Cool Sites for Teens
Teens and Tweens are the fastest-growing web market, according to BusinessWeek. Several new sites have arrived on the scene in the last year which are challenging TeenNick.com and Disney.com for a share of this important segment of the buying public. Listed below are a few teen sites that look to have a promising future in 2010 and beyond.
JSYK
This site, run by AOL Music, mostly covers celebrities, music, and movies. In the fall of 2009, they’ve been covering the coundtown to New Moon better than anyone, with behind-the-scenes photos and exclusive interviews (presumably made possible by AOL’s Warner Bros. connections). But the site goes beyond the usual gossip to include coverage of teen role models like Jessica Watson, currently attempting to be the youngest person to sail around the world unassisted—she’s sixteen years old.
TeenFaze
An independent site that does its share of entertainment coverage while also offering polls, contests, a small-scale social community, and blogs from its teen correspondents. In fact, the blogs are the strongest part of the site, with real-life teen “hosts” blogging about fashion, movies, sports, music, and giving advice to members who write in. We’ve e-mailed them and can guarantee that Renna, Mary, Sarah, and the other bloggers are all real people.
Social Girls
A very new site that takes a more educational approach and aims at a female teen audience. Sprinkled throughout the Hollywood coverage are fun facts about history, stories of female role models, and interesting trivia about science and nature that even teens won’t find boring. The site also features video episodes of the actual “Social Girls” — artsy Katie, smart Alexa, and athletic Taylor. New adventures of these teen cuties appear on the site every day.
Girl Zone
Another site just for teen girls. Girl Zone doesn’t shy away from provocative topics, whether it’s broken families or honest dating advice. The site also talks about body issues and encourages members to submit their creative writing. Vowing to “always listen to girls” and believing that “every girl is cool,” Girl Zone also cleverly links up with content partners such as the Girl Scouts of America, Teens Turning Green, and the Women’s Sports Foundation. The site is also partnered with two yoga companies, perceptively anticipating the growth in this niche market.
myYearbook
Started by a teen brother and his teen sister, this site still manages to stay independent as it attracts huge press coverage and advertising dollars. Last year, it surpassed both Wikipedia and Amazon to become the 14th-most popular website. The site is mostly a social network where can teens can find friends and form romantic relationships, but it also offers social games like Owned and Battles, and allows users to accumulate points through site use. These points, called “Lunch Money,” can be donated to a number of charities which have partnered with myYearbook. Though not often compared to Facebook and MySpace, myYearbook could very well overtake one of these social networks in 2010.
More info on trends in teen websites and social networking can be found at Marketing Vox.