what devices and brands are important to them.  Tap into their market and you may just end up with a flurry of first time voters that could put you over the edge and win your campaign.

Digital Media IX recently completed a study of 2,000 college students to try and discover what digital media, brands  and devices are important.

Here are the top insights from that research.

1. The Top 6 Social Networks for College Students

It was no surprise to see the top three of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter scoring above 60% usage. Facebook at 97% continues as expected to be the defacto social network of choice for almost all students.
The study also revealed that LinkedIn is important for senior year college students as they start considering a career.

Pinterest is still a girl thing with 55% of college women using it with only 5% of men on the visual social networking platform.

What I found surprising was Google+  at over 20% with women counting for 60% of the participants.

2. How Students Engage with Brands

I wouldn’t be tearing down your website anytime soon if you want to engage with college students. It is still the primary digital platform that they visit to to obtain information. The Facebook page engagement is primarily limited to “likes” for entering a contest or to incentive.

Over 50% engage with a video, mostly through YouTube.

More than one-third of students download apps sponsored by a brand, high lighting the growing importance  of apps and mobile in engagement.

Twitter, though the least popular was revealed to be a powerful marketing medium with those that “Tweet” influencing a broad group of friends which amplifies the influence.

3. Smart Phones

As expected the smart phone is the most important thing to carry around. What was surprising was the level of dominance the Apple iPhone has for this generation at 58% .

It also appears that the Blackberry (8%) has been usurped by HTC at 11%, with Samsung also rising in usage.

This survey reveals the power of the Apple brand for the younger generation.

4. Mobile Apps on Students Phones

In the survey college students identified 800 unique mobile apps but nine apps represented nearly half the responses (as listed below in the graphic).

The top three apps were Facebook, Twitter and weather. The rise of Instagram and Pinterest over the last 12 months was also evident.

As expected Sports apps were the favorite of men.

 

5. The Top 10 Digital Brands for College Students

The pervasive influence of Apple is on display for all to see here with it ranking in three of the top five digital brands.

DigitalMediaIX developed the DMIX ratio (DMIX/R) to provide understanding of brands and how they are influenced by the various forms of digital media.

Also factored in were Facebook “likes,” Twitter Followers, and YouTube Channel Views, weighted to reflect their relative importance.


You can view the top 50 digital brands at the Digital Media IX website