The young and the restless

Writing web content for teens can be a tricky business. With youth trends in constant flux, articles and features packed with pop culture references can become outdated very quickly.

So what to avoid when creating authentic content for one of the most challenging web audiences?

Teenagers can easily sniff out an adult who’s trying to be ‘down with the kids’, so bury the temptation to write in a style that you believe is appealing.

Adding a ‘cool’ here and there, or using ‘txt-spk’ in content is a huge turn-off and may render your article untrustworthy to teens. Do make it informal and conversational, but avoid the temptation to make everything wacky and irreverent. And under no circumstances, use more than one exclamation mark in an article. Two is pushing it. Three is Michaela Strachan territory.

To make your content appealing, make sure that it’s simple enough to understand without being overtly patronising. If any part of your website reads like the words of a teacher or adult, you’ll see any teen users fleeing back to MySpace, never to been seen again.

For advice and information content, the best tone of voice to use is that of an older sibling. This will give your messages a certain gravitas without it appearing authoritarian.

For more informal material, there may be opportunities to refer to celebrities from the world of entertainment. If you really think your content could benefit from this, make sure you do your research; take a look at teen message boards and magazines to see who’s generating the most discussion. But even then, tread carefully - they could be popular because their comments are so awful.

Do not rely on your own judgment. Okay Take That were one of last year’s biggest popular bands, but they’re a lot more relevant to nostalgic thirty-somethings than teens.