Last week, Ben posted on communicators attempting to reach the LGBT community today, examining the surge of grassroots efforts and their effect after the recent passage of Proposition 8 in California. One facet of his post cited the growing role of young LGBT people in advocacy issues (LA Weekly’s Nov. 27 article). A quick Google search produces additional hits of various traditional, university student and online media debating the role and importance of the youthful voice in politics, including the recent presidential election.
Here in Chicago, a local advocacy organization was quickly formed by two young LGBT people after the Nov. 3 passage of Proposition 8 in California, while hundreds more have since joined the group for events and demonstrations. Observing the Nov. 15 demonstrations against Proposition 8 locally, I met two straight teenage girls who had made signs and helped organize portions of the day’s event. Through our conversation, they told me they didn't have gay or lesbian family members or close friends. They just believed in the cause. In them, I immediately recognized the face of the often untapped communications resources and advocates for today’s LGBT causes: our allies.
In this growing age of social networking sites and young role models like Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, youth today are quickly realizing their ability to connect and organize around an issue or candidate to affect change. They’re throwing out marketer’s traditional rule books for engagement, as they create their own and step into the public forum online and in the streets.
So, as Ben 's post asked how do communicators engage the LGBT community as a whole, I ask how marketers can communicate with LGBT youth and allies to leverage their energy, passion and grassroots connection to drive an issue, organization or product to success. What nuances and differences must be addressed? Do they want to be singled out in marketing? While the landscape is continually changing and new channels are created as quickly as current ones become passé, all youth – especially LGBTA – need to feel connected and heard, want customized, relevant and mobile information, and look for results from marketers and communicators.
There are many resources out there. Here at Fleishman-Hillard, we are continually looking at youth and their internal markets at The Next Great Thing. No matter the resource or method, LGBTA youth are clearly a market with untapped passion and potential. They’ve stepped out front and into the public forum, wanting to start a dialogue. It’s now time for communicators to respond – in ways that respect their individuality and understand their needs.
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Bryan,
Your comment regarding the new forums of communication created by Facebook and other social media platforms is right on target. For example, a Facebook event titled, “A Day Without Gays,” which aims to cultivate awareness of equality issues, has nearly 143,000 confirmed “attendees”. More importantly, there have been nearly 17,400 wall posts regarding the issue – the conversation is well underway thanks to Facebook.
Link to the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32387329669