Want to grab the attention of Generation Y? Here's how Facebook Places could help

As a proud member of Generation Y - the generation born after 1980 - I am often asked
how to engage young people.

As a group we are said to be more ethically conscious than other generations, and we
want to make a difference to the world. But we have shorter attention spans, question
everything and can come across as arrogant. Doesn’t sound too different to every
generation that has gone before us before taxes, bills and all of those other
grown-up things come into play, does it?

What marks us out from previous generations is that we have had access to the internet
and social media during our formative years. Other generations didn’t. Not being able to meet
and collaborate with other like-minded people was probably the downfall of a lot of great
ideas in the past.

Now we are just a Facebook group away from being able to meet people who share our
ideas and goals. Look at how fundraising or volunteering has changed: every summer, we
are inundated with links to donate to JustGiving pages, which in turn enable us to share
and ask people to donate to our cause.

Location-based services are set to take this connectivity to the next level. I was an early
adopter of services such as Foursquare and Gowalla, but I always knew it would take
Facebook to dip its toe in for location-based services to become mainstream. That's why
last week's announcement on the launch of Facebook Places was music to my ears.

What excites me about it is the possibilities to engage new audiences into traditional third-
sector areas of business, such as shops and events.

For example, Foursquare allows businesses to add special offers if people visit or
become “mayor” of a particular location. Imagine you are logged into Foursquare and see
the local charity shop is offering two-for-one to people who check in there. This tactic may
attract younger people who don't usually visit charity shops. Of course, the shop needs to
have good stock and look appealing. But location-based services would be the first step to
capturing that new generation of customers.

With Facebook Places also comes the functionality to advertise your “place” or
location. This is great news, as it means that you can target users in a very specific
way.

The principle is the same as Facebook ads, which allow business to promote pages to
specific groups of people. But we can now make the experience even more personal and
local. For example, if you run a charity shop in Rochdale, you can target a new audience
by advertising your “place” only to those Facebook users who have mentioned Rochdale
on the site - again, another way of promoting traditional charity to a new audience.

Another by-product of Facebook Places is that instead of having a fragmented social-

media space where a charity has a Facebook page or group for every one of its shops or
events, they can now be listed as locations, which allows a more consistent approach.

Start small and wear the software in. Location-based services are new, and they will take
time to mature. If there are no big results early on, keep trying.

The key thing to remember is young people are no different from any other group. They
want to be treated on a level playing field, be more than a token thought and to actually
have their ideas and efforts considered and given time of day. Be honest and open with
what you are trying to achieve and why you want to achieve it. A positive experience will
capture the loyalty of Generation Y for a long time.

Which brings me onto crowdsourcing...but that might be another blog.