Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Social Media, Not Just a Youth Platform

Now that my internship with the Melanoma Foundation of New England is halfway completed, I am focusing more on marketing and PR as opposed to the operations of the sunscreen dispenser program. Working with the Foundation has really opened my eyes to the need to focus on your target market when creating marketing materials. A simple glance at Facebook’s analytics tool shows me that most of our fans are women aged 35-45. To me, this makes perfect sense. Melanoma usually strikes an older population who have had years of sun damage, and people more likely to be involved in a social cause are women.

Knowing this simple demographic has really challenged me to create quality content on the Foundation’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest. On my personal accounts the content that I post are tailored to my interests, that of a 20 year old male. This has caused me to try to think outside the box with how I approach the 35-45 year old women. I have had some small experience with social media at Babson through FME and the SME marketing course. However, both times the target market for these accounts were other college aged kids. This means that I only had to look at my own interests and post according to what my team would like, not what the audience would like.

The differences I have taken include what I post about, and not just how it is delivered. Our followers want to see how we work in their communities with awareness programs and sunscreen dispensers. That means that they want less comedic material, and more content driven through articles from local news sites and papers. Our most engaged content are articles we are mentioned in from the New York Times, Boston Globe, and other local papers from Bedford, Newton, Concord, and several others. These articles may not be something that college students would want to see, but our followers love to share these articles to their friends and families on Facebook.

In the end you have to think of your target market in every decision a business makes, especially with marketing your organization.

Facebook: @MelanomaFdnNE

Twitter: @MelanomaFdnNE

Instagram: @MelanomaFdneNE