Scouting Now: reaching the Facebook generation

Scouts Canada needs to be careful about reaching out for the newest, brightest, shiniest technology for reaching youth.

I recently attended a conference of non-profit communicators (most were involved with Christian media, ministries and non-profit organizations - it's the field in which I work) who were also navel-gazing about reaching youth aged 12 to 18. The upshot was: to reach youth, communicators need to use a variety of tools and not just rely on one. The most surprising aspect of a survey done for this conference was: youth prefer to communicate with their friends through personal contact 83 per cent of the time (65 per cent all of the time, 18 per cent often). Perhaps we don't need to reinvent the wheel after all.

You can read U@? (which means "Where you at?" for those not versed in textspeak) at: http://barefootcreative.com. A link to the PDF is on the home page

My thoughts on this issue from the Action Plan are as follows :

Podcasts - there is no mention of Podcasting as a strategic tool for either the Youth or the Leadership. BSA have the "Cubcast" podcast wich is great for leaders (but only marginally transferable to Canada). I would suggest that Scouts Canada should have a separate monthly podcast for:
- Leaders of each section
- at least youth of Scouts, Venturers, Rovers and possibly Cubs and even Beavers
Podcasts could cover news, seasonal topics, upcoming events and perhaps songs and game ideas for the younger sections

Social Networking Websites - beware of pinning all development efforts on a single site, things change quickly in this space. Second Life has been and gone, Twitter and Facebook are hot now but how long before they are old hat too ? The report mentions promotion of scoutface.com - who owns scoutface ? are the owners willing and able to respond quickly to changes in demand for what this site provides ? Are we sure that scouface is a safe place for our youth ?

Local Newspapers - the report is very dismissive of local newspapers. Don't forget that the parents of prospective members are also our target audience - many of this demographic rely on local news media for information. These media are often hungry for content, a well-written press release can have huge payback

Swampo,

My thoughts on this issue from the Action Plan are as follows :

Local Newspapers - the report is very dismissive of local newspapers. Don't forget that the parents of prospective members are also our target audience - many of this demographic rely on local news media for information. These media are often hungry for content, a well-written press release can have huge payback

See my response in the thread "Enhancing our image" for further thoughts on this point

I was most interested in the notes on the "Net Geners" (love the term!). Terms like "integrity and openness", "intense scrutiny", have impacts on the way Scouting as an organization should be performing. And a lot apply to how we deliver the program -- "freedom to choose", "entertainment and play", "playful mentality", "interactive experiences", "innovative". (I also noted that the old "peer pressure" is still there, but wrapped in new technology by saying "they influence each other".)

As a technology consultant and a youth, here are my views on this ever so changing topic.

Reaching youth now a days is more than ever complex. Youth use many many medians to converse with one another. Using facebook or twitter will get you a few people but not everyone. To engage youth as well as provoke learning and there attention, it's important to understand what they want. Youth want to be surrounded by friends, memories, new and interesting things, and the latest gadget.

Many of these items can be covered by doing such;
Facebook - 'Page' - don't make a group, they are for random people to do. Creating a page provides a professional page which can be used for marketing as well as standard information delivery. Advertising can be initiated from this system. As well drop the rules, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.

Twitter - offer youth another connection to the information which can help them in some way. This can be connected with facebook.

youTube - create a channel to provide random videos at the office, youth having a great time at camp, kids singing, important information. This can be connected with blogs, facebook, twitter, and a blog.

Podcasts - They are and always will be something people enjoy. Providing entertaining podcasts for all age groups can help in the spread of information. This can be connected to youTube, facebook, and twitter.

Blog - Everybody has one, what about Scout's Canada? Sure a news feed but a real blog?

NewsLetters - old, sometimes excepted; depending on the age group they are acceptable. This can be connected with youTube, facebook, twitter, and a blog.

Digg - Why not digg every story Scout's Canada has? It's going to fall into someones hand... maybe Googles?

Website - It's cool but not really youth directed. It needs a 2.0 design to fit the generation it should be targeting. This can be connected with youTube, facebook, twitter, and a blog. As well it should be search engine optimized - google should know where everything is!

Online Store - It's again, cool but not really youth directed. Let's make it with videos and lots of interactive features. Sounds costly eh? Call on the members to help! This can be connected with youTube, facebook, twitter, and a blog. As well it should be search engine optimized.

ScoutFocus - What am I focusing on? Maybe we could just not focus and chill. Why not direct it to be fulfilling or interesting... "iScout", "myScouting", "ScoutEh", "myGroup" as well have youth direct this area of the program with leadership from administration.

ScoutingLife - Send an issue to everyone; then get people from beavers to leaders purchasing a subscription. As well don't make it an expense, sell it outside of Scouting inside chapters, or school fundraising programs (sell the many different magazines available).


Notes:
- These methods can also be applied to older generations; they are in many cases being 'forced' into these medians. (My 80 year old grandmother uses facebook)
- THE Image - lets make this clear... radical transparency is what people expect; if a organization does such... (including telling the truth and not hiding) everything is working. [More will come for this section.]
- If it's not entertaining, no one will read/talk about/watch it.

Great post Brandon

I found this thread interesting. Who is the facebook generation? I figured the 20 somethings, so I asked the beavers/cubs/scouts and parents about it in a general fashion. Most, not all, youth have heard of facebook and twitter and the like, but very few (one or two) use it, and it was facebook. The parents (so this would be a 30something plus group) were a little more aware, but 'time-waster' was a common response. So, my little informal poll would show that facebook generation would appear to land inbetween the youth and parent. I have asked a couple of venturers and one rover, and the response was different - these were definitely the facebook people. i would really think that this one has to be thought through more. Now, a little more scientific indicator would be that this forum has been up and running for close to 2 years (?) and look at the number of members. Not even a percentage of the total leaders/volunteers in all of Scouts Canada. There has been a lot of hype by the media over the 'social media' experience.

At Cub age I found that most electronic communications are sent to the parents and it's the parents that reply. The Scout aged youth use Facebook and smart phones too.
I have noticed that some of our Troop have their smart phones always at the ready. We try to keep them occupied but any free moment they have that thing open and It attracts others too. Soon there are 4-5 kids grouped together. They are adddictive to youth and adults alike.

But it's the future.

Jim, I have noticed that to among the scout/venturer age youth at square table meetings. Maybe I am old school, but toys, especially electronic ones, were left at home during meeting . Maybe it is the way of the future, meetings and camps done from the safety of your own home..... think about it, no liability issue. ok, all little off-the-wall on that one, but maybe this is where scouting can 'buck the trend' and create the relevence. In my mind, the best form of communication is face to face, not facebook to facebook (even this forum is a little ) . Maybe 'put down the ipad and look outside' should be our new sales pitch.

As far as a communication tool, there are other threads in here talking about the failing of email as an effective tool, so how will social media be any different?

As for putting the message out there, well, i have seen social media campaigns that are far more damaging, purposefully damaging, than good.

We don't need to "reach the Facebook generation". Social media is intended to enhance social communication, such as being a medium for what we used to call "word of mouth". Example: 20 years ago, a Scout has a great time at camp. At school on Monday, he tells his friends and they join. Today, that same Scout might tweet about it or post on Facebook and his Facebook friends join. Having an official Scouts Canada Facebook page and working to get as many people as possible to "like" it will have no significant impact.

Remember: Huge numbers of young people join Scouting and leave after a year or less. The problem is retention. Better branding, advertising, publicity, etc. will have essentially no impact on this. Once people join, they are not looking at the advertising; they are experiencing the product and if they don't like it, they won't come back for more.

We don't need to "reach the Facebook generation". [...] The problem is retention.

Agree. We need to find out what makes youth tick these days and build our program around that.

It is however much more complicated.

• Sponsor - everything costs money these days and we are no exception. We need to research the possibility of developing a brand name sponsor like Coke Cola who can benefit as well from this form of relationship. (No donations)
• Registration - we need to make registration simple so that people are joining like the speed at which people are signing up for a phone or Costco membership. Even partnering with a large organization like Facebook to develop something that both benefits them and us.
• Training - we need to make training so easy to get... people want it. Next step may be to partner with a brand name organization and develop a specialized course which employers want; thus people will want it too.
• Communication - we need to work harder at creating better communication tools and developing more efficient communication medians. People want to know more, we need to give them what they want.

But this is not to say what we are doing is wrong. We are doing well and progressing; we need to however do more, do it better and faster.

We need to find out what makes youth tick these days and build our program around that.

Not to be confrontational, but I believe the thinking that a new program needs to be invented because the youth have changed is a fallacy. While I can't speak to the Scout level, from my experiance with Cubs a traditional program involving lots of activities, camping, building stuff, etc. works perfectly well. Kids come by the basketful for such a program. The problem is that to put on such a program requires effort and dedication from the leaders. It is hard enough to find leaders at all these days, let alone ones that will dedicate themselves to the level needed. The only reason to change the program is if one is trying to find a simpler program for the leaders to run that will still keep the kids interested. But that to me defeats the entire purpose. Most of my Venturers are only involved because of the high adventure activities we offer. If that part of the program wasn't offered they would soon leave.


Allan.

Sorta agree with Allan here. In GK we are doing "the program" with losts of activities, at least one camp per month and everything else that's in the program. I guess that we must be doing something right as we have increased our Youth and Leaders from 45 last year to 76 this year. We even added an Air Venturers crew this year to accomodate the older Scouts moving up from last year. But we are in a closed military community so maybe that makes the difference. I doubt it as it a large community (AWACS Base in Germany) and has a multitude of activities for the kids and parents; hockey, baseball, bowling, archery, you name the Family section on the base organises it.
AND, OH YES, we are restricted to Canadian youth only. We are not allowed to accept the German youth as the "Pafdvinders" do not permit that as part of the agreement allowing Scouts Canada to operate there.

The content of the program doesn't need to change, but delivery needs to continually update. Like having online handbooks, digitizing the field book, updating badges based on technology as it changes. Having Patrol leaders contact leaders through email for information about the next meeting, rather then a phonecall. Little stuff like that makes a major difference.

Knives are still cool to teenagers, playing..Er... learning to control fire is still cool, the accomplishment of planting your first tree or getting to the top of the trail is cool. It's the application of delivery of these skills which is the issue.

Maintaining a well designed website with photos and videos, either behind a password block or not, is a great way of showing the scouts' activities. Even a "1st anywhere scout group" facebook group with photos and information is something to show that Scouting can be relavant.

I would not disagree with you, I made a mistake in how I explained myself. The delivery is what truly needs to change.