MARKETING TO THE MISUNDERSTOOD

Danah Boyd is an iconoclast. She’s a Gen Xer who’s nearly two decades removed from her own teenage years, but she has become an expert and consultant on teens’ social media and consumption habits. Her insights are academically founded and corporate-approved. She has been named a young global leader by the World Economic Forum. Fast Company named her one of the most influential women in technology. Fortune says that she’s a rising star and one of the 50 smartest people in tech. Companies such as Intel and Google have tapped her research skills—but she also has made some marketers less than thrilled because her work aims to disprove marketers’ beliefs about teens’ behaviors and about social media measurement.